Byron Allen: 'Historic Deal' HBCU GO Deals With the SWAC, CIAA 'Long Overdue'

Global distribution for the SWAC and CIAA will be achieved with Byron Allen's HBCU GO. Profitability and protection are the questions for the HBCU conferences.

HOUSTON, TX — Byron Allen believes his Allen Media Group's free-streaming digital platform HBCU Go's partnership with the SWAC and CIAA are landmark deals. Few can disagree.

The significance is profound for these governing long-standing HBCU sports entities founded over 100 years ago — Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1912 and Southwestern Athletic Conference in 1920. Corporate America and major broadcast networks have ignored or failed to recognize the economic benefit of affiliating with HBCU conferences.  

Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, which owns HBCU GO; Credit:© Robert Hanashiro, USAT

For example, State Farm, Procter & Gamble, United, Wells Fargo, Invesco QQQ, Tyson Foods, and Cricket Wireless are a few corporations that sponsored HBCU-related sporting events. Nevertheless, the record with the three and four-letter broadcast networks has an underwhelming track record with HBCUs — for many a year.

AN HBCU GO-TYPE PARTNERSHIP 'LONG OVERDUE'

The SWAC arrangement with HBCU GO is a "long-term partnership to amplify and grow the sports floor program," Byron Allen told me. "This is the long overdue support to help them get the exposure, the revenue they need to help fund these programs, the schools, and ultimately the education of these kids. It's a very important deal and historic deal."

For HBCU conferences, history may point back to 2022, as when media outlets began acknowledging the value of partnering with the brands of Jackson State, Florida A&M, Grambling, Southern, Howard, Southern, or South Carolina State. Then again, eradicating the years of disenfranchisement by the suits on Madison Avenue would require the commissioners, presidents, and athletic directors to make transformational decisions for these brands.

HBCUs have had three choices served to them over the years. One, we won't do business with you. Two, we will pacify you with a spattering of support - just enough to keep you quiet. Third, the corporate boardrooms will invite HBCUs to the table and strike new lucrative deals.

Question. Are we there yet?

COMPARE OR NOT COMPARE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

After this week's mega-announcement of the Big 10's $7 billion television rights deal with FOX, CBS, and NBC, are the HBCU conferences on the precipice of leaping into similar long-term accords?

The media mogul remarked how he was "very proud of" inking the multi-year contract with the SWAC but would not disclose the financial terms of the new alliance. "I can't share the details. But, it is a long-term partnership that we are both [SWAC and HBCU GO] very excited about," Allen stated.

One source told me it's a 10-year, $120 million agreement between the SWAC and HBCU GO. I contacted the SWAC conference office to verify the details. A representative would only confirm that the SWAC signed a multi-year distribution contract with Allen's free-streaming platform.

Allen affirmed a few particulars from our first conversation in February 2022. "We did a deal with them [SWAC] for over 2000 live-sporting events. That's football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball, other sports; it's everything, the entire spectrum."

HOW HBCUs WILL BE WATCHED WITH HBCU GO, CBS

On August 16, Allen Media Group officially announced, after signing separate distribution partnerships with the SWAC and CIAA, that HBCU GO will distribute the conferences' content via CBS-owned-and-operated duopoly stations. Also, HBCU GO has secured distribution with group-owned television stations, including Nexstar, Gray, Cox, Scripps, Tegna, Sinclair, Lockwood, Allen Media Broadcasting, Hearst, Circle City Broadcasting, McKinnon Broadcasting, Cowles, Graham, Block, Sun Broadcasting, Tougaloo College, Sagamore Hill, and Marquee.

"These games will be some of the very first games that will be on digital broadcast and cable simultaneously," Allen noted. "So this will be on the streaming app HBCU GO and the Grio streaming app, Local Now, SPORTS.TV, and over-the-air broadcast. That's the syndication we've put together to align them for broadcast television stations, with CBS being the lead group. Nexstar, Gray, Cox, Scripps, Tegna, Sinclair, Lockwood, Allen Media Broadcasting, Hearst, Circle City Broadcasting, McKinnon Broadcasting, Cowles, Graham, Block, Sun Broadcasting, Tougaloo College, Sagamore Hill, and Marquee and our cable network. The Grio has 50 plus million homes available to 50 plus million homes."

A few weeks ago, AMG (Allen Media Group) acquired the Black News Channel (BCN) and its assets for a reported $11 million out of bankruptcy. Allen converted and merged BCN into The Grio. "Anybody who wants to see an HBCU game will not have any problems accessing them via digital, via over-the-air broadcast, and via cable. It's 100% penetration across the board collectively," Allen declared.

HBCU GO's IMPACT AND REACH FOR THE SWAC AND CIAA

The SWAC and CIAA grant HBCU GO the rights to their conferences' sporting events to broadcast via cable, linear, streaming, broadcast, VOD [video-on-demand}, and pay-per-view. Syndication becomes a possibility for HBCU GO to be packaged in future deals for distribution on other networks.  For clarity, neither AMG, Allen, nor the SWAC verified with HBCU Legends that the conferences would or would not receive revenue from syndication of their content on HBCU GO.

Byron Allen mentioned the CBS deal would place HBCU GO in "approximately 60% of all US households, and approximately 67% of all African American households."

The HBCU GO platform will have a global reach for HBCU sports fans to access games and events.  

Even Jackson State's head coach understands how this will impact the families of the young men on his football team.  Deion Sanders was very candid with Allen and told him, "We need some support.  These young kids are here and they want their mamas to see them play. So we're help them to make sure their mamas can see them play," Allen exclaimed.

ARE HBCUs NOW IN A POSITION OF POWER?

"We've gone from zero to now a deal has been done. Is it a multi-billion dollar deal? It is not. Have they [HBCUs] been there and available for over a century, and decades? Yes. Have they been ignored? Yes. We are starting the process of reversing that." 

Allen continued, "The greatest trade deficit in America is the trade deficit between White corporate America and Black America. Why is it that Byron Allen, in 2022, becomes the first person to take the sports content, put it on digital broadcast and cable, and push the conversation to provide distribution and economic inclusion for the HBCUs? Some pretty big corporations out there that didn't seem to care before now."

He's correct. HBCUs are now sexy for the advertising agencies to seek new partnerships and promote the so-called "black agenda" to their clients' consumers. As compelling as it seems, business and profitability must become the central concerns for the SWAC, CIAA, MEAC, CIAC, and other HBCU conferences and their member institutions.

Should HBCUs and their fans applaud these deals today, later, or at all? 

It's not for me to say. 

One thing is clear. Now is the time for the conferences to capitalize and take a position of power to dictate the new partnership terms. If they do not, it will be same ol' business as usual for historically black colleges and universities.

In our conversation, Byron Allen told me that Dr. Martin Luther King's widow, Coretta Scott King, once shared this wise statement.  "The greatest weapon we have is the truth."

Will the truth set HBCUs free to control and navigate the economics of their media rights and future deals?  Will commissioners Dr. Charles McClelland (SWAC) and Jacqie McWilliams (CIAA) keep their respective conferences protected and profitable?  And, will HBCU GO help to revolutionize HBCU sports in the SWAC and CIAA?  Once again, Byron Allen believes it would.

We shall see.