It seems like the newest trend is for the big conferences to form their own cable conference network channel and then dream of ever increasing subscription fees for these networks via cable.

The Big Ten, Pac 10, and now the SEC.

The one problem I see is that to form these networks they all must pull content off of the free OTA syndicated NBC/CBS/ABC/Fox channels and even ESPN to provide the content to launch these networks like the Big Ten Network. There was an article posted here a while back that even claims that the SEC rose to prominence and the Big Ten started to fall in competition on the field when the Big Ten launched their network. The theory went that the Big Ten pulled their primetime ESPN Saturday slot to give to the BTN and the SEC stepped in and took it over an the recruits loved watching the SEC while the BTN is a smaller mostly regional network.

The same goes for the OTA syndicated packages. For instance the ACC/Raycom sports network broadcasts ACC games all over the OTA NBC/CBS syndicate affiliates and they reach a large audience. The SEC currently does this too but will pull a bunch of content to launch their cable network.

At what point does the G5 conferences step in and take over those prime antenna OTA slots and gain larger viewers? Sports will always be in demand and once the SEC pulls out then other conferences will step in.

The cable cutters are abandoning cable at an alarming pace and each time a new sports conference demands a higher subscription rate and cable rates go up it only makes the cable subscribers go down faster.

The 2013 Ownership Survey and Trend Report, part of The Home Technology Monitor research series, found that 19.3% of all U.S. households with TVs rely solely on over-the-air signals to watch TV programming; this compares with 17.8% of homes reported as broadcast-only last year. Overall, GfK estimates that 22.4 million households representing 59.7 million consumers receive television exclusively through broadcast signals and are not subscribing to a pay TV service (i.e., a traditional pay TV service such as cable, satellite, Verizon FIOS or AT&T U-Verse).

https://www.nab.org/documents/newsroom/p...sp?id=3168

Curiously to those who think moving from OTA to Cable is an irreversible trend, the NFL who is the king of them all just sold its NFL Network Thursday night package and demanded only OTA broadcasters bid on it because they wanted to boost ratings and reach 60 million more viewers.

What does the NFL know that others dont? Thoughts?