More Fallout from the NFL Protests

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ucfengr

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This would have been crazy talk a couple years ago, but here you have the CEO of Dish Network saying that dropping ESPN is no longer unthinkable for cable TV providers. This is huge. Somewhere between 10 and 20% of your basic cable/satellite package goes to paying for ESPN because Disney mandates that the providers carry ESPN if they want their other channels. You’re paying almost as much for ESPN as you do for premium pay channels like HBO and Showtime. How many people would volunteer to pay for ESPN? The politicization of sports is looking like it may carry a high price.

 
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ucfengr said:
This would have been crazy talk a couple years ago, but here you have the CEO of Dish Network saying that dropping ESPN is no longer unthinkable for cable TV providers
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It shouldn’t have been unthinkable for a long time. Honestly, I don’t think it has anything to do with the NFL player protests, but just the sheer amount of money that goes to ESPN when a large amount of their customer base doesn’t watch it made the ESPN bubble bursting inevitable. People are finding on-line services can give them the TV shows they want w/o ESPN and many are cutting their cords. I have a friend that makes a living setting up HD TV antenna so that people can still get the local channels after they cut the cable.
 
To me, it seems to be a move that’s conveniently timed so as not to draw ire from sports fans. Cable is losing ground to the internet by the day. Their lock on the market is shrinking rapidly and with people having free Amazon Prime TV shows w/Amazon Prime and the extremely cheap Nexflix ($6 compared to the $59 to $200 for cable) they are fighting to stay relevant.
 
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I have been telling people for years that if they are not sports fans, then they are paying way too much for standard TV service over cable or internet because of the percentage of their bill going to the sports channels.

I’ve always been willing to pay a small fee to get my one favorite sports team streaming its games on the net, but not going to pay full price for the cable package to get that one team. Most sports content providers have been reluctant to offer that because it risks cannibalizing their exposure to cable subscription packages.

Spend the money once on a good HD over the air antenna. $20 to $100 depending on how far away the majority of the broadcast stations are and whether you get an indoor or outdoor unit. There is at least one website out there that allows you to enter your zip code and it will return locations on a map showing where the nearby broadcast towers are so you can buy as much antenna as you need and can position it accordingly.

That and $9.99 a month for Netflix in HD and I’m good.
 
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You’re right on the money here.

People are no longer tolerating the high price of cable. Sports fans are among the few holdouts and there’s such proliferation of ways to get games now…the collapse of the cable monopoly is coming.
 
The only reason we still have cable is because they are the only internet option.
 
ucfengr said:
This would have been crazy talk a couple years ago, but here you have the CEO of Dish Network saying that dropping ESPN is no longer unthinkable for cable TV providers. This is huge. Somewhere between 10 and 20% of your basic cable/satellite package goes to paying for ESPN because Disney mandates that the providers carry ESPN if they want their other channels. You’re paying almost as much for ESPN as you do for premium pay channels like HBO and Showtime. How many people would volunteer to pay for ESPN? The politicization of sports is looking like it may carry a high price.

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ESPN was in trouble long before the latest NFL protests, and its long-term viable has been in question for a couple of years now. In reality, I think many cable networks ought to start getting nervous as streaming goes mainstream. The TV industry as a whole in North America is about to get tipped on its head. Just look at CBS pushing their newest Star Trek series on their streaming service. If one of the Big Three knows the game is up, I’d suggest ESPN isn’t going to be the only victim of the changing business model.
 
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