The ACC Football Media began today with Jim Phillips taking the podium. There were comments on the ongoing litigation with FSU and Clemson, among other things and you can find more details on what he said in this piece by Brett Friedlander.
At the end of the day, it comes down to revenue generation, so what did Phillips say about that? If you’re talking about revenue generation, you must also be talking about ESPN.
Phillips on ESPN’s Feb opt-out deadline: “Our partnership with ESPN is not going away and we’ve talked to them about additional resources. … I’m very optimistic about where we’re going with them.”
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(@ADavidHaleJoint) July 22, 2024
Frankly, I’m not sure how much to make of this. Phillips certainly is not prone to exaggeration. He’s understated to a fault, so for him to say the partnership is not going away as he did a few weeks ago, then as far as I’m concerned this is a closed topic until further (legit source) notice. I mean how much clearer can you be? Could you imagine the push back Phillips would deal with, if something fell through with the deal?
Now when it comes to what could be additional, that’s the more typical Phillips.
Optimistic, and positive, but in the end for whatever reason vague. While I’m confident at this point, the deal will continue but will there be more revenue? From Yahoo.com…
The ACC and ESPN are in active negotiations over the extension, conversations that Phillips has described as “positive and productive.”
Could the network increase the value of the deal?
“We’re talking about that,” Phillips said.
It seems there could be something to this, but remember this statement from George Kliavkoff before the Pac 12 imploded from desert.com.
“The longer we wait for our media deal, the better our options are, Kliavkoff said.
As for a timeline on when the TV deal will come together, the commissioner said that patience from school officials will be rewarded with an announcement “in the near future.”
I very much think we’re still multiple years from movement, but that’s a warning to Phillips. If something anything is out there positive – get it done and release the details sooner rather than later.
