(05-23-2022 06:17 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(05-23-2022 05:31 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  I enjoy that my ESPN sports viewing is currently subsidized by (a) cable subscribers who get charged for ESPN whether they want it or not and (b) streaming by Disney via their bundles. A total of about $15 a month to get all that cable + streaming ESPN content is awesome-sauce.

Will it last forever? Probably not, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

That said, since I don't own Disney stock, I could care less whether ESPN thrives or survives or not. What would concern me is if I could no longer see the sports I want to see on ESPN and other networks, meaning that if ESPN goes away, the sports goes away from my TV, or if the price of viewing those things were to rise dramatically.

I don't foresee either happening, because IMO the fundamental of the sports broadcasting market is sound, namely that while cords are being cut and all that, the actual bedrock demand to watch sports on TV isn't declining.

I have said this before and will say it again. I think people misunderstand what Disney/ESPN may be doing. I think as cable dies ESPN intends to shift to being a college sports rights broker.

You're limiting your perspective to college sports.

Quote:I think they will sell the choicest games each week to the highest bidder and

But who are they going to sell them to? The OTA networks have limited budgets--events like the CFP etc are on ESPN instead of CBS or Fox because ESPN could tap both advertiser revenue AND subscription revenue. So who is ESPN going to sell these games to?

Quote:show all other contests via stream, cut their studio overhead and use college play by play guys to reach their own fans at a fraction of the cost.

I don't think the cost of producing the games moves the needle very much. The major cost is in the rights fees. They might save a few nickels by dumping the costs of showing games onto second-tier leagues like the MAC or Sun Belt or Major Lacrosse LEague, but that's trivial.

Quote:Therefore other networks will buy their games each week to maximize ad revenue. It's more profitable for them to spend on just the games they want, pulling from any conference, than to buy all the B1G rights to land 8 must see games.

There's a limit on how much CBS or NBC or Fox would be able to pay for even the best CFB game every week. And that limit is lower than what ESPN has been budgeting for those games.