Hello There, Guest! (LoginRegister)

Post Reply 
B1G should insist on 2 OTA games per week as Cord Cutting Accelerates
Author Message
MplsBison Offline
Banned

Posts: 16,648
Joined: Dec 2014
I Root For: NDSU/Minnesota
Location:
Post: #41
RE: B1G should insist on 2 OTA games per week as Cord Cutting Accelerates
(05-11-2015 03:17 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  
(05-11-2015 02:02 PM)orangefan Wrote:  ESPN, on the other hand, is doing a masterful job at transitioning to the world of cord cutting by partnering with Dish on the Sling service and will do the same when Apple launches its Apple TV service in the fall. They also have an existing platform, WatchEspn, from which to launch an HBO Now type version of if they ever choose to do so.


Just a note, that is not an example of "Cord cutting" in the truest sense. Those are just more or less changing from one service to another. Cord cutting is no cable. Ala Carte is subscribing to one channel only. ESPN really and purposefully offers neither. The moment they do, it takes away their leverage they use to force cable companies to carry it on basic cable.

Cord Cutting originally meant getting rid of what was (and still is) understood to be a "cable TV bill". Not getting rid of all pay TV.

In my opinion, Sling qualifies. You're not paying Comcast, TWC, Charter or any of those companies. True, you're paying Dish, which is sort've similar.

But you're paying for a skinny, cheaper bundle than any traditional content distributor will offer.
05-11-2015 03:46 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
goofus Offline
All American
*

Posts: 4,285
Joined: May 2013
Reputation: 148
I Root For: Iowa
Location: chicago suburbs
Post: #42
RE: B1G should insist on 2 OTA games per week as Cord Cutting Accelerates
(05-11-2015 11:06 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  
(05-09-2015 07:08 AM)goofus Wrote:  if anything, the focus should be on cutting the length of games and dead time during the game. The BigTen should experiment with games on BTN, removing commercial time outs from games until the 4Q. you still have commercials, but the game keeps playing while the commercials are on. Once the commercial is over, they can quickly show replays to catch up.

It's fan-friendly, but the economics DEFINITELY don't work. If anything, cord cutting (to the extent that it's a major issue) means there's a financial need for MORE commercials to produce revenue, not fewer of them. Longer games mean more commercials, which is why all sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, etc.) always pay lip service to shortening the lengths of games but then do very little about it. Plus, having a product that is showing anything less than live action is insane in this day and age (despite NBC's stance on its Olympics coverage). There is absolutely no benefit to me as a viewer to have commercials and then cut to replays of the parts of the game that we just missed.

Regardless, this is simply an issue where the fan experience and the economics of sports are diametrically opposed to each other. I recall Keith Olbermann speaking several months ago about how MLB was experimenting with measures to shorten games in the Arizona Fall League. MLB happened to propose those exact same measures... in 1990. Why haven't they done anything about it even though they've known the solution for such a long time? First, as noted above, longer games mean more commercials, which mean more revenue for TV partners and often the teams themselves if they own regional sports networks. Second, in the case of national TV contracts, when he worked at Fox Sports, he had access to minute-by-minute postseason and World Series ratings data that showed that viewing numbers went up for every minute that games got *closer* to midnight Eastern time (which meant that higher ad rates could be charged). This is a common theme across all sports. So, that explains why (a) start times of high profile sporting events are always late on the East Coast no matter how much Eastern time zone viewers complain about how late they end and (b) there's a direct incentive to stretch games out to end as late as possible.

Sports leagues like to *say* they want to shorten games... but they really don't have any economic incentive to do so. Sports fans might complain about the lengths of games, but they very rarely choose not to watch them for that reason. In turn, very few people who aren't watching MLB, college football, etc. today are going to start watching because games are shorter. There are boring 2 hour games and there are exciting 4 hour games (just as there are boring 90 minute movies and fantastic 3 hour movies). Length in and of itself isn't outcome determinative for entertainment value.

thank you for reminding me why I don't watch baseball anymore, why I don't stay up late anymore to watch a game, and why I pay for services like Netflix and HBO but not Hulu.

Its no happy accident, I continue to use this website over other message boards. It loads quickly and is not bombarded with annoying ads. Yes it has ads, but the website still loads quickly and the ads are not annoying. do I have any idea if it is making money? I have no idea. all I know is if this site started to load slower and started to get bombarded with annoying ads, then I would stop coming here. Its one reason I stopped using the ESPN website, it would constantly freeze up on my mobile phone, so I stopped using it.

The concept that entertainment has to be injected with awful commercials and time lags is just 1 model that can be followed, but that just drives away both existing and future viewers.

don't get me wrong, some things just get old no matter what. American Idol used to get 30M viewers, now its getting canceled. Even the best tv shows typically only last 7-15 years. its a wonder sometimes baseball and football are still on tv.
05-12-2015 04:48 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 




User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)


Copyright © 2002-2024 Collegiate Sports Nation Bulletin Board System (CSNbbs), All Rights Reserved.
CSNbbs is an independent fan site and is in no way affiliated to the NCAA or any of the schools and conferences it represents.
This site monetizes links. FTC Disclosure.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.networkadvertising.org.
Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2024 MyBB Group.