(09-29-2017 02:57 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  While I think it's an interesting concept and might play an indirect role in realignment, one need not look further than professional sports to see that brand names mean something when it comes to viewership. A World Series between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs would dominate viewership but a World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays would suffer. A Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks would dominate viewership but a Stanley Cup Finals between the Florida Panthers and Arizona Coyotes would suffer. Every team has its fans which will be loyal, but good viewership requires drawing in the average sports fan and even the non-sports fan.

I think you are quite correct. As I said on another board, if (and it is an if) the market moves to a model similar to music where the number of purchases of the right to watch or views of a subscription based service determine how much you make, then forget the word market ever existed.

The magic word is "brand".

The value of a program will be it's fan base that purchases or subscribes and the brand value that can draw the consumer who has no tie to either team but sees the game listed and gives it a view.

I think what we end up seeing is sort of like iTunes.
You can go buy what you want to listen to and the artist (via the label) gets a big piece of the transaction or you can subscribe with the knowledge not everything is going to be available and listen all you want and a portion of the subscription revenue is allocated to the artists and distributed based on listens.

I think it is entirely possible that someone (ESPN, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Fox) will come in and slice and dice the content.

Pay one subscription fee to get the package you want, with the risk some games are going to require an added fee.