PAC-12 Chaos

[ZooCougar]

When more sports are produced in 4K I'll be totally done with cable. Getting 720p and 1080p signal still is the worst part about having cable, imo

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Once everything consolidates into 2-4 streaming platforms we’ll go back to paying absurd monthly fees again.

YTTV already bumped their price up to $74.

 

[Rufus]

Streaming is more for convenience. If you want everything, you aren't saving money streaming vs. cable, as the multiple subscriptions add up.


Other problems with streaming on Apple right now.........

Apple only has an app available if you have an I Phone. If you have Samsung, there is no app available to pull up Apple TV. Rather, you have to go into your web browser and type in the website and log in that way. It's not quick or convenient.

Most of us "channel flip" when watching games - whether they be on traditional cable or online such as YouTube TV. It's super easy to switch to another game, if only to see the score or if something exciting is happening. With Apple, your only option to watch is going to be the PAC-12. You have to deliberately seek it out. So not only do you have to buy a subscription to Apple, you have to sign into Apple and actively seek out the PAC-12 game. You can't simply change the channel. You have to actively seek it out. No way the casual fan is doing that. Out of sight, out of mind.

Look at how much the ratings for NFL Thursday Night games went down when it moved to streaming..........and that was on Amazon which has MILLIONS of subscribers over Apple.

Look at MLS on Apple. By all indications, the numbers are much lower than anticipated. The PAC-12 cannot afford to have much lower than anticipated numbers. They have budgets they need to project out that will depend on an exact revenue forecast, not an anticipated one.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The key =/- factor to the PAC12 media deal is going to be the length of the contract/GOR

Meh. I suspect that a lot of leagues are going to do away with their GOR's or at least soften them over time. Those were relevant in a linear world, but do not matter as much in a streaming world.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Streaming is more for convenience. If you want everything, you aren't saving money streaming vs. cable, as the multiple subscriptions add up.

Nope. Not even remotely accurate. I get much more content for much less money since I cut the cord.

You, Jmick and Zoo are arguing that the days of massive linear contract for a couple of conferences will last forever. That is an odd hill to die on.

 

[ZooCougar]

Arguing that the problems of the linear network that was the last one to take streaming seriously as a threat means that streaming should not be taken seriously as a threat to linear networks is not a great argument.

There are a dozen ways that streaming can go, and I do not have a crystal ball. I do know that betting on linear right now is like being a beeper salesman in 1999.

Nobody is betting on linear here. What we are betting on is the type of streaming platform, how it is presented and how easy it is to access.

The more paywalls you put something behind the less people will watch.

This is very very simple.

 

[JMick]

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Once everything consolidates into 2-4 streaming platforms we’ll go back to paying absurd monthly fees again.

YTTV already bumped their price up to $74.

Yeah I'm getting cable for $59.99/mo right now that has everything besides CBSSN. I'll be adding CBSSN for $8 during football season and then removing it again. I never thought cable would be cheaper but they're doing everything they can to survive.

 

[giddyup]

Big 12. Nobody ever hits those escalators.

Tough to underwrite the risk of a west coast 9 team conference without USC and UCLA. So, the conference must eat it. Apple is literally stealing content at $20M a year, but then again maybe not. Any president taking this deal over a guaranty of $30M should be summarily terminated for sheer stupidity.

 

[uconnyankee]

I totally get it but nelson has been on this board specifically for years and I have too, even though after the Louisville fiasco I took a break. It's not like I'm a new poster

Been on this board since for over a decade in various names of sorts.

Can’t believe we’re still waiting for another kick in the nuts

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Nobody is betting on linear here. What we are betting on is the type of streaming platform, how it is presented and how easy it is to access.

The more paywalls you put something behind the less people will watch.

This is very very simple.

There is a better than 50/50 chance that before the contracts expire, the networks renegotiate the ACC's, SEC's and Big 10's existing linear contracts to look like the offer that Apple just made to the Pac 9. Arguing that linear (or whatever linear substitute you, JMick and the Rutgers troll are trying to create to sound like you aren't arguing for linear) is a superior and survivable alternative to streaming is just wrong and not based on the current economics of broadcasting. I don't know what else to say.

 

[JMick]

Nobody is betting on linear here. What we are betting on is the type of streaming platform, how it is presented and how easy it is to access.

The more paywalls you put something behind the less people will watch.

This is very very simple.

Even beyond the paywall it's the decentralization of everything. I'm much more likely to pay $6/mo to the PAC if it's on a service I already have than go sign up for another service and have to deal with a whole other account, bill, app, etc.

 

[Rufus]

Paul Finebaum slams Pac-12’s potential deal with Apple: ‘It’s over for the Pac-12’

Paul Finebaum has seen enough.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

 

[CL82]

Peacock just announced that they lost $450M. They can’t even give away subscriptions. Its days are numbered.

Streaming is the future but not in the way you think.

It absolutely sucks too.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Yeah I'm getting cable for $59.99/mo right now that has everything besides CBSSN. I'll be adding CBSSN for $8 during football season and then removing it again. I never thought cable would be cheaper but they're doing everything they can to survive.

I'm paying like $5/month for Optimum's sports package which has been great. You get vitually every sports channel you'd want: CBSSN, all the ESPNs, all the Fox Sports, BTN, $EC, NBA, MLB, NHL, Golf, etc. I have some streaming services for sports as well and the most annoying thing is they still blackout games and the production quality is often not as good as it is on networks that have spent decades and billions of dollars building up the infrastructure to do live sports.

 

[CL82]

Even beyond the paywall it's the decentralization of everything. I'm much more likely to pay $6/mo to the PAC if it's on a service I already have than go sign up for another service and have to deal with a whole other account, bill, app, etc.

If someone were willing to broadcast every Connecticut game in every sport, with a quality broadcast, good on air talent and professional production, I would gladly pay them $20 a month for nine months a year. Throw in a little coaches corner behind the scenes content and make it even better.

 

[JMick]

If someone were willing to broadcast every Connecticut game in every sport, with a quality broadcast, good on air talent and professional production, I would gladly pay them $20 a month for nine months a year. Throw in a little coaches corner behind the scrubs content and make it even better.

Yeah if you're a PAC fan then the apple deal is actually pretty good. It's just not good for casual fans and viewership numbers

 

[Rufus]

Pac-12 schools have to be nervous about future: There was never a great media deal coming

The truth of the Pac-12’s journey to a new media rights deal is that negotiations were never going well and the contract was always going to be bad.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Rufus]

If no one is watching the PAC-12 on Apple TV, look for the top players on all the PAC teams to head for the transfer portal.

 

[hoopsfan22]

If no one is watching the PAC-12 on Apple TV, look for the top players on all the PAC teams to head for the transfer portal.

This isn't going to just be a Pac-12 problem. There's a coming revenue fight as you're already seeing in the ACC. Most of the so-called power teams are garbage and aren't worth anything, and the days of them getting a free ride are coming to an end. In the B1G, how long do you think Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan are going to keep carrying the rest of the conference when they're told at the next TV contract that they have to take a pay cut because schools like Minnesota, Iowa, Northwestern, etc. aren't worth $70 million a year and the networks are unable or unwilling to keep paying for dead weight?

 

[ZooCougar]

Streaming is more for convenience. If you want everything, you aren't saving money streaming vs. cable, as the multiple subscriptions add up.


Other problems with streaming on Apple right now.........

Apple only has an app available if you have an I Phone. If you have Samsung, there is no app available to pull up Apple TV. Rather, you have to go into your web browser and type in the website and log in that way. It's not quick or convenient.

Most of us "channel flip" when watching games - whether they be on traditional cable or online such as YouTube TV. It's super easy to switch to another game, if only to see the score or if something exciting is happening. With Apple, your only option to watch is going to be the PAC-12. You have to deliberately seek it out. So not only do you have to buy a subscription to Apple, you have to sign into Apple and actively seek out the PAC-12 game. You can't simply change the channel. You have to actively seek it out. No way the casual fan is doing that. Out of sight, out of mind.

Look at how much the ratings for NFL Thursday Night games went down when it moved to streaming..........and that was on Amazon which has MILLIONS of subscribers over Apple.

Look at MLS on Apple. By all indications, the numbers are much lower than anticipated. The PAC-12 cannot afford to have much lower than anticipated numbers. They have budgets they need to project out that will depend on an exact revenue forecast, not an anticipated one.

If you own an Apple TV the app is native. That’s the device that I watch streaming on. I have three of them. A device the size of a hockey puck replaced all of that ridiculous Directv stuff.

Even still. I’m not paying TWICE just watch Oregon State play Washington State.

I’m going to MWC on FOX through YouTube TV on my Apple TV.

 

[ctchamps]

I switched to YTTV and am back to cable because my cable company gave me an absurd discount for 2 years. I'll be back to YTTV when the promotion runs out unless they extend it again.

Same. And I only continue on one or the other platform until a streaming platform comes along that can get real a la carte sports streamed.

 

[ZooCougar]

There is a better than 50/50 chance that before the contracts expire, the networks renegotiate the ACC's, SEC's and Big 10's existing linear contracts to look like the offer that Apple just made to the Pac 9. Arguing that linear (or whatever linear substitute you, JMick and the Rutgers troll are trying to create to sound like you aren't arguing for linear) is a superior and survivable alternative to streaming is just wrong and not based on the current economics of broadcasting. I don't know what else to say.

At this point you don’t even understand your own argument.

You do know that YouTube and Hulu are streaming right.

You’re infinitely better off being on a network that is on those platforms than to be solely on something like Apple where your audience has two barriers to get to your product.

You took more than your regular dose of idiot pills today.

 

[superjohn]

It's like he's 5 years behind on what everyone's doing.

He's totally clueless yet remains strident in his own bs.

 

[ZooCougar]

If someone were willing to broadcast every Connecticut game in every sport, with a quality broadcast, good on air talent and professional production, I would gladly pay them $20 a month for nine months a year. Throw in a little coaches corner behind the scenes content and make it even better.

Many of us would. But if there were enough people to make it profitable then every school would be doing that.

 

[ctchamps]

At this point you don’t even understand your own argument.

You do know that YouTube and Hulu are streaming right.

You’re infinitely better off being on a network that is on those platforms than to be solely on something like Apple where your audience has two barriers to get to your product.

You took more than your regular dose of idiot pills today.

College sports because of the various time lines of when contracts terminate are not going to control the destiny of what happens with media platforms. They will be the follower. But all this discussion of the future is apt. The current model is finished. Some variation of what we argue here is coalescing currently.

My feeling is we will know when it arrives when the cable companies drop most of their linear tv content and become companies like YTTV, HULU, Apple and Prime. The current model must be still more profitable to them then going the way we are advocating Apple and the other platforms are heading for them not to pull the cord on all the other content they buy and pull the cord on the likes of Apple TV.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Yeah I'm getting cable for $59.99/mo right now that has everything besides CBSSN. I'll be adding CBSSN for $8 during football season and then removing it again. I never thought cable would be cheaper but they're doing everything they can to survive.

How many boxes? That still is the main issue to me. At least when I formerly had cable it was something like an additional $15/mo. per box with dvr capability.

With yytv I have it on 3 tvs don't have clunky boxes or wires taking up space in my house at additional charge.