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orangefan Offline
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Post: #1
Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
On Thursday, Disney released its financial results for FY17 (which ran from 10/1/16-9/30/17). https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis....rnings.pdf

Disney's Cable Networks division, of which ESPN is a part, reported revenues of $16.527 billion as compared to $16.632 billion in FY16, a decrease 1%. The division reported operating income of $5.353 billion as compared to $5.965 in FY16, a decrease of approximately 10%. Disney offered the following brief analysis of the division results, which appear to relate only to the fourth quarter:

Quote:Cable Networks
Operating income at Cable Networks decreased $15 million to $1.2 billion for the quarter due to a decrease at Freeform, partially offset by growth at the Disney Channels due to higher program sales.

The decrease at Freeform was driven by lower advertising revenue primarily due to a decrease in average viewership.

Results at ESPN were comparable to the prior-year quarter as higher programming costs and lower advertising revenue were offset by higher affiliate revenue. The programming cost increase was driven by contractual rate increases for NFL, college sports and MLB, partially offset by the absence of costs for Olympics programming internationally and the World Cup of Hockey. Lower advertising revenue was due to a decrease in average viewership and lower units delivered, partially offset by higher rates. Affiliate revenue growth resulted from contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers.

My quick take, ESPN's revenues remain stable despite a loss of subscribers because of increasing subscriber fees. However, profits are down due to increases in rights fees. Despite all of this, ESPN remains extremely profitable, with a gross margin of over 32% for FY17. It's biggest immediate challenge is getting its costs under control.
(This post was last modified: 11-11-2017 01:27 PM by orangefan.)
11-11-2017 01:24 PM
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Post: #2
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-11-2017 01:24 PM)orangefan Wrote:  On Thursday, Disney released its financial results for FY17 (which ran from 10/1/16-9/30/17). https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis....rnings.pdf

Disney's Cable Networks division, of which ESPN is a part, reported revenues of $16.527 billion as compared to $16.632 billion in FY16, a decrease 1%. The division reported operating income of $5.353 billion as compared to $5.965 in FY16, a decrease of approximately 10%. Disney offered the following brief analysis of the division results, which appear to relate only to the fourth quarter:

Quote:Cable Networks
Operating income at Cable Networks decreased $15 million to $1.2 billion for the quarter due to a decrease at Freeform, partially offset by growth at the Disney Channels due to higher program sales.

The decrease at Freeform was driven by lower advertising revenue primarily due to a decrease in average viewership.

Results at ESPN were comparable to the prior-year quarter as higher programming costs and lower advertising revenue were offset by higher affiliate revenue. The programming cost increase was driven by contractual rate increases for NFL, college sports and MLB, partially offset by the absence of costs for Olympics programming internationally and the World Cup of Hockey. Lower advertising revenue was due to a decrease in average viewership and lower units delivered, partially offset by higher rates. Affiliate revenue growth resulted from contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers.

My quick take, ESPN's revenues remain stable despite a loss of subscribers because of increasing subscriber fees. However, profits are down due to increases in rights fees. Despite all of this, ESPN remains extremely profitable, with a gross margin of over 32% for FY17. It's biggest immediate challenge is getting its costs under control.

Ok, the bottom hasn't fallen out - yet. But lets look at the wording in the press release.

'increasing revenue per payor, but with lower numbers of payors'. I think what that means is this. Its just a contractual raise in the must take.

I think that if they're really profitable, they probably are okay with current expenses and revenues. But the long term problem is the declining subscribers.
11-11-2017 01:45 PM
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Post: #3
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-11-2017 01:24 PM)orangefan Wrote:  On Thursday, Disney released its financial results for FY17 (which ran from 10/1/16-9/30/17). https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis....rnings.pdf

Disney's Cable Networks division, of which ESPN is a part, reported revenues of $16.527 billion as compared to $16.632 billion in FY16, a decrease 1%. The division reported operating income of $5.353 billion as compared to $5.965 in FY16, a decrease of approximately 10%. Disney offered the following brief analysis of the division results, which appear to relate only to the fourth quarter:

Quote:Cable Networks
Operating income at Cable Networks decreased $15 million to $1.2 billion for the quarter due to a decrease at Freeform, partially offset by growth at the Disney Channels due to higher program sales.

The decrease at Freeform was driven by lower advertising revenue primarily due to a decrease in average viewership.

Results at ESPN were comparable to the prior-year quarter as higher programming costs and lower advertising revenue were offset by higher affiliate revenue. The programming cost increase was driven by contractual rate increases for NFL, college sports and MLB, partially offset by the absence of costs for Olympics programming internationally and the World Cup of Hockey. Lower advertising revenue was due to a decrease in average viewership and lower units delivered, partially offset by higher rates. Affiliate revenue growth resulted from contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers.

My quick take, ESPN's revenues remain stable despite a loss of subscribers because of increasing subscriber fees. However, profits are down due to increases in rights fees. Despite all of this, ESPN remains extremely profitable, with a gross margin of over 32% for FY17. It's biggest immediate challenge is getting its costs under control.

Congratulations?
11-11-2017 03:22 PM
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billybobby777 Offline
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
The irony of us poor or lower middle class college football fans....rooting for big evil empire monopolies to get richer because the school we went to has a football team that occasionally plays on their tv channel.
Happy Veterans Day Disney.
11-11-2017 03:28 PM
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MWC Tex Offline
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
There are many channels that are profitable and I don't think any reasonable person is saying they will not but the bigger issue is that they are still losing subscribers by tens of thousands per day and will soon be under 80 million housholds very soon if not already.
Its like ESPN is a Bentley. Very valuable but like all vehicles, they depreciate in value and time is making it less valuable as subscribers are dropping like flies.
11-11-2017 04:20 PM
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orangefan Offline
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-11-2017 04:20 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  There are many channels that are profitable and I don't think any reasonable person is saying they will not but the bigger issue is that they are still losing subscribers by tens of thousands per day and will soon be under 80 million housholds very soon if not already.
Its like ESPN is a Bentley. Very valuable but like all vehicles, they depreciate in value and time is making it less valuable as subscribers are dropping like flies.

It is difficult to say how many subscribers ESPN is actually losing. The most recent round of earnings announcements from the cable and satellite industry was pretty alarming, but it is pretty clear that a good percentage of those dropping traditional video packages are switching to internet based bundles such as Sling and Playstation Vue. Customers switching to these services continue to subscribe to ESPN at full price, so the impact on ESPN is smaller. SNL Kagan publishes subscriber counts by network, but usually does so only once a year, when the information is already old. It would be useful for investors if Disney would include subscriber counts in their financials in the same manner as cable and satellite companies do.

I am certainly not suggesting that everything is rosy at ESPN. They are going to have some tough negotiations with the NFL and MLB when those deals come up in 2021. ESPN is going to be far more guarded against overpaying, as it was in recent Big Ten negotiations.

For the SEC and ACC, this is largely irrelevant, as their primary deals with ESPN are in place through the mid 2030's. The future revenues from the SECN and ACCN may be affected, but industry evolution should affect them equally with the BTN.

More significantly, the next round of negotiations with the CFP and NY6 will likely be tougher than the last one. ESPN will likely be reluctant to offer a significant increase in rights fees. If so, we could see pressure to expand the CFP to eight schools as a means of finding additional money.
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2017 08:06 AM by orangefan.)
11-13-2017 07:52 AM
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Post: #7
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-11-2017 03:28 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  The irony of us poor or lower middle class college football fans....rooting for big evil empire monopolies to get richer because the school we went to has a football team that occasionally plays on their tv channel.
Happy Veterans Day Disney.

Er, how is Disney either "evil" or a "monopoly"? If you haven't checked, they have heavyweight competition in all of their lines of business.

I "root" for ESPN because of what they do for me, namely show about 18 college football games every Saturday from 11 AM to 11 PM across four different channels, plus a few more during the week. Love being able to see all those games.
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2017 08:12 AM by quo vadis.)
11-13-2017 08:08 AM
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Attackcoog Offline
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Post: #8
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-11-2017 01:24 PM)orangefan Wrote:  On Thursday, Disney released its financial results for FY17 (which ran from 10/1/16-9/30/17). https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis....rnings.pdf

Disney's Cable Networks division, of which ESPN is a part, reported revenues of $16.527 billion as compared to $16.632 billion in FY16, a decrease 1%. The division reported operating income of $5.353 billion as compared to $5.965 in FY16, a decrease of approximately 10%. Disney offered the following brief analysis of the division results, which appear to relate only to the fourth quarter:

Quote:Cable Networks
Operating income at Cable Networks decreased $15 million to $1.2 billion for the quarter due to a decrease at Freeform, partially offset by growth at the Disney Channels due to higher program sales.

The decrease at Freeform was driven by lower advertising revenue primarily due to a decrease in average viewership.

Results at ESPN were comparable to the prior-year quarter as higher programming costs and lower advertising revenue were offset by higher affiliate revenue. The programming cost increase was driven by contractual rate increases for NFL, college sports and MLB, partially offset by the absence of costs for Olympics programming internationally and the World Cup of Hockey. Lower advertising revenue was due to a decrease in average viewership and lower units delivered, partially offset by higher rates. Affiliate revenue growth resulted from contractual rate increases, partially offset by a decline in subscribers.

My quick take, ESPN's revenues remain stable despite a loss of subscribers because of increasing subscriber fees. However, profits are down due to increases in rights fees. Despite all of this, ESPN remains extremely profitable, with a gross margin of over 32% for FY17. It's biggest immediate challenge is getting its costs under control.

This is a fact I’ve mentioned before that most doom and gloomers don’t reaalize. Most carriage agreements ESPN signs have automatic escalators that raise the rate over the course of the agreement. So, if you lose subscribers at a 2% rate, but the rate increases by 4% or 5% of the 98% of the subscriber base that remains, the revenue doesn’t fall much at all. It may be stable or even increase slightly.

Long term cable will have to address the cord cutting if it does not slow down, but the idea tha ESPN is nearing the end of its rope because they are now experiencing a leveling off of profits is hugely overstated. The layoffs are about getting the division to be less bloated and more profitable. The truth is, while ESPN remains incredibly profitable, it has completed the rapid growth phase of its corporate life cycle. It’s now a mature company and is experiencing competition from new companies attempting to horn in on its outsized profits. That means there will be more competition for sports rights in the future—not fewer. The idea that sports rights are going to decline so ESPN can grow it’s profits at a faster rate is a pretty unlikely outcome.
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2017 10:46 AM by Attackcoog.)
11-13-2017 10:34 AM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.
11-13-2017 05:26 PM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-13-2017 05:26 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.

We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.
(This post was last modified: 11-13-2017 07:15 PM by MWC Tex.)
11-13-2017 07:12 PM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-13-2017 07:12 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 05:26 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.

We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.

Still doesn't tell us what the adds were for Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, or Youtube Live TV.
11-14-2017 08:18 AM
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Post: #12
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-13-2017 08:08 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  
(11-11-2017 03:28 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  The irony of us poor or lower middle class college football fans....rooting for big evil empire monopolies to get richer because the school we went to has a football team that occasionally plays on their tv channel.
Happy Veterans Day Disney.

Er, how is Disney either "evil" or a "monopoly"? If you haven't checked, they have heavyweight competition in all of their lines of business.

I "root" for ESPN because of what they do for me, namely show about 18 college football games every Saturday from 11 AM to 11 PM across four different channels, plus a few more during the week. Love being able to see all those games.

Same. I love ESPN's college football coverage and I'm absolutely glued to their stations about 14-15 days a year
11-14-2017 09:50 AM
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MWC Tex Offline
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 07:12 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 05:26 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.

We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.

Still doesn't tell us what the adds were for Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, or Youtube Live TV.

That's because they don't report those numbers for some reason. However, I did see that Hulu Live TV only has 300k subscribers. PS Vue has a new CEO and raised rates but hasn't reported if they are losing customers. I know they lost one (myself) to the rate raise and I move to DirecTV TV.
But you see the jist of the info and that is there are a lot of customers that are not moving to the TV streaming packages and there is still a significant net loss quarter over quarter. This is giving the OTA households a bigger percentage that is now at 20% and increasing each quarter.
11-14-2017 10:09 AM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 10:09 AM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 07:12 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 05:26 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.

We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.

Still doesn't tell us what the adds were for Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, or Youtube Live TV.

That's because they don't report those numbers for some reason. However, I did see that Hulu Live TV only has 300k subscribers. PS Vue has a new CEO and raised rates but hasn't reported if they are losing customers. I know they lost one (myself) to the rate raise and I move to DirecTV TV.
But you see the jist of the info and that is there are a lot of customers that are not moving to the TV streaming packages and there is still a significant net loss quarter over quarter. This is giving the OTA households a bigger percentage that is now at 20% and increasing each quarter.

There's no question that there are many customers who are cord cutting and not switching to slim bundles, but there are also "cord nevers" signing up for slim bundles. My point is that although ESPN's subscriber numbers are clearly falling, it's not as fast as, for instance, Charter's and Comcast's subscriber loss rate would indicate. The longer term question is whether there is a stable number at which the combination of traditional bundles and slim bundles will settle.
11-14-2017 10:24 AM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 10:24 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 10:09 AM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 07:12 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 05:26 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Until the online services providing bundles that include ESPN are counted properly (same as cable/satellite) we simply won't have any clue what the subscriber loss is for the industry. We keep getting cable/sat lost X or Y moved to cut the cord but buying cable sans paying for the delivery infrastructure is still cable for all intents and purposes.

We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.

Still doesn't tell us what the adds were for Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, or Youtube Live TV.

That's because they don't report those numbers for some reason. However, I did see that Hulu Live TV only has 300k subscribers. PS Vue has a new CEO and raised rates but hasn't reported if they are losing customers. I know they lost one (myself) to the rate raise and I move to DirecTV TV.
But you see the jist of the info and that is there are a lot of customers that are not moving to the TV streaming packages and there is still a significant net loss quarter over quarter. This is giving the OTA households a bigger percentage that is now at 20% and increasing each quarter.

There's no question that there are many customers who are cord cutting and not switching to slim bundles, but there are also "cord nevers" signing up for slim bundles. My point is that although ESPN's subscriber numbers are clearly falling, it's not as fast as, for instance, Charter's and Comcast's subscriber loss rate would indicate. The longer term question is whether there is a stable number at which the combination of traditional bundles and slim bundles will settle.

Exactly. At this point—traditional cable tv has really not tried to be competive on pricing. Eventually it will fight back with skinny bundles and a la Carte. Also, streaming services largely are getting better deals on rights fees because they represent fewer viewers and were looked at as a place for content providers to derive a little incremental revenue. As streamers become a larger part of the pipeline to consumers and as cable networks have less cash sloshing around, content providers will look to streamers to pay more for content—meaning the cost of streaming will rise.

Eventually, there will be an equilibrium between the two as streaming loses its big price advantage.
(This post was last modified: 11-14-2017 10:56 AM by Attackcoog.)
11-14-2017 10:54 AM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
Article about a new sports free skinny bundle called Philo: http://mashable.com/2017/11/14/sports-fr...cSwGSy9iqT

$16/month for 34 channels. Not surprised to see the Viacom (MTV, NICK), Discovery, and AMC channels all included. Also, not surprised to see the Disney, Fox, Time Warner/Turner and Comcast channels excluded given each of their important sports programming commitments. Not having these media companies also denies the package a 24 hour news channel. More surprised to see the A&E channels (A&E, History, Lifetime, etc.) included given their overlapping ownership with ESPN (ESPN is 80/20 Disney/Hearst, A&E is 50/50 Disney/Hearst).

It will be interesting to see if there's any market for this, although my first thought is: what's the point of a live service that only shows taped programming?
(This post was last modified: 11-14-2017 12:45 PM by orangefan.)
11-14-2017 11:16 AM
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Post: #17
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 11:16 AM)orangefan Wrote:  Article about a new sports free skinny bundle called Philo: http://mashable.com/2017/11/14/sports-fr...cSwGSy9iqT

$16/month for 34 channels. Not surprised to see the Viacom (MTV, NICK), Discovery, and AMC channels all included. Also, not surprised to see the Disney, Fox, Time Warner/Turner and Comcast channels excluded given each of their important sports programming commitments. Missing these channels also denies the package a 24 hour news channel. More surprised to see the A&E channels (A&E, History, Lifetime, etc.) included given their overlapping ownership with ESPN (ESPN is 80/20 Disney/Hearst, A&E is 50/50 Disney/Hearst).

It will be interesting to see if there's any market for this, although my first thought is: what's the point of a live service that only shows taped programming?
Boom! Was wondering if someone will do something like this.
This is totally focus on the 80% who don't watch sports or don't watch sports on pay TV.

That's a good lineup for $16. Even includes Nick, Teen Nick For the kids. I think they will be more popular than most people will expect. It is even on OTT devices.

https://try.philo.com/
(This post was last modified: 11-14-2017 12:09 PM by MWC Tex.)
11-14-2017 12:07 PM
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Post: #18
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 11:16 AM)orangefan Wrote:  Article about a new sports free skinny bundle called Philo: http://mashable.com/2017/11/14/sports-fr...cSwGSy9iqT

$16/month for 34 channels. Not surprised to see the Viacom (MTV, NICK), Discovery, and AMC channels all included. Also, not surprised to see the Disney, Fox, Time Warner/Turner and Comcast channels excluded given each of their important sports programming commitments. Not having these media companies also denies the package a 24 hour news channel. More surprised to see the A&E channels (A&E, History, Lifetime, etc.) included given their overlapping ownership with ESPN (ESPN is 80/20 Disney/Hearst, A&E is 50/50 Disney/Hearst).

It will be interesting to see if there's any market for this, although my first thought is: what's the point of a live service that only shows taped programming?

Well you get it at the same time everyone else is watching which gives it a leg up over the traditional Hulu product and presumably it authorizes you to use the apps for those channels to watch older content on-demand.

I think there is a market for such, how big that market is? Guess we are about to find out.
11-14-2017 05:28 PM
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Post: #19
RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
(11-14-2017 10:54 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 10:24 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 10:09 AM)MWC Tex Wrote:  
(11-14-2017 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  
(11-13-2017 07:12 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  We have some of those stats. AT&T lossed 80k net. 330k drop from Direct TV and Uverse but added 250k to their DirecTV Now.

Dish loss 145k net and that includes Sling numbers.

All have ESPN on the base package.

Still doesn't tell us what the adds were for Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, or Youtube Live TV.

That's because they don't report those numbers for some reason. However, I did see that Hulu Live TV only has 300k subscribers. PS Vue has a new CEO and raised rates but hasn't reported if they are losing customers. I know they lost one (myself) to the rate raise and I move to DirecTV TV.
But you see the jist of the info and that is there are a lot of customers that are not moving to the TV streaming packages and there is still a significant net loss quarter over quarter. This is giving the OTA households a bigger percentage that is now at 20% and increasing each quarter.

There's no question that there are many customers who are cord cutting and not switching to slim bundles, but there are also "cord nevers" signing up for slim bundles. My point is that although ESPN's subscriber numbers are clearly falling, it's not as fast as, for instance, Charter's and Comcast's subscriber loss rate would indicate. The longer term question is whether there is a stable number at which the combination of traditional bundles and slim bundles will settle.

Exactly. At this point—traditional cable tv has really not tried to be competive on pricing. Eventually it will fight back with skinny bundles and a la Carte. Also, streaming services largely are getting better deals on rights fees because they represent fewer viewers and were looked at as a place for content providers to derive a little incremental revenue. As streamers become a larger part of the pipeline to consumers and as cable networks have less cash sloshing around, content providers will look to streamers to pay more for content—meaning the cost of streaming will rise.

Eventually, there will be an equilibrium between the two as streaming loses its big price advantage.

http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/pay-tv-...202616516/

Very interesting development directly related to these questions. The research firm MoffettNathanson estimates that virtual cable packages (Sling, Hulu Live, Playstation Vue, Directv Now, etc.) added 962,000 subscribers in Q3. This compares to losses for traditional cable and satellite services of 872,000 subscribers for the same period. In other words, there was a net gain of 90,000 subscribers.
Quote:The dynamics in the pay-TV biz are splitting programming groups in “haves” and “have-nots,” according to Moffett.

The haves: CBS, Fox, NBCUniversal and Disney, which are included in nearly every virtual internet-TV service. The have-nots, whose networks average less than 50% penetration into virtual pay-TV services, are A+E Networks, Discovery Communications, Scripps Networks Interactive (which is being acquired by Discovery), Viacom and independent networks, per Moffett’s analysis.
(This post was last modified: 11-16-2017 02:54 PM by orangefan.)
11-16-2017 02:52 PM
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RE: Disney/ESPN Annual Financials
http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports...2iabhcqxe0

Quote:ESPN is poised to slash an estimated $80 million in salaries and other costs in coming weeks, sources tell Sporting News.

The third round of layoffs in two years at the Disney-owned sports network is expected to come down after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Sporting News broke the news that ESPN planned to lay off up to 60 people in late November and early December. Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated followed up with a report that said 100 positions could be impacted. ESPN declined to comment Monday.
11-23-2017 11:44 PM
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