College Football Kickoff 2024: SEC on ABC Poised to Become Marquee Sports TV Property Producer Bill Bonnell and director Jimmy Platt set to lead ESPNs new marquee college football package By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Thursday, August 29, 2024 - 3:10 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In a college football season where power conferences bulk up, it doesn't get bigger than the growth of the Southeastern Conference.
Bill Bonnell (left) and Jimmy Platt will serve as the producer and director of the top game each week on the SEC on ABC. (Photo: Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
Long a television juggernaut, the SEC has enjoyed one of the more treasured sports television windows [the SEC on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET] for the past two-plus decades. Now, with a new set of rights kicking in just in time for the arrival of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, there's naturally a load of anticipation around the conference's new exclusive partnership with ESPN and the debut of football's latest crown jewel television brand, the SEC on ABC.
While the ESPN family will be tasked with producing hundreds of live football games this fall including a weekly game in 4K and the expanded College Football Playoff set to debut this December the SEC on ABC is the network's new glamour brand with its own dedicated graphics package and music reserved for SEC games on broadcast television in that coveted 3:30 p.m time slot.
SEC home games broadcast on ABC will have their own exclusive graphics package.
SEC on ABC broadcasts will primarily be in the 3:30pm ET time slot. However, any SEC home games appearing on ABC will retain the SEC on ABC branding.
There are so many different things that we're looking at this year that have us really excited for the season, probably more so than I've been in quite a long time, says Jarrett Baker, Senior Manager, Remote Production Operations at ESPN, who is a graduate of the University of Florida. I grew up in the SEC so to have that the top game each week; the highest profile game on our network, it's going to be incredible.
On Thursday, ESPN shared the new theme music that will score SEC on ABC broadcasts. It's a re-orchestration of a throwback that will sound familiar to college football fans of the late 1990s and early 2000s and will be used exclusively on any SEC home game that airs on ABC. That could mean the 3:30 window or an SEC home games in primetime during ABC Saturday Night Football and in the ABC noon ET window. The theme was done by composer Bob Christianson, who also created the popular NHL on ESPN theme.
Music is a crucial element in shaping the storytelling of any broadcast, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said in an official release. The opportunity to resurrect a theme song that means so much to college football fans, and so many of us at ESPN, was important as we start this new chapter in our relationship with the SEC.
Behind the scenes, the introduction of the SEC on ABC causes a bit of a reshuffling of ESPN's top college football crews. The top team, led by producer Bill Bonnell and director Jimmy Platt, will work the top SEC game each week, that typically being the 3:30 slot. The B and C crews will likely also be on SEC games for ABC either in primetime or at noon.
The SEC on ABC debuts on Saturday with a doubleheader: Miami at Florida (3:30 p.m. ET) and Notre Dame at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m.).
More from Sports Video Group
08/01/2026
At CFP Semifinals, ESPN Again Flexes Its Operational Muscle With 20+ MegaCast Vi...
08/01/2026
SVG Students To Watch: Sophie Fowler, University of OregonThe Portland product has honed her skills as a producer, director, and TD at Quack VideoBy Brandon Cos...
08/01/2026
Follow the Money, Episode 3: Inside the Sports-Media Biz With Sam McCleery and K...
08/01/2026
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Qualstar's Jeff Sengpiehl on the Enduring Power a...
08/01/2026
Legendary February: Production Leaders at NBC Sports Pull Back the Curtain on Ol...
07/01/2026
SVG Summit 2025: All General Sessions Now Available To Watch on SVG PLAYThe SVG Summit celebrated its 20th edition with a loaded agendaBy Brandon Costa, Directo...
07/01/2026
NBCU's Brings Rinkside Live' and Courtside Live' Features to Peaco...
06/01/2026
Peacock Bringing Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos to Live Sports ContentPeacock is the first streamer to embrace Dolbys full suite of advanced picture/sound innovat...
06/01/2026
SVG Europe Audio: Listening to the sounds of powder and ice at Milano Cortina wi...
06/01/2026
Quintar Meta Spatial SDK Integration Promises Next-Level XR ExperiencesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 - 9:41 am
Print This...
06/01/2026
Milano Cortina 2026: BBC Sport Previews Broadcast Ops, Studio Setup, Social Medi...
06/01/2026
Dolby's Jason Power on Elevating Live Sports Through Immersive Audio and HDR...
06/01/2026
DAZN's Global CRO Walker Jacobs on the Streamer's Breakout Year in the U...
06/01/2026
California Dreamin': LA28's SVP of Media Jim Bell Previews the Olympic a...
06/01/2026
One Month Out From Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBC Sports in Final Prep fo...
06/01/2026
Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Zinwell Integrated onto ATSC 3.0 Conversion Boxe...
06/01/2026
FOX Sports President and COO Mark Silverman Shifts to Consulting RoleHis successor will be announced soonBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, Janu...
05/01/2026
NFL's Blake Jones on How the League's Latest Video Additions Change How ...
05/01/2026
Spiideo's Scott Bushman on How AI Is Already Powering Live Sports ProductionFrom a line of camera systems to its automated production platform, the tech ven...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
18/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Kurt Sutton, Director of Broadcast Operations, Clemson ...
18/12/2025
Follow the Money Episode 2: Inside the Sports Media Biz with Sam McCleery and St...
College Football Kickoff 2024: SEC on ABC Poised to Become Marquee Sports TV Property Producer Bill Bonnell and director Jimmy Platt set to lead ESPNs new marquee college football package By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
