Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Fox Corp. stand to miss out on hundreds of hours of Saturday sports programming and big chunks of advertising revenue this fall if the bulk of college football’s season doesn’t happen until next year. Fox and ESPN have multiyear TV rights for Big Ten football games and Pac-12 football and basketball, for which they paid a combined $5.64 billion. Fox also owns 51% of the Big Ten Network, a 24-hour channel that shows games and highlights from Big Ten games. FS1 and FS2, cable networks owned by Fox, also carry college football games. Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 12, 2020 18:28 UTC