At some point this bubble has to burst right? I feel like it can only go up so many Billions before it has to come down some. Especially considering people are watching less and less actual TV and more online based TV content. If they ever let people by cable on a per channel basis bad things would happen to ESPN.

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It probably grows pretty good for a while. Just wait until Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu start bidding for live sports. The cable companies almost certainly have to protect themselves from extinction by keeping deals with the sports leagues with local blackout restrictions. Cable television may as well be the telegraph when live sports aren't on there.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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If you see how much they spend just on shitty late night programming that get no viewers, sports seems like a good investment.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Agreed. I would have no need for cable, except for live sports. We're the exact demographic that has kept standard cable and satellite from being a total relic. Sure, cable networks pay a ton for broadcasting rights...and then get a lot of that money back from cable providers in order to carry their stations. And us consumers foot the bill in the long run.

Hopefully streaming live games in local markets becomes a reality...or cable starts selling channels a la carte.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

The NIT tourney can keep my two cents.

I'm ready for this. I know they'll jack the price up. No way they charge less than $10 a channel. I'd imagine they would package local channels, how much I wouldn't know.

Local channels are free over the air, though.

Nah. HBO is $15, retail price. Most network channels will go for far less than that...and local would be a package (or be free, considering that it is already free.)

I'd see channels ranging from $2 (shit no one watches like Oxygen) to $5-10 for ESPN1 and AMC.

It'd still be cheaper for me. Thinking of non-network channels, I watch...

CSN
NBCSP
AMC
FX
FXX
ESPN
MLB Network
NFL Network

...that's about it.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I think HBO is about $25, albeit for 5 channels, & they only give the package because HBO makes them. Anyway, all these premiums will shoot up because the cost of the indiviual channels will drive them up.

MLB & NFL network are @ least 20 apiece a la carte.

Anyway, you got ESPN, but you don't want the Deuce?