Cable users can expect to see another rate increase brought on by ESPN. The network says it will raise the monthly fee by 43% to $9.99:
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
ESPN To Raise Cable Fee
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
Seems to me they've tried to in the past, and the result is they lose all Disney related channels including local stations.
Never. If cable dies, it will die with ESPN as part of its final channel lineup. Of course, by then, all but a few relative Luddites will have migrated to streaming of some sort.
Cable companies are losing subscribers thanks to the cost of ESPN. Something will have to give.
You can search "Disney Comcast Dispute" for the history on this.
Things are different now. Cable companies are losing customers at an alarming rate. ESPN is losing money because of it. Raising their fee will just accelerate the problem for them. What breaks first? Either way ESPN will lose money.
So, as Disney loses sports properties to entities with no ties to cable -- Apple and Amazon, for example -- will the rates be lowered?
ESPN is locked in long term with the NHL and NFL and NCAA.
Keep in mind they're not actually "losing" properties. They're more like SHARING them with streaming.
It's becoming harder for anyone to have an exclusive. The NFL & MLB have deals with everyone, as well as their own channels.
True, but it's already lost IPL cricket (a big deal overseas, where ESPN also operates), soccer's World Cup, and MLS after the current season. I don't know how much longer its deals with Wimbledon and the US Open have to run, but those look like prime targets for non-cable cherry pickers in the future. It also looks like the NFL will not be sending Sunday Ticket to Disney when it's pulled from Dish, again preferring not to sell a valuable package to a company so tied to death-spiraling cable television.
I do agree that rates will never come down, I should have put an LOL emoji on my original question.
The article you linked to isn't about a rate increase for the ESPN cable channel(s), it's about a price increase for their standalone ESPN+ streaming service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN+).
ESPN+ will go up to $9.99/mo standalone, but will not go up if it's part of the Disney Bundle. For now.
But you can bet ESPN is raising the costs to the cable providers
It has been that way since the dawn of cable
Now that it is part of Mouse Inc., it is a take the whole package or nothing at all, and I bet there are a few dog networks in that package too.
When I was involved in cable franchise negotiations ESPN was the highest cost programming out of all the channels.
It was like 12 dollars per subscriber for ESPN and ESPN2
All I know is I am paying $250 a month for cable with 999 channels of which I watch 10, a Phone line I never use, and 500 down 20 up internet connection. Something has to give
It has been that way since the dawn of cable
Now that it is part of Mouse Inc., it is a take the whole package or nothing at all, and I bet there are a few dog networks in that package too.
When I was involved in cable franchise negotiations ESPN was the highest cost programming out of all the channels.
It was like 12 dollars per subscriber for ESPN and ESPN2
All I know is I am paying $250 a month for cable with 999 channels of which I watch 10, a Phone line I never use, and 500 down 20 up internet connection. Something has to give
The Disney bundle will probably go up by another dollar or two. I wonder if that will have an effect on it being free on Verizon with the right package.
That's why I switched from DirecTV to YouTube TV, at $70/mo. Because I only watch the sports channels, I stopped it until mid-August because there is nothing on ESPN, Fox Sports, or the Turner channels that I need until then. I already pay for MLB.TV, and won't be doing NFL Sunday Ticket this year (way too expensive, considering how bad the Bears are supposed to be).
- Status