SEC Network hypes new ABC football broadcasts with Marvel-themed poster
The SEC is entering a new media rights deal with ESPN but still set for another season of certain games getting prime billing on ABC. And the league’s own network, also an ESPN affiliate, teased out the return to the network in 2024 with a Marvel-esque poster featuring mascots around the league.
Of course, with 2024 being the first season that Texas and Oklahoma will play in the SEC, both were represented. The post comes shortly after a new logo for SEC football on ABC was unveiled.
And because Marvel Studios, like ESPN and ABC, is under the umbrella of the Walt Disney Corporation, there could easily be more of this sort of crossover branding.
More on the new SEC media deal
The 2024 season will see plenty of changes across college football, but particularly in the SEC. A new media rights deal takes effect as the league leaves CBS and moves exclusively to ESPN and ABC – and fans got a look at the new logo Tuesday.
ESPN unveiled the logo at the Disney Upfronts in New York Tuesday afternoon, teasing some big changes as it becomes the home of the SEC. New music and graphic swill also be on the way.
The new deal takes effect this summer as the SEC expands by adding Texas and Oklahoma following a groundbreaking round of conference realignment.
It’s a deal the conference commissioner has played up plenty.
Sankey said the reach of ESPN and ABC is huge for the conference. It also opens up the door to put multiple games on the networks in one day, therefore getting the league in front of more eyes. That means the league will not only make a reported $300 million as part of the deal, but it will also have a larger presence across the country.
“What that does, and it’s something about which I’ve spoken but gets lost, is when we move to the ABC-ESPN group, we have access to more broadcast TV opportunities than perhaps we’ve ever had, certainly in recent decades,” Sankey said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning in 2023. “In other words, 130-plus million households with access to broadcast TV, we could literally program an ABC game at noon Eastern, 3:30 Eastern and then, that primetime window on particular Saturdays. Now, ABC and ESPN have other contractual commitments. But that’s an illustration of the breadth of reach that we are about to experience.
“And we respect and appreciate our relationship with CBS, but our move to work under the Disney heading was about more than just revenue. It was about reach, so reach through broadcast TV, reach through cable and satellite, which obviously is a changing environment.”