With regard to ESPN being sold as a standalone package like HBO Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger is reported as saying it won't happen for another five years.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/27/disney-ceo-iger-espn-could-one-day-be-sold-direct.html I assume that those cable agreements regarding inclusion of ESPN as "basic" will be unsustainable by then. I pay attention to this stuff because in the UK, sports packages have always been sold as a separate premium tier. As a consequence Sky Sports (The UK's nearest equivalent to ESPN) costs an additional £25.50 a month ($40). Since the cost base is broadly similar, and UK Premier League rights are now about second only to NFL rights globally in terms of cost having seen massive recent inflation, fewer subscribers means much more per subscriber cost when they go a la carte. When the day comes that ESPN is not bundled as a basic cable service but has to be bought separately either as part of your cable package or via a standalone internet package, the cost is going to be a massive jump for those who want to continue watching sport. (And this gets more complicated when additional players come into the TV sports market. In the UK, BT Sport (analogous to Fox Sports of NBC Sports perhaps) has made a big play with Champions' League rights as well as some Premier League rights, and for some subscribers that means *another* £24 ($37) a month. That's a lot of money to watch football!) Adam On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 4:53 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 4:06 PM, 'Greg Diener' via TVorNotTV < > tvornottv@googlegroups.com> wrote: > >> ESPN has fired him. He won't be allowed to finish his final week, which >> was to be next week. >> >> >> http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/espn-is-taking-colin-cowherd-off-the-air.html > > > Good for them... > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
