At what point will ESPN and other sports nets feel the effects of cord cutting?

[Morgan Wick]

cord cutters aren't even setting up antennas, they got everything they need from streaming

This is one cord cutter who did set up antennas - for a couple reasons:

Wifey lives by her DVR which records shows in their native format so full HD displays beautifully on our 60" HDTV and sound can be routed through our surround sound system. As good as my computer is it cannot duplicate the big screen or surround sound experience.

Your second point I didn't quote holds, but you do know they make TVs and stuff you can hook up to TVs that can stream or surf the Internet, right? I will grant that the resolution is almost never as good...

Scripted TV may only be for 1%ers in 20 years

Maybe you were speaking tongue-in-cheek, but that's not likely. There aren't enough 1%ers in America to finance big scripted productions unless they were willing to pay a few hundred dollars per view, and in my experience, the wealthy can be just as cheap as the middle class when it comes to spending. $100,000 or more for a luxury car - no problem, but $200 to see Breaking Bad, or whatever - "outrageous."

More likely, these dramas will be exclusively on the premium channels - HBO, Showtime, and the like. They don't run commercials, so they're immune to the revenue-killing effects of the DVR. As far as I know, their business model seems to be working.

If anything is hurting them now, it's the wealth of top-notch dramas on basic cable - Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Americans, Sons of Anarchy etc. But if AMC and FX will someday be unable to afford such productions, it will be the premium channels that benefit.

There are plenty of rich people who support PBS. And you might see other cable channels that show scripted programming become glorified premium channels as well, especially if a la carte happens.

 

[landtuna]

Your second point I didn't quote holds, but you do know they make TVs and stuff you can hook up to TVs that can stream or surf the Internet, right? I will grant that the resolution is almost never as good...

I have a "media" PC (in addition to the DVR and Blu-Ray player) front-ending my HDTV. It is used primarily to input downloaded programs using file systems that the Blu-Ray doesn't understand. It can also access the Internet via wifi and stream programs or input them via DVD. The HDTV can access certain streaming services from the Internet but I don't use them.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Scripted TV may only be for 1%ers in 20 years

Maybe you were speaking tongue-in-cheek, but that's not likely. There aren't enough 1%ers in America to finance big scripted productions unless they were willing to pay a few hundred dollars per view, and in my experience, the wealthy can be just as cheap as the middle class when it comes to spending. $100,000 or more for a luxury car - no problem, but $200 to see Breaking Bad, or whatever - "outrageous."

More likely, these dramas will be exclusively on the premium channels - HBO, Showtime, and the like. They don't run commercials, so they're immune to the revenue-killing effects of the DVR. As far as I know, their business model seems to be working.

If anything is hurting them now, it's the wealth of top-notch dramas on basic cable - Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Americans, Sons of Anarchy etc. But if AMC and FX will someday be unable to afford such productions, it will be the premium channels that benefit.

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 years ;D

 

[KeithE4]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 5 years ;D

Fixed. ;D

 

[nomadcowatbk]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 5 years ;D

Fixed. ;D

ESPN assumes all risks with this channel, not the SEC

 

[landtuna]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 years ;D

They'd be losing revenue, wouldn't they? $5 from every cable/sat subscriber is sure to add up to more money than $10 or $20 from just the people wanting the sport channels.

 

[KeithE4]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 5 years ;D

Fixed. ;D

ESPN assumes all risks with this channel, not the SEC

Actually, Disney stockholders assume all risks with ESPN, and if something were to go horribly wrong financially, the SEC might very well get involved. Disney is a publicly-traded company and as such must follow SEC regulations, although they would not be required to approve any charges to the end users (that's us, for those of you in Rio Linda).

 

[nomadcowatbk]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 years ;D

They'd be losing revenue, wouldn't they? $5 from every cable/sat subscriber is sure to add up to more money than $10 or $20 from just the people wanting the sport channels.

most 18-49 might be cord cutters or cord nevers in 20 years

 

[nomadcowatbk]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 5 years ;D

Fixed. ;D

ESPN assumes all risks with this channel, not the SEC

Actually, Disney stockholders assume all risks with ESPN, and if something were to go horribly wrong financially, the SEC might very well get involved. Disney is a publicly-traded company and as such must follow SEC regulations, although they would not be required to approve any charges to the end users (that's us, for those of you in Rio Linda).

I was talking about the Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission

 

[KeithE4]

I was talking about the Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission

Oh. Sorry about that. :-[

 

[Morgan Wick]

ESPN may be a premium channel in 20 5 years ;D

Fixed. ;D

ESPN assumes all risks with this channel, not the SEC

Actually, Disney stockholders assume all risks with ESPN, and if something were to go horribly wrong financially, the SEC might very well get involved. Disney is a publicly-traded company and as such must follow SEC regulations, although they would not be required to approve any charges to the end users (that's us, for those of you in Rio Linda).

I was talking about the Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission

Problem is, you were doing so in the wrong thread. No one mentioned the SEC Network until you brought it up.