Disney also has a much longer reach than any sports league.

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Glad to see that authors who research this pretty much back my views on this.

https://www.si.com/college-football/201 ... ege-sports

Interesting that a lawyer present at the NBA/ESPN negotiations stated that if the contract was up now it would be 30% less.

I don't know what was more troubling in the article the fact that these college sports programs are operating at a deficit in spite of the revenue windfall or that an option was to increase student fees to make up for the future lost revenue.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I am not sure when but these ESPN/rights issues are eventually going to lead to something we have not seen. Receding salaries for players. We have seen that aside from all logical reasoning major pro sports salaries and caps go up. This looks to be coming to an end which will be a problem for teams when revenue drops and they still have long term contracts to pay out.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

That's what I'm thinking.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

While on vacation, Ryen Rusillo got plastered and tried to walk into somebody's condo.

http://deadspin.com/espn-radio-host-rye ... 1798347475

Already posted:
viewtopic.php?f=100&t=108135

Still hilarious though. Deadspin leaves out that he was found naked

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Another nail in the coffin..

A non-sports skinny bundle is on its way

By Matt Yoder on 09/12/2017

Let’s face it, one of the biggest reasons behind the major increases in cable and satellite fees are because of live sports. ESPN charges an exponentially higher rate than any other channel on television and many of the other sports networks are in the upper echelon of the most expensive channels.

From a pure economics standpoint, when these networks are shelling out millions and sometimes even billions of dollars for rights fees, the cost for everyone is going to go up. And as teh costs go up, cord-cutting continues to rise in popularity.

And if this latest news is any indication, it may get more popular, especially among non-sports fans.

Via Variety and the WSJ comes the news that a bunch of entertainment networks are teaming up for a non-sports skinny bundle that could be an attractive offering to some television viewers:

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that A+E Networks, Viacom, Discovery, Scripps and AMC Networks are banding together to form a broadband-delivered bundle of TV networks that will be free of sports, enabling them to charge less than $20 per month. Discovery announced its intent to acquire Scripps earlier this year.

The new joint venture is expected to launch in beta shortly. Additional details on Philo are scarce, but it will presumably contain content from many of the powerful TV brands operated by these companies, including HGTV, MTV, TLC, History and AMC, home of top-rated scripted drama “The Walking Dead.”

What Philo won’t have is sports programming, which is dominated by some of their larger cable rivals including Disney, CBS, 21st Century Fox and Time Warner. These companies also have the broadcast-network assets the companies in the Philo venture lack.

‘While this news wouldn’t necessarily apply to much of our audience, (which I assume would be sports fans because let’s face it, why would non-sports fans care about how good of a job Tony Romo is doing as a broadcaster), it’s a logical next step for the cord-cutting movement. If you’re not a sports fan and all you care about is The Walking Dead and Fixer Upper, then why would you want to pay big bucks for the College Football Playoff or Monday Night Football? With these channels listed above featuring some of the most popular shows on cable outside live sports, it could become an attractive option especially at that price.

The biggest impact on the sports industry is if this becomes a popular trend and accelerates the number of people cutting the cord. If that’s the case, then ESPN and all the other major sports networks are going to have to work overtime to make up for the additional lost revenue that could come their way.

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jemele hill called trump a white supremacist on twitter. i'm sure that is acceptable.

How does it compare to repeatedly accusing the President of being born in Kenya and forging a birth certificate?


Which one is closer to the truth?

Not exactly. It's a streaming service. That means you already cut cable to get it.

It seems like we are finally going to get our "Pick your channels and don't pay for the rest!" dream. It just happens we'll be using 20 different apps to do it with no unified dvr or channel guide. Can't wait!

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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!

Did someone at ESPN do that ?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

No, the President that Hill referenced in her tweets did, so even more relevant than if another ESPN employee had

Great. I love that people will have the choice to get a cable package without subsidizing ESPN.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Not a big sports fan?

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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!

Not a fan of ESPN and their high fees. I watch very little football or basketball.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Well people who are fans of those don't want to subsidize the sports you like either.

It still amazes me how excited some people who are sports fans get that this whole thing may be crumbling down. It's like a guy who drives on an expressway every day being excited that they are going to start charging tolls so "The people that use it are the ones paying for it".

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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!

You seem to be a futurist on some things and want to maintain the status quo on others. I mean, I guess that describes a lot of people, but still.

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That's fine. I'll pay for what I want individually.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

In this case, I'm just talking about the fact that people think that sports take up a good portion of a cable bill, and that when cable bills don't exist and we all pay for what we want we won't be paying a ton of money for those sports or missing out on them. It's just a pretty big paradox. Sports fans weren't paying their fair share. I'll save money when sports fans have to buy their sports with no help from anyone else!

However, the shift is starting to content owners controlling the content distribution. This sounds great until you end up subscribing to 8 different services and still need internet to get to it which is going to get more expensive to compensate and we don't have a standard guide or dvr and we aren't saving much money and if we end up saying "Hey, I'm not a big fan, but I'd like to watch the Bulls today" you can't because you didn't buy the APPRECIATE GREATNESS NBA package this year because no one has cable any more.

Though, hopefully, cable packages just become cheaper and cheaper and the whole idea of cord cutting ends up seeming like a way to have a lot of aggravation to save $15 a month.

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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!

There really is no aggravation to it when you find that singular service which offers what you want (Vue in my case). You get the unified DVR/channel guide. Furthermore, as it isn't a single piece of hardware that it is reliant upon, you can get regular updates to the interface and an overall better experience than you get from your cable box, which really doesn't need to exist in 2017

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

The problem is that the content providers are already taking control. This service mentioned here is a separate streaming service. Disney is doing the same with much of their content. The premium cable channels are all doing the same thing. The sports leagues are already able to do it and don't because they still get good tv contracts.

It could very well end up like this:
2 sports subscriptions(MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, College networks)
Netflix
HBO
Showtime
Disney
Philo
Amazon Prime
Vue/Youtube TV(for local channels and everything else until they go in as a CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC streaming service).

That's what happens when the content providers start to realize that Vue is nothing more than a cable company stealing profit they can do themselves. To top it off, the broadband delivery networks raise prices too.

Now, obviously you can choose to simply not sign up for those things and save money but that's not really a good answer either.

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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!

Sports do take up a good portion of a cable bill, the ESPN family in particular. They bought the rights to the NBA, NFL, MLB, and some NCAA with the idea that they could make it up on commercials and subscription fees, and may have bitten off more than they can chew.

The bundling model was good for cable because while sure, some channels cost more than others, it allowed smaller channels to go along for the ride, too. It would have been hard for AMC to do Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead if lots of people could opt out of a piddling channel like AMC. I don't know how television is gonna end up looking in the future but it's fair to argue that ESPN getting too big for its own good was bad in the long run.

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It absolutely is a good answer. I don't watch ESPN and the Big 10 network and I sure as hell don't want to support them. With the format you lay out, I can pick out what I want to pay for. Sure, it will be more for the individual channel or league package but I will save overall. Currently, I have to have a $110 a month (+ fees) Direct TV bill so I can get the channels I want. Netflix and a couple league passes is not going to cost over $1000 year.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

It will when your internet package costs $100 a month with a data cap.

This is the stickler I haven't looked closely into. What is going to be the charge for a suitable internet only connection once you do not package any programming.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

We'll see if it gets that high. Plus, I am already spending $50 a month on internet.

The bottom line is that these fees are ridiculous and I am going to reduce them one way or another.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

According to ATT, I am not getting any discount for DirectTV. Even if I have to up my package I am saving in the long run.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

The thing is Internet prices are likely going to drop in many markets as fiber companies are starting to enter the market and undercharge what cable charges. You'll see it in urban-suburban markets first, but it will expand. We just had it happen where I live and I'm in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. If it happens here, it happens in other markets too.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Your post reminded me of my early HS years. I went to a suburban school and loved in the city. All my rich friends had cable and more importantly MTV. Anyway, Chicago lagged in cable until the right people got greased. I can't imagine there will not be delays in parts of the country for similar reasons as new stuff comes out.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.