YES Reaches Deal To Televise ACC, Big East Games

The YES Network will televise live Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)  basketball and football games as well as Big East Conference basketball games beginning this fall as part of a deal with Fox Sports Media Group, the network announced Thursday.

As part of the deal, YES will televise up to 10 ACC football games and up to 23 men’s ACC basketball games, as well as select women’s basketball and Olympic sports.  Former Big East powers Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh will join the ACC during the 2013-14 season.

FSMG sublicensed the ACC games from Raycom.

YES will also offer up to 10 Big East basketball games. The newly revamped Big East conference will feature the so-called Catholic 7 of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova and Providence, as well as Butler, Creighton and Xavier. FSMG, which will present a slate of Big East basketball nationally on Fox Sports 1 this fall, retained Big East rights earlier this year.

“This agreement is an example of the symbiotic relationship YES now enjoys with FOX, a new minority owner of YES,” said Tracy Dolgin, president and CEO, YES Network in a statement. “Given our complementary interests and areas of expertise, we anticipate more of these types of mutually beneficial collaborations going forward.”

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.