I have this weird idea about the ACC's current deal with ESPN. Is it possible that 5 years from now we could look at the the ACC's long deal with ESPN as a blessing? I follow the media companies pretty closely and for the the life of me, I can't see how the current sports rights deals make any sense once the "bundle" dies. The economics of streaming don't work very well. For the legacy media companies like ESPN, the cable bundle was one of the great all-time business models. 1) Every cable subscriber had to buy your product whether they wanted it or not. 2)They could raised prices each year and most of their customers thought it was their cable provider doing it. 3)The cable providers just wanted the broadband business so they basically sold the TV bundle at breakeven or even a loss hiding the true cost of those price increases. Those days are over and it is only a matter of time until this business model is DEAD. This reality is visible in the stocks of Disney and Warner Bros Discovery.
So what does the monetization of sports media rights look like in the streaming era? I just don't think the revenue will be anywhere close to what it is today. Will fans pay the subscription fees needed to justify the deals that the SEC and BIG got recently. Let's try to look at what access to sports packages could cost. MLS is charging Apple TV+ subscribers $79.99 per season. NFL Sunday Ticket w/o YouTube TV reg. price is $449. Based on that I'm thinking a Big Ten football sports package for a year of access might cost around $360 per academic year and I still don't think that will generate enough subscribers to justify the recent fees the BIG got. Plus password sharing is a problem that is going to be very difficult to solve. Streaming and mega sports rights just don't add up.
When it comes to streaming, customers have gotten used to cheap prices and there is just so much content of all types out there. I really believe we are going to start to see a significant decline in media rights. I think the recent deals kind of show the desperation of the legacy media companies. They are just scared to not have these properties even though the economics make little sense. Warner Bros - Discovery has already hinted they will not bid on NBA rights moving forward and you hear many executives questioning the economics of sports media rights.
What are your thoughts? Curious to hear what others think and how this might affect the future of college athletics.
So what does the monetization of sports media rights look like in the streaming era? I just don't think the revenue will be anywhere close to what it is today. Will fans pay the subscription fees needed to justify the deals that the SEC and BIG got recently. Let's try to look at what access to sports packages could cost. MLS is charging Apple TV+ subscribers $79.99 per season. NFL Sunday Ticket w/o YouTube TV reg. price is $449. Based on that I'm thinking a Big Ten football sports package for a year of access might cost around $360 per academic year and I still don't think that will generate enough subscribers to justify the recent fees the BIG got. Plus password sharing is a problem that is going to be very difficult to solve. Streaming and mega sports rights just don't add up.
When it comes to streaming, customers have gotten used to cheap prices and there is just so much content of all types out there. I really believe we are going to start to see a significant decline in media rights. I think the recent deals kind of show the desperation of the legacy media companies. They are just scared to not have these properties even though the economics make little sense. Warner Bros - Discovery has already hinted they will not bid on NBA rights moving forward and you hear many executives questioning the economics of sports media rights.
What are your thoughts? Curious to hear what others think and how this might affect the future of college athletics.
