The Pac-12 Networks The Pac-12 Networks.

As the Pac-12 as we know it enters its final months, the Pac-12 Networks are also winding down operations.

Per SF Gate, the conference-owned network will lay off 141 employees in 2024, beginning on January 5 and running through June 28.

According to documents filed with labor officials, the conference plans to lay off 141 employees from its San Ramon office on a periodic basis starting on Jan. 5, nearly a year after the Pac-12 production center moved to that office from San Francisco. The layoffs will continue through June 28 — just before the end of the academic year and the conference’s media rights deal — and include broadcast engineers, numerous directors, an on-air host and senior producer, and multiple senior-level roles.

While the Pac-12 Networks are done with live football broadcasts, the networks still have plenty of basketball to air, along with various other winter and spring sports.

The networks began reducing head count during the pandemic, cutting 8% of their workforce in April 2020 while also implementing a hiring freeze and cutting executive pay. In the summer of 2020, pay cuts were extended for a full year and the entire digital team was let go.

The Pac-12 Networks had issues from day one. They never got a carriage deal done with DirecTV and their average carriage fee collapsed over the years. More recently, an overpayment scandal involving Comcast resulted in a pair of executive firings and $72 million in overpayments to schools. Over the years, the networks also spent far too much money on rent (a reported $8.35 million annually) for its San Francisco offices before making the move to San Ramon mere months ago. Years ago, the conference was also reportedly offered a lifeline by ESPN to extend its rights deal and also distribute the Pac-12 Networks, but declined.

While the Pac-12 Networks were a disaster in many ways over the years, there was plenty of innovation and the conference was ahead of its peers in many ways. But the networks bled money and were never able to match the high expectations set upon their launch, leading to the conference’s schools getting smaller payouts in other conferences and causing their eyes to wander.

[SF Gate]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.