Many only subscribe to cable for live sports and have no need for the other channels with Hulu and other sites. Many cable cos are offerering packages without sports channels but you can find the stuff from those channels online somewhere, legally or illegally.
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Could a sports only package on cable work?
- Thread starter nomadcowatbk
- Start date
I
imhomerjay
Guest
Just throwing one question into the mix: what about non-sports networks that do cover major live sports? Would missing TBS for baseball, TNT for the NBA (we're assuming it comes back someday, right?) or the various networks with Olympic coverage be an issue with such a proposal?
ansky212 said:
ESPN certainly would never allow it. They'd be bankrupt in a year. They pay $Billions per year for rights fees, between the NFL, NBA, MLB, BCS, and the individual college conferences.
If the ESPN channels were relegated to a sports-only tier, they'd get maybe 10-20% of their current revenue, at their current $5 or so per month. They'd have to charge $25-50 a month to make up the difference.
Sports is, in general, the most expensive set of stations on cable. So, realistically, you could have a sports package that would cost 90% of what you pay today. Make no mistake -- it's not the greedy cable company owners here -- it's the fees paid to ESPN, Fox Sports, ets. to show those stations. Then, you could say that ESPN has to make up for the exhorbitant fees paid to the NFL. Then, the NFL would say that it's the exhorbitant salaries paid to players!
formeraa said:
Yes, it's a slippery slope. Now if CBS, NBC, ABC/ESPN, Fox, and Turner got together and said "We're no longer going to pay these ridiculous rights fees anymore. We'll only pay 20% of whatever we're paying now. Deal with it.," what would the leagues/conferences do? Put all the games on their own cable networks? Syndicate to individual stations like in the good old days? Take the money and then deal with the players' associations strike threats when salaries are cut by 80%, and then sue the networks for collusion? Go to HBO or Showtime? Sign deals with Oprah? Might save her network. ;D
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
If CBS, NBC, ABC/ESPN, Fox, and Turner got together and did that, it would
be called "collusion" and "an anti-trust violation".
be called "collusion" and "an anti-trust violation".
formeraa said:
And if that's the case that would defeat the purpose of having a sports-only package to begin with. At that point most people would just pay the extra few bucks and get the full package of channels. Assuming a $50 cable package you're looking at a savings of only 5 bucks to get sports-only.
If you don't care about live sports, there's nothing you can't find on cable that's also online or on DVD
Conversely, live sports aren't too terribly difficult to find online either.nomadcowatbk said:
The genie is out of the bottle and it isn't going back in.
nomadcowatbk said:
Best non sports package out there is Dish Network Family pack at $19.99 for the first year. I did cut the cord because of sports running up the bill, but I am tempted to get that family pack. Combined with OTA subchannels its a great deal. Enough sports on broadcast/radio for me.
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