Speaking of Peter Kosann, RBR asked for more detail on his recently-announced deal to carry NCAA B-Ball beginning next season.
Kosann tells us that the deal they did for basketball is a three year deal with Learfield Communications. They’ve got the rights to 50%-60% of all of the Top-25 ranked teams in the country. “So that gives Compass for the next three years an exclusive first look at any of the games for college basketball or football that was launched; and then ultimately having the Big Ten tournament is a nice calling card—both from an advertising standpoint and affiliate standpoint.”
How does this dovetail with Westwood One’s sports rights? Westwood has the March Madness Rights and on a onesies-twosies basis picks up either football or basketball games for regular season. But at the moment, Compass has effectively with its deal with Learfield boxed them out of any of the marquee schools.
