EagleOutsider.com

EagleDave {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:

EagleDave {l Wrote}:

Eaglekeeper {l Wrote}:SEC is already in Florida and South Carolina. If ESPN shrinks and that is the way they are headed, each conference will get less and I agree the SEC and B1G will take less of a haircut than the ACC. Big 12 has a small footprint and a lot more problems than the ACC. Remember, hoops is big in the ACC and many fans will buy the cable package to get ACC hoops.

Absolutely no doubt that any team that continues to shit the bed could easily find themselves in trouble of losing equal revenue sharing. BC has the Boston market and a lousy BC sports program is hurting the entire ACC. It's the largest TV market and BC needs to be at the top of the conference for the ACC to fully capitalize on that market. Quality still fucking matters!

You're still thinking about this from the standpoint of the traditional cable model. The "markets" won't matter when the cable tier subscriber model goes away. The ala carte or individual online subscription model that will take its place means the ONLY thing that will matter is how big/passionate your fanbase is since it'll be individual fans deciding whether to subscribe to their respective conference networks.

When the ACC Network is forced into the ala carte mode, they won't have the fanbases to support it and it'll cease to be financially viable for ESPN (which is rapidly becoming an albatross in the Disney portfolio). At that point, the schools with enough juice to be attractive additions to either the B1G/SEC Networks (FSU, Clemson, maybe Louisville) will start looking for a way out, which would trigger the end of the ACC as we know it.

You can't have ESPN collapsing and a la carte sports in the same model. Without ESPN, there is no one to cover most of the sports covered today.

ESPN will still exist, the exorbitant rights fees that we've seen doled out in recent years won't. This isn't just a college sports problem either. The NFL and the NBA will both be taking reduced deals or ESPN will simply pass on bidding for them next time around.

The end game down the road is that the pro leagues and the conferences within the NCAA end up distributing the games themselves primarily via streaming apps, though the SEC & B1G Networks will continue to exist in a reduced state because, again, their schools will still demand that 24/7 content.

claver2010 {l Wrote}:if you thought espn's hockey coverage was terrible before, I can only imagine it now

DomingoOrtiz {l Wrote}:

claver2010 {l Wrote}:if you thought espn's hockey coverage was terrible before, I can only imagine it now

They don't cover NHL at all now so I dont know how it can get worse. ESPN is unwatchable; 99% NBA coverage.

DomingoOrtiz {l Wrote}:

claver2010 {l Wrote}:if you thought espn's hockey coverage was terrible before, I can only imagine it now

They don't cover NHL at all now so I dont know how it can get worse. ESPN is unwatchable; 99% NBA coverage.

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:I'm a little surprised that none of the 800 people that do baseball tonight other than Bowden got the axe.

HJS {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:I'm a little surprised that none of the 800 people that do baseball tonight other than Bowden got the axe.

Down goes Jayson Stark!

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:

HJS {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:I'm a little surprised that none of the 800 people that do baseball tonight other than Bowden got the axe.

Down goes Jayson Stark!

Fingers crossed for that fucking pissant homer Olney

DomingoOrtiz {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:

HJS {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:I'm a little surprised that none of the 800 people that do baseball tonight other than Bowden got the axe.

Down goes Jayson Stark!

Fingers crossed for that fucking pissant homer Olney

My top 3: Wilbon, S.A. Smith, Paul Finebaum.

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:ESPN makes $8 a month from every cable and satellite subscriber. Yet, they still manged to screw it up.

I no longer have cable. I can watch live sports off Kodi. I'd be fine paying for cable again, but I'm not fine with paying for channels I never watch. I would assume this spiral continues until they finally offer everything a la carte or on-demand over the internet.

Will be interesting to see if the ACC goes through with their channel idea now.

DomingoOrtiz {l Wrote}:I remember reading a WSJ article about 13 years ago about the imminent coming of a la carte cable. I would love it but I am not holding my breath. Too many special interest know their channels would cease to exist.

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:
This reminds me of the music business. Big Music fought digital, but eventually lost. Now, there's not a lot of money in selling songs. They are seen as marketing expenses for the live shows and related media sales.

DavidGordonsFoot {l Wrote}:

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:
This reminds me of the music business. Big Music fought digital, but eventually lost. Now, there's not a lot of money in selling songs. They are seen as marketing expenses for the live shows and related media sales.

This is changing. The industry has gotten its shit together. YouTube will be the last domino to fall.

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Much different product with much different target audiences. As long as NCIS derivatives are the number one show on TV, its going to take a while.

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Much different product with much different target audiences. As long as NCIS derivatives are the number one show on TV, its going to take a while.

That's a different animal than ESPN. Those network shows are financed with ad dollars. ESPN gets 90% of its revenue from cable fees. They are different business models. The former can stagger on as long as Boomers can reach the remote. The latter has a tougher problem.

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Much different product with much different target audiences. As long as NCIS derivatives are the number one show on TV, its going to take a while.

That's a different animal than ESPN. Those network shows are financed with ad dollars. ESPN gets 90% of its revenue from cable fees. They are different business models. The former can stagger on as long as Boomers can reach the remote. The latter has a tougher problem.

It's like 60%, but point taken. ESPN is not commercial free.

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:

CowboyEagle22 {l Wrote}:

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Much different product with much different target audiences. As long as NCIS derivatives are the number one show on TV, its going to take a while.

That's a different animal than ESPN. Those network shows are financed with ad dollars. ESPN gets 90% of its revenue from cable fees. They are different business models. The former can stagger on as long as Boomers can reach the remote. The latter has a tougher problem.

It's like 60%, but point taken. ESPN is not commercial free.

I recall reading somewhere that a sizable chunk of their ad revenue is from other Disney companies, but I may be misremembering. Even so, allow cable subscribers to drop ESPN and they file for bankruptcy the following business day. It's even worse for other cable properties. The cable news channels would all go away in an unbundled world. That's why they are fighting it tooth and nail.

A year or so ago I dropped cable. My son hooked me up with Kodi on an Amazon Fire. It was an easy transition and it will only get easier. That means the cord cutting will accelerate. Bundled service models always suffer from a free rider problem. Cable is just another example. But, people like their TV and their sports so it is not going away. It will just be different.