Looks like the Cable model is continuing its decline. As I have said before , at some point the fucking ridiculous TV deals sports leagues get will come crashing down.

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Talking about this past weekend. At what point does the pubic stop paying for "EXTRAS" on Media devices to support ever increasing media deals.

Look at the Dodgers deal. You cant even watch them anymore because of the deal, which in the long run is going to be an issue of immense proportions.

I know its all content, content, content, but at some point the other shoe is going to drop and someone that bought a team is going to need to settle for a media deal for LESS than the current deal which will screw all the valuations.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

If sports owners were like normal CEOs they would build it up get these max deals raise stock price and get out at some point before the bubble burst. Sports are so artificial though and too many guys personally involved like our owners here will get crushed when it bursts.

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Elections have consequences.

Cable is going away in the next 10 years. People are gonna be able to pick the channels they want and pay the actual network directly.

Networks should want this. They'd make more money. Consumers would save more money. It's always the case when you cut out the middle man.

No they shouldn't. People like my sisters would never pay 6 dollars a month for ESPN if they were not forced to if they want cable.

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Then she doesn't have to buy it. I'm saying each network bills each customer. You pick what you want.

Yeah Conns I am not following?

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Elections have consequences.

ESPN make millions of dollars due to the fact you are forced to pay 6 dollars a month if you want cable above the basic tier. If you could simply order certain channels and pay for them, ESPN would lose a shit ton of money as a lot of people don't give a shit about sports.

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Say you have a population of 100 people. 50% are cable subscribers so 50 people. Only 30 of those cable subscribers watch ESPN. But, all 50 are paying around say 10 bucks (embedded in their cable bill).

ESPN is making 500 bucks.

But, if you're allow a la carte then only 30 people would want ESPN. To get that 500 bucks they'd need to raise their subscriber fee. Now perhaps the other 50 who never subscribed to cable will jump on board. Who knows. But then maybe the some of the existing 30 will bounce as they don't want to pay the increased subscriber fee.

What this hurts are smaller cable channels.

They would charge $12. And most sports fans would buy it even if they lose the women customers. But you would save overall because other lesor chanels would charge $2 or even $1. Some might even say, fuck it, it's yours for free cuz we'll make our money on the ads.

If they have only 30 or so franchises n they control that number...They don't have to worry about that.

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Ok I thought you were somehow saying your sister was screwed but it is the networks. They would have to reset which again would burst the sports bubble. That is fine with me.

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Elections have consequences.

You would not make back what you lost doubling the price. The people on the fringe would say fuck it and look harder at finding the games they want for free online. You would lose eve more money long term.

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ESPN would get crushed going a la carte. ESPN and ESPN2 don't have enough live sports programming to justify the subscription for many. Their MNF schedule is atrocious, NBA Is OK, no hockey and baseball is a regional sport. Their silver bullet is college sports programming - football and buckets.

Ok then they will go away or learn to operate on less revenue.

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Elections have consequences.

Ala Carte programming will eventually blow up all the mega deals in sports.

Verizon finding that people are not adding sports to their skinny bundles

Posted by Ken Fang on Dec 8, 2015 13:45

Earlier this year, Verizon launched its Custom TV skinny bundle allowing subscribers to pick and choose their own channels. In addition to a base package of channels that included local network affiliates for $54.99 a month, consumers could pick two additional packages at no extra cost whether it be a kids package, entertainment, lifestyle, news, pop culture or two sports bundles.

But a funny thing happened to Verizon. They found that while people would pick two additional packages, they would not go for a third which would cost extra. And those two additional packages would not include sports. So networks such as Big Ten Network, ESPN, FS1, NBCSN and SEC Network are being left out as consumers decide to go for the other packages instead.

Verizon Chief Financial Offer Fran Shammo said that this development was surprising to company officials:

“One of the disappointments was that, when you do Custom TV, you get a basic package and you get to pick two other packages. We thought people would pick three. People are only picking two,” Shammo said today during an investor event. “And what we’re seeing is, they’re picking more of the non-sports two, than sports. So the people who are going to Custom TV are generally people who do not watch a lot of sports. So that was kind of an insight that we didn’t have before.”

ESPN’s parent company Disney has sued Verizon saying putting the Worldwide Leader on a sports tier violates its agreement with FiOS. Even so, Shammo doesn’t appear to be worried about the lawsuit. He told investors that Custom TV has been successful, although there would be some tweaks to the bundles that would be available to consumers.

Shammo said one-third of Verizon’s pay-TV subscribers are opting for Custom TV which means they only want to pay for what they want to watch and apparently sports is not part of their equation.

Is this something that should concern the sports networks going forward? Perhaps. While sports fans are passionate about wanting to watch live sports action, there’s a large faction of Americans who don’t pay attention to them at all and they’re speaking with their wallets to Verizon. And it’s one reason why ESPN is fighting à la carte cable as it fears it will get left out if consumers are allowed buy the channels they want.

The Verizon sample is small, but one that has to raise a small red flag with the sports cable networks especially the ones hoping to get a foothold with the American people.

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I cut much of the cord for TV programming, but I pay for my parents cable internet so i have the login to watch on my computer or stream WatchESPN from my Roku. I'm stunned how little I watch live events there. I don't care about the NBA or college sports. I'll put on the Monday night game if I'm home and remember and have nothing else to do. I'll watch Sunday morning SportsCenter if I'm awake because I like Hannah Storm, and I watched a couple of SVP's shows when he started but wasn't moved by them to keep on watching.

If the cable channels went to true a la carte pricing, and realizing that people's stated preference isn't usually their actual preference when they have to make a decision, this is what I'd be willing to pay either over cable or streaming:

- ESPN: $5/month
- HBO: $5/month
- CNN: $2/month (although in a real emergency I could go out to my car and listen to the CNN feed on XM)
- Food Network: $1/month
- NFL anywhere, 1 team: $50/season

By comparison, I pay $140 or so for MLB, and I'd probably be willing to do PPV for the Blackhawks for 7-8 games a year at $10/game instead of hauling my ass to the Buffalo Wild Wings in whatever town I'm in.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

people who love pro baseball and basketball can pay for the packages. If you don't care about college sports, you don't need cable. The Bulls stream now on NBC Sports Live.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Sure, but many of the smaller channels exist solely to feed off of these minimal cable packages. You'll see a lot of crap channels disappear and arguably that's a good thing. E.g., I don't want to see an all "searching for big foot" network, yet that's an apt description of Discovery America.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

Who in the hell wants to receive and pay 100 or so different bills each month? Actually, many channels are owned by the same company, but still.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I thought live sports were the lone exception to all of this.

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

Live sports will be the final fight with cable companies before they start just giving channels away for free and charging you more for internet.

The funny thing about many of you guys is that you actually have benefited for years from cable packaging. You'll end up paying more now or getting much less.

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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!

NFL is trying to figure out how to monetize the internet. They did the Bills - Jags game on Yahoo only to see what the bare minimum people would go to the internet to watch.

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How have I benefited from cable bundling by paying for a bunch of channels that I never watch?

That's like saying I benefited from bundling at the grocery store because instead of paying 3.50 for a gallon of milk, I paid 4.50 for the milk but I got a bunch of rutabagas with the milk.

NOTE: I do not like Rutabagas.

I assume you are a sports fan. The grandma neighbor who only watches the local news and Wheel of Fortune and Fox News is helping pay for your sports. Sports take up a big portion of the total cost of cable. I'm not sure what your favorite sport or sports are but for me I need NFL, college football, and college basketball, and I'd still like to be able to watch things like the NBA and NHL. That is a lot of sports to pay for.

The amount spent will go down for non-sports viewers, and likely go up for sports fans unless they give up on a lot of the options they have now.

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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!