On Friday, it was reported that Joe Buck will be leaving Fox to join ESPN as the new voice of “Monday Night Football.” He will be joining his former Fox partner Troy Aikman, who agreed to a deal with ESPN earlier this year.
But while Aikman’s contract was up, and he was free to sign elsewhere, Buck’s wasn’t. Buck had one-year and around $10 million remaining on his Fox deal, according to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand. Therefore Fox had to let Buck out of his deal, which they did.
But Fox is still getting something back in return. Marchand reports Fox will get to select one Big Ten game ahead of ESPN for next fall as part of the compensation. Both ESPN and Fox share the rights to Big Ten football, and utilized a draft system to divvy up the broadcasts.
This isn’t the first time an announcer was effectively traded. In 2005, NBC hired Al Michaels away from ESPN, and ESPN acquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in return.
Fox has already begun preparing for life after Buck and Aikman. Marchand reports Kevin Burkhardt is the “clear favorite” to become Fox’s top NFL announcer, with Joe Davis in line to take on top MLB broadcasts.
Fox is on tap to broadcast the Super Bowl this year, and is scheduled to broadcast the World Series every year from now through 2028.
