Big East inks media rights deal with ESPN+

The Big East is returning to ESPN platforms in a limited fashion beginning this year.

The conference and network announced on Tuesday that they have entered into a new six-year digital media rights agreement that will see select Big East men’s and women’s basketball games and Olympic sports events stream on ESPN+. The deal does not impact the Big East’s current arrangements with Fox, TNT, and NBC.

Per the announcement, ESPN+ will now house a minimum of 25 non-conference Big East men’s basketball games, at least 75 women’s basketball contests, and 200 events from Olympic sports across the conference starting this academic year. Previously, FloSports carried this inventory under the Big East Digital Network banner.

The deal likely marks the final supplemental deal Big East commissioner Val Ackerman will reach with a media partner as seemingly all of the conference’s inventory is now accounted for. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Sports Business Journal reports that the agreement included a rights fee.

With the deal, the Big East has solidified itself as one of the more fragmented conferences from a media rights perspective. Big East basketball fans can now expect to need Fox, TNT, NBC, Peacock, and ESPN+ in order to access every game. While that’s certainly not ideal from a fan perspective, the number of deals has likely allowed the league to secure more in media rights revenue than had it stuck with just one or two partners.