The SEC Network launched seven months ago, and according to reports it's already a money maker for the SEC and its schools. The SEC Network was not expected to begin hauling in a profit until its third year on the air, but it quickly became a popular destination for SEC fans — especially for its live college football broadcasts.
According to College Football Talk, the network has been so successful that each school (all 14) is pulling in $5 million off of it.
South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner revealed that the SEC Network is expected to pull in a profit of $5 million its first year — per school. And even more to the point seven months after the network's debut, Tanner called that $5 million per school figure as "conservative."
"You sit there and listen to the proposals and programming going forward and the dollars involved, but as they said, it could be Year 3 before we realized any financial gain. But when we launched and distributors started getting on board, we said maybe two years. Before you knew it, we had enough to realize a profit in Year 1."
That $5 million per school will be added onto the annual revenue distribution that is divided out in May, and this year each school is expected to receive $26 million — $4 million more than last year. The conference had high hopes for the network, but it's clear that after just one year (actually less than that) they have surpassed their lofty expectations.
