South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner told the school’s Board of Trustees on Friday that projections indicated it would take until the third year of the SEC Network for schools to earn a revenue check. Just six months after launch, Tanner says the network has exceeded expectations and each school will receive a payout this summer.

Tanner was asked by one of the Board of Trustees members how much each team was expecting to receive and Tanner conservatively estimated that schools would receive $5 million.

“Long story short, when we first started talking about the network, they said we’d probably realize a benefit in Year 3,” Tanner told the BOT. “Obviously it’s been more successful than that. This summer we’ll receive a distribution (and) I think it will be at least $5 million. I’d like to think that’s on the conservative side. Each school will receive a $5 million gain.”

The SEC Network launched on August 14, 2014 and is now carried by nearly every major cable and satellite provider. According to AL.com, Cablevision is the only cable provider who does not provide the SEC Network to its subscribers.

Included in the network’s 24 hours per day, seven days a week programming are more than 1,000 events broadcast during the first year.

“It was right after I became the AD that this was formulated in the AD meetings. I was there from the beginning,” Tanner said. “You could sit and listen to proposals and programming going forward and understand the dollars associated with it from different cable outlets, subscriptions and the footprint of the SEC.

“As they said, it could be Year 3 before we realized any financial gain. As we launched, distributors started to get on board. Then we said it may be two years. Before you know it, it was profit in Year 1. I hope $5 million is conservative.”

The (Baton Rouge) Advocate last August, just a few days before the network’s launch, reported that the network could be worth $500 million per year once full distribution is achieved.

“It has proven to be the most successful launch in cable history,” Tanner said.

Revenues paid out to each school by the conference are typically announced at the SEC Meetings in Destin, Fla. in May.

