The ACC has a contract with ABC/ESPN for all of its football television rights.
This contract begins with the 2011-12 athletic year and ends with the 2036-37 athletic year.
Raycom is the syndication partner of the ACC and they sublicense their content from
ESPN. Raycom will manage both over-the-air and regional cable syndication
packages. The regional cable package appears to have been sublicensed from Raycom to FOX Sports
Media Group for airing on some FSN affiliates, NESN and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Raycom's package of over-the air games were previously branded as the ACC Network, but have reverted to the Raycom Sports brand for 2018. The ACC
Network over-the-air telecasts will kickoff at 12:30pm ET, a change from prior seasons.
ESPN is also able to sublicenese games to other national carriers. In 2019, ESPN will launch their own ACC Network, with the 2018 season being the last for Raycom's sublicense of ACC games.
It does not appear that there are any limits/minimums in terms of number of games
over a season for the ACC with their national TV contracts. The ACC is guaranteed
a game on Labor Day by ESPN.
The ACC has its own digital platform called ACC Network Extra.
The platform will carry all Raycom Sports games outside of the ACC's footprint along with games previously
aired exclusively on ESPN3. This platform will precede a linear television channel which is expected to
be available to television providers starting with the 2019-20 athletic year. At that time, all games sublicensed
to Raycom, including regional cable games passed through to FOX Sports, will revert back to ESPN's control.
To cover the additions of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the conference, the ACC signed
an extension with ESPN for more money per school, adding years to the deal that
started with the 2011-12 athletic year. Items relevant to football include that
the ACC will have up to three Friday night football games per season, one of those
three to be played on Black Friday in the afternoon or evening. Specifically, Boston
College and Syracuse will each host one Friday night game per year.
