OT ESPN to Lose 75 Million to Televise one NFL Wildcard Game

[Wbbfan1]

ESPN Will Lose $75 Million Televising Raiders-Texans

If accurate, this was one bad business decision.

 

[CocoHusky]

The first two sentences of the article should also serve as a cautionary tale to those who continue to believe the fable that UCONN's chances for landing in P5 conference is entirely dependent on the size of the cable market in proximity to UCONN.

" As we enter 2017, the sports rights bubble continues to burst and we continue to come to terms with the fact that many of these sports rights deals are untenable in the modern marketplace. Particularly those deals that are rooted in a rapidly declining cable and satellite market. "

 

[BigBird]

ESPN Will Lose $75 Million Televising Raiders-Texans

If accurate, this was one bad business decision.

Uh, yep. I only minored in business administration, but I'm afraid this is a stinker.

 

[UcMiami]

ESPN was desperate to break into the monopoly of the NFL broadcast business and overpaid seriously to do so. And it didn't't stop there, they blew huge amounts of money on a number of sports franchises. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens with all of these TV contracts when they come up for renewal. The idea that the gravy train goes on for ever is a never ending pipe dream, whether it be stocks, real estate, or sports content.

 

[ochoopsfan]

ESPN, for some reason, doesnt get the top games on Monday. Looking back at this past years schedule only 2 games involved both teams who made the playoffs this year. The Texans- Raiders game earlier this season from Mexico City(the playoff rematch now sucks due to injuries), and the day after Christmas game, which was a good game of Detroit at Dallas.
It also doesnt get what NBC gets where they can revise the schedule to move a top game to Sunday night.
However, they negotiated the contract. Perhaps if they showed every UConn WBB game they would do better.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

ESPN, for some reason, doesnt get the top games on Monday. Looking back at this past years schedule only 2 games involved both teams who made the playoffs this year. The Texans- Raiders game earlier this season from Mexico City(the playoff rematch now sucks due to injuries), and the day after Christmas game, which was a good game of Detroit at Dallas.
It also doesnt get what NBC gets where they can revise the schedule to move a top game to Sunday night.
However, they negotiated the contract. Perhaps if they showed every UConn WBB game they would do better.

I actually read about this, I forget where. The NFL chose to put their prime package on Sunday night, and NBC paid for the rights. ESPN was bidding on Monday night football knowing they were getting the second best offerings. And still bid a huge amount - reportedly the NFL was between shocked and delighted (or both) at the amount of the deal.

Put another way, the NFL recognized that Monday night football - the old ABC product - was declining and decided that Sunday Night would be a better showcase. ESPN could have gotten it for less, based on what I read.

 

[ThisJustIn]

What's disappointing is that this is not old news. One of the arguments for ESPN broadcasting the entire women's tourney was their recognition that the golden goose of College/NFL football and men's college bball was coming to an end - diversify. They just didn't follow through. Nor, to be honest, have the fans. So, we can point fingers at ESPN's lack of foresight and greed - but the consequences are not minor. Arenas can't get home produced streaming up and running fast enough - 'cause it makes sense that that would be the next step: radio p-b-p with drone video marketed by conference or teams.

 

[UcMiami]

The NFL themselves have also truly screwed with the value of their broadcast rights out of greed - saturating the fan base with Thursday Night football on their own channel (which includes more than just the Thursday slots as some of the holiday and foreign games ended up there as well, and offering NFL red zone which is stealing a lot of eyes from the broadcast games. When the patriots are not on, if I watch, it is red zone with no commercials, and when I watch the patriots I spend the commercials on the red zone channel.

 

[Schoup]

I actually read about this, I forget where. The NFL chose to put their prime package on Sunday night, and NBC paid for the rights. ESPN was bidding on Monday night football knowing they were getting the second best offerings. And still bid a huge amount - reportedly the NFL was between shocked and delighted (or both) at the amount of the deal.

Put another way, the NFL recognized that Monday night football - the old ABC product - was declining and decided that Sunday Night would be a better showcase. ESPN could have gotten it for less, based on what I read.

Slight apples to oranges comparison going on as a free broadcast network will inherently have more viewers just based on not everyone having cable. cable viewers are viewed slightly different vs free broadcast in ratings. ESPN monday night football is weekly the top rated tv show on cable and the only thing that beats it is when NFL network has a game. NBC Sunday and CBS Thursday(8 games yr) are the top rated shows on network tv. But even thursday falls off from sunday b/c some of the thursday night match ups stink and also the games are lower quality b/c players are playing on short rest. ESPN is still making a ton on NFL b/c it's the top rated cable show and they run 2 or 3 hours of post/pre game and 10mil people often watch the post/pre game for hours and around 15-18 il watch the actually game. That's great ratings for cable compared to what ESPN gets for other live content such as baseball. MLB they are lucky to get 2.5-3 mil for a top notch game.

 

[j66kicker]

If you find this stuff interesting you should read Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN. Great insight into ESPN's unique business model and why they do some of the less-than-intuitive things they do. Plus a fascinating history of the on-air (and off-air) ESPN personalities through the years.

 

[HoopsFan21]

ESPN, for some reason, doesnt get the top games on Monday. Looking back at this past years schedule only 2 games involved both teams who made the playoffs this year. The Texans- Raiders game earlier this season from Mexico City(the playoff rematch now sucks due to injuries), and the day after Christmas game, which was a good game of Detroit at Dallas.
It also doesnt get what NBC gets where they can revise the schedule to move a top game to Sunday night.
However, they negotiated the contract. Perhaps if they showed every UConn WBB game they would do better.

In the end they show nearly half of the UConn games between regular season, AAC and NCAA tourneys. There is nothing stopping them from taking all but the one or two games per season that CBSSN gets since they own the first tier rights of the AAC for which they pay practically nothing. The AAC is a bargain for ESPN which is why it behooves them to keep us there since they get valuable UConn content at a deep discount.

 

[BigBird]

ESPN has announced a move that's sure to boost their flagging coffers. Yes fans, they are going to put everybody's favorite, Steefenay Smith and his rantings on the main channel, instead of ESPN2.

Yessir, that oughta fix it.