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Section 7 - Broadcast Rights, Footage Licensing and Home Videos

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The NCAA owns the television rights to all 88 championship events. The NCAA does not own the rights to any regular season or conference tournament college athletic footage. In addition, the NCAA does not own the rights to any Division I-A football footage. Please contact the appropriate conference office to obtain regular season, conference tournament or Division I-A football footage.

Rights include live coverage, tape delayed coverage and post-event footage use. All game action, practice footage, press conferences, one-on-one interviews shot by local ENGs and any other footage shot inside the arena or stadium venue is owned by the NCAA.

Click here for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Viewing Party Guidelines

Bidding Procedure: In order to obtain rights for local telecasts, the production entity or station televising the event must submit a formal bid letter. Rights for a championship may be obtained at any point during the year; however, the NCAA does not guarantee that it will take early offers to obtain rights to NCAA championship events. If local rights have not been granted by the time the championship field has been announced, then open bidding will commence. All rights must be obtained 48 hours prior to the championship. If more than one entity is interested in obtaining the rights for a specific event, the NCAA takes the following considerations into account when determining who will receive the rights:

Financial package

Coverage area (how many households you deliver).
Relationship with university or school (e.g., you produced ten regular-season games and ten baseball coaches shows during the regular season).
Production quality (e.g., number of cameras, production truck specs, graphics).
Prior bidding in current championship (this factor will apply only to later round competition).
Live broadcast versus tape-delayed broadcast.
Ticket sales and possible impact on the gate.

NCAA Division I Baseball Regionals Broadcast Rights Info Memo

Blackout Policy. The NCAA does not implement local blackouts for NCAA championships; however, a "silent" blackout may be implemented until 24 hours prior to the start of the televised championship event for regions within a 50-mile radius of the event. A "silent" blackout restricts the television station from announcing that it has obtained the rights or promoting the broadcast on any medium (e.g., newspapers, television, radio, Internet.). If the "silent" blackout is broken, the NCAA maintains the right to cancel the broadcast. The blackout policy does not apply to CBS or ESPN telecasts.

Footage licensing. The NCAA owns the exclusive right to all NCAA championship footage. Any television station or network may use up to three minutes of NCAA championship footage for a regularly scheduled news program for 72-hours after the conclusion of the championship contest. After the 72-hour window has expired, no entity may use NCAA footage without express written consent from the NCAA. The NCAA will license footage for commercial purposes (e.g., television show, special newscast within the 72-hour window, regularly scheduled newscast outside the 72-hour window, advertisement, Web site) at a negotiable rate. Keep in mind that footage must be licensed for any highlight video or athletic hall of fame exhibit an institution produces that includes NCAA championship footage.

Footage requests. Thought Equity is now the official provider of all NCAA sports footage. Please go to NCAA Footage requests for more information.

The NCAA will fulfill a footage request for any institution that is requesting footage. A complimentary VHS copy of a championship event will be provided to an institution that participates in an NCAA championship contest in that particular year upon request. Institutions will be charged for any other format requested (Beta, DVC, DV Cam, etc.). Costs associated with such a request include tape stock and dubbing time. Tape stock prices vary depending on length of the tape. Dubbing is $.25 per minute for anything under 1,000 minutes and $.15 per minute for anything over 1,000 minutes. To obtain footage, please e-mail your request to Durenka Robie (drobie@ncaa.org). Allow ten business days for your request to be completed.

Click here for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Viewing Party Guidelines

Home videos.  NCAA Productions, in conjunction with CBS Sports, produces and sells Men's Final Four (1968 to present), Women's Final Four (1984 to present) and Men's College World Series (1981 to present) home videos.  Single copies of these videos may be ordered through NCAA.com.  If you are interested in purchasing bulk orders or proposing a consignment deal to purchase and resell these videos, please contact Frank Rhodes (frhodes@ncaa.org)

International rights.  NCAA championships events are televised on both a live and tape delayed basis around the world.  Sales, implementation of contracts and invoicing of international rights for selected championships are handled by the NCAA national office.  ESPN and CBS own worldwide rights for the other championship events. Click here for a breakdown of rights holders.  If you have questions regarding where championship events air around the world or are interested in obtaining international rights, please contact Greg Weitekamp (317/917-6265 or gweitekamp@ncaa.org).

Local rights.

If Turner/CBS and/or ESPN do not activate their television rights to any round in NCAA championship competition, the NCAA has the right to sell these rights for local syndication. A rights fee will be charged for these events. Local campus and/or non-commercial television stations may have the rights fee waived. Any station selling commercials, selling or airing billboards, sponsors, in-game graphic sponsors, underwriters or phone pledges must pay the NCAA a minimum of $1,000 (One Thousand Dollars) per game for rights fees. Rights fees may vary from championship to championship.

The television rights not owned by Turner/CBS or activated by ESPN may be obtained through the NCAA. Contact Chris Fitzpatrick, associate director of broadcasting (cfitzpatrick@ncaa.org) if you are interested in obtaining those rights. (Click here for complete breakdown of the 88 NCAA Championships Domestic and International TV Rights.)

National TV Rights. Turner, CBS and ESPN are the primary broadcast television rights holders for 24 of the 88 NCAA championship events.

National Rights. Turner, CBS and ESPN are the primary broadcast television rights holders for all 88 NCAA championship events.

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