This doesn’t affect the American Athletic Conference, but it will have an effect on a number of others:
American Sports Network has contracts with the Atlantic Hockey, Atlantic 10, Big South, CAA, Conference USA, ECAC, Hockey East, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAC, NCHC, Ohio Valley, Patriot League, SoCon, Southland, Sun Belt, WAC and WCHA conferences. It also had rights to the Arizona Bowl. Just this week, it aired the first round of the A-10 Tournament. ASN also aired NCAA Division II football and basketball in 2016-17.
Wow, this is a bit of a surprise and maybe a good thing moving forward
This afternoon Sinclair Broadcast Group, Silver Chalice, and 120 Sports announced a gigantic merger of the three companies’ broadcasting forces into a yet-to-be-named conglomerate. The new venture will leverage Sinclair’s linear distribution through their American Sports Network assets while also providing industry-leading online streaming options through the resources of Campus Insiders. 120 Sports enters the picture by bringing “a broad array of post-game highlights, up-to-the-moment news, and original, long-form programming as well as full game archives provided by various partners.”
The merger combines the three companies and aims to create a platform that could eventually outreach that of ESPN. While WatchESPN is currently the industry leader in sports streaming it does require a cable subscription to view. Campus Insiders was completely free to view and it’s safe to assume that trend will continue with their new merger venture. As less and less consumers opt to pay for monthly cable subscriptions the appeal of subscription-less entertainment options such as this new merger increases exponentially.