This Saturday, Ohio State kicks off its college football season against the University of Akron. And whether you’re rooting for the Buckeyes or the Zips, you can watch the game on CBS. For the average football fan, that’s all that matters. But in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, that seems less and less likely.
Last year, to the chagrin of many fans and two state representatives, the football game between Ohio State and Purdue was broadcast exclusively on NBC’s own streaming service Peacock.
State Senator Bill DeMora (Democrat, Columbus) and State Representative Brett Hudson Hillyer (Republican, Ulrichsville) have introduced a bill that would prohibit universities in Ohio from entering into exclusive presentation agreements with streaming services and require schools to provide their students with free access to broadcasts of sporting events.
DeMora first introduced the measure in February and Hillyer filed his accompanying bill earlier this month.
Big deals
Televised sports, and especially soccer, are one of the most reliable viewer draws. Broadcast networks, cable channels and, increasingly, streamers compete for the rights to live sports broadcasts in order to sell commercials to advertisers or increase their subscriber numbers.
And these deals are exceptionally big business. According to a 2021 audit by the Ohio State athletic department, football media rights accounted for more than $30 million of revenue – bowl game revenue added another $8.7 million. Men’s basketball brought in another $10.3 million.
A year later, the Big Ten Athletic Conference signed a seven-year, $7 billion deal that included broadcast agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC. Under the agreement, Peacock received exclusive rights to several football games each season through 2029.
Complaints from legislators
In a committee hearing to introduce his bill, DeMora called himself an “Ohio Senate superfan” and criticized “the greed of the Big10.” The measure would apply to all 14 Ohio universities, but there is little doubt that the primary motivation for the bill is Ohio State. DeMora argued that viewers with an antenna or regular cable package have had access to every OSU game since 1997, but when they played Purdue last year, viewers had to shell out an additional $5.99 subscription fee.
While this is annoying for the average viewer, DeMora argued, it can be brutal for sports bars whose business relies on games.
“If the Ohio State game isn’t on, nobody’s in your bar,” he said. “I mean, if Ohio State is playing football and you’re not running the game, nobody’s there.”
For the Varsity Club, which is near Ohio Stadium, the Peacock license costs $3,600. The bar is a local institution and a magnet on game days, so they probably have the margin to cover those fees, he argued, but that probably isn’t true for many other bars.
He pointed out that in addition to last year’s game against Ohio State, the rivalry game between Bowling Green and Toledo was also broadcast on the streaming service ESPN+.
“Anyone who wasn’t at the game in person,” he argued, “can’t see the game unless they pay extra to do so.”
He argued that even the NFL allows local broadcasters exceptions to broadcast games in their home market and that it would be relatively easy to grant local broadcasters a similar exception.
Aside from the economics, DeMora argued that the product simply didn’t justify the cost. He complained that the stream was “laggy and pixelated” and the sound quality was terrible. He described hearing about a bar owner showing the game on four different TVs.
“And each of them was five seconds later than the other TVs, so they heard the same thing four times,” he described.
DeMora also questioned why students who pay tens of thousands to attend college should have to pay anything at all to watch the game on television. To that end, he and Hillyer’s measures require universities to provide free access to all televised contests, but the university would have discretion over exactly how it provides that access.
Regardless of whether DeMora and Hillyer can get their fellow lawmakers on board, there’s nothing they can do to stop Ohio State’s games from being streamed-only this season — or in the near future. The Big Ten’s current media rights deal runs through the 2029 season, and the proposed legislation only applies to future contracts. Still, he said there’s nothing like a new outcry to focus attention.
“Now that football is back on,” he argued, “and with Ohio State tied to a streaming service again, my colleagues will feel the wrath of Ohio State fans who can’t watch a game.”
This year, like last year, Peacock is scheduled to host nine games. So far, only three have been announced, and Ohio State is not currently on the list.
