Boise St to the AAC?

[Kolumbo]

Should be easy to get NM State out of the Sun Belt, since they aren't in the SB.

Maybe he meant from the actual Sun Belt, not the conference.

 

[Slasher]

Outside of BYU, I could see San Diego State, but that's about it. Nobody else is worth much in the MWC. People watch Boise State, they definitely have more value than Tulsa or Tulane or Temple for that matter.

 

[Exit 4]

You could be right. I guess i just view it as if you can pay $7 million less production costs and getting shoved behind ESPN+ paywall to bad and non-existent football brands that make up half of the conference or even more, it's a real bargain to give that same balance to Boise State and poach from a competitor.

Of course I really dont know much of anything here regarding ESPN and how their numbers are penciling. I'm just wondering aloud if a much more cost disciplined ESPN decides that owning one more piece of the G5 just really isn't necessary in order to keep their supreme position in televised sports. I could be way off, I am just positing the question. The situation is clearly theirs to make. They could easily give a price to the AAC for the expansion and they probably already have.

@Slasher, I agree - I like BYU (national following obviously) and SDS (big market which still maters when placing TV bets)

 

[BlueDogs]

Should be easy to get NM State out of the Sun Belt, since they aren't in the SB.

Oops Indy. I was thinking of a Sunbelt but there isn’t much to pick from out west except Texas State which doesn’t help.

 

[Pawsox]

Oops Indy. I was thinking of a Sunbelt but there isn’t much to pick from out west except Texas State which doesn’t help.

Easy to get confused with the Sun Belt, since there have been so many different schools over the years (including NM State) in that conference. My school, South Alabama, is the only founding member that is still a member.

 

[husky8273]

isn't BS going to be a football only member? Could we have stayed as a football only member?

 

[UConnJim]

Of course I really dont know much of anything here regarding ESPN and how their numbers are penciling. I'm just wondering aloud if a much more cost disciplined ESPN decides that owning one more piece of the G5 just really isn't necessary in order to keep their supreme position in televised sports. I could be way off, I am just positing the question. The situation is clearly theirs to make. They could easily give a price to the AAC for the expansion and they probably already have.

@Slasher, I agree - I like BYU (national following obviously) and SDS (big market which still maters when placing TV bets)

ESPN+ is doing better than expected attracting subscriber with. ~10.3 million subs today. And, ESPN+ is being added to the Xfinity lineup so you can just click on ESPN+ on your TV and watch all the games. Believe it or not, it would have been easier for out of market customers to watch UConn women’s basketball games on ESPN+ than on SNY.

ESPN+ is bringing in an annual revenue run rate of $500 million and growing fast. In 2 years, you really won’t see much of a difference between ESPN games and ESPN+ games except the announcers and probably the cameras. Streaming is the future for sports.

What does this mean for ESPN and the AAC? Maybe ESPN will have more money to spend on rights than previous thought.

what does this mean

 

[huskymedic]

Harsin got out of MWC before Boise...

 

[Exit 4]

ESPN+ is doing better than expected attracting subscriber with. ~10.3 million subs today. And, ESPN+ is being added to the Xfinity lineup so you can just click on ESPN+ on your TV and watch all the games. Believe it or not, it would have been easier for out of market customers to watch UConn women’s basketball games on ESPN+ than on SNY.

ESPN+ is bringing in an annual revenue run rate of $500 million and growing fast. In 2 years, you really won’t see much of a difference between ESPN games and ESPN+ games except the announcers and probably the cameras. Streaming is the future for sports.

What does this mean for ESPN and the AAC? Maybe ESPN will have more money to spend on rights than previous thought.

what does this mean

The question is where will it plateau....
And what happens with ESPN actually starts putting content on their of national interest.
I dont want to be first mover to the + platform (my team that is). I'll move when they move the good stuff too.

 

[Hoophound]

Harsin got out of MWC before Boise...

That’s the problem with the G5. Can’t keep a good coach. UConn needs to sell out the Rent and pay the coach. If we do that, we’ll get our P5 bid. We are the only school with a recipe to punch our own ticket. Everyone else has to win, sell tickets and pray. We can win our way into the ACC/B1G. Pay for it!!! (I know, with what money?)

Edit: I’m drinking.

 

[Exit 4]

That’s the problem with the G5. Can’t keep a good coach. UConn needs to sell out the Rent and pay the coach. If we do that, we’ll get our P5 bid. We are the only school with a recipe to punch our own ticket. Everyone else has to win, sell tickets and pray. We can win our way into the ACC/B1G. Pay for it!!! (I know, with what money?)

Edit: I’m drinking.

Heavy drinker alert

 

[UC1995]

The longest running joke on P6 teams is that P5 expansion will happen in 2025 involving AAC teams. Any moves will be lateral moves to another conference in the P5. This is why UConn did what they did. Invitations aren’t coming because no one moves the needle, ESPN is slowly dying and the whole college athletic structure is in shambles. Expansion is no longer profitable for these conferences.

 

[Hoophound]

The longest running joke on P6 teams is that P5 expansion will happen in 2025 involving AAC teams. Any moves will be lateral moves to another conference in the P5. This is why UConn did what they did. Invitations aren’t coming because no one moves the needle, ESPN is slowly dying and the whole college athletic structure is in shambles. Expansion is no longer profitable for these conferences.

Nobody beyond about 10 schools in the whole country move the needle. It is more about content and market. When volume of quality content is appreciated, we’ll be of value.

 

[UCFBfan]

ESPN+ is doing better than expected attracting subscriber with. ~10.3 million subs today. And, ESPN+ is being added to the Xfinity lineup so you can just click on ESPN+ on your TV and watch all the games. Believe it or not, it would have been easier for out of market customers to watch UConn women’s basketball games on ESPN+ than on SNY.

ESPN+ is bringing in an annual revenue run rate of $500 million and growing fast. In 2 years, you really won’t see much of a difference between ESPN games and ESPN+ games except the announcers and probably the cameras. Streaming is the future for sports.

What does this mean for ESPN and the AAC? Maybe ESPN will have more money to spend on rights than previous thought.

what does this mean

How much of these numbers are inflated due to the fact that ESPN+ is packaged in with Hulu and Disney+? You can either pay $6.99 for just Disney+ or $12.99 for all 3. My guess is most people go for all three and it's most likely for the Hulu add on, not ESPN+.

Now subscribers are subscribers and Disney was smart to attach ESPN+ to their cash cow that has become Disney+. However, I can't get real excited about ESPN+ being highly successful when it's tied in to an offer with two other highly rated and subscribed to streaming services.

 

[Exit 4]

How much of these numbers are inflated due to the fact that ESPN+ is packaged in with Hulu and Disney+? You can either pay $6.99 for just Disney+ or $12.99 for all 3. My guess is most people go for all three and it's most likely for the Hulu add on, not ESPN+.

Now subscribers are subscribers and Disney was smart to attach ESPN+ to their cash cow that has become Disney+. However, I can't get real excited about ESPN+ being highly successful when it's tied in to an offer with two other highly rated and subscribed to streaming services.

When ESPN has the courage to migrate meaningful content the world expects to find with easy under their ordinary cable package we'll know ESPN+ has truly arrived. It could happen, maybe a decade or two from now in the 5G world were cable is indeed shredded and smart devices have 95% of the screens.

 

[UConnJim]

How much of these numbers are inflated due to the fact that ESPN+ is packaged in with Hulu and Disney+? You can either pay $6.99 for just Disney+ or $12.99 for all 3. My guess is most people go for all three and it's most likely for the Hulu add on, not ESPN+.

Now subscribers are subscribers and Disney was smart to attach ESPN+ to their cash cow that has become Disney+. However, I can't get real excited about ESPN+ being highly successful when it's tied in to an offer with two other highly rated and subscribed to streaming services.

Yes, the bundles are helping ESPN+ gain subs, but consumers are choosing what they want as Disney+ has ~ 74 million subs, Hulu has ~37 million subs, and ESPN+ comes in at 10.3 million subs. The average rev per sub is $4.54 for ESPN+ excluding the pay per view events, so you can see bundling impacts the list price of $5.99.

Remember, ESPN has been successful not because of everyone watching sports, but by their networks being bundled in the cable package which greatly expanded their sub base. If ESPN channels were unbundled from the cable package, they probably would have to charge $50 per month+ to keep revenues flat.

 

[Exit 4]

Remember, ESPN has been successful not because of everyone watching sports, but by their networks being bundled in the cable package which greatly expanded their sub base. If ESPN channels were unbundled from the cable package, they probably would have to charge $50 per month+ to keep revenues flat.

Yes this is the part I think many of us are "remembering" very well. The number of traditional cable households continues to decline and that might actually accelerate in a big way as G5 gears up over the next three years.

 

[UConnJim]

When ESPN has the courage to migrate meaningful content the world expects to find with easy under their ordinary cable package we'll know ESPN+ has truly arrived. It could happen, maybe a decade or two from now in the 5G world were cable is indeed shredded and smart devices have 95% of the screens.

The transition to streaming is happening faster than you think. The cable operators like Comcast know the days of offering a bundle of cable channels to consumers are coming to an end and they are preparing. That is why you can access many of the streaming services from the Xfinity box. Their plan is to offer broadband, which is a much higher margin than offering cable services, and be the software interface for your streaming services which they will be paid for.

As for content, there is lots of content. For colleges, you can watch Big 12 basketball and they have every other conference except the Big East, Big 10, PAC 12, ACC, and SEC, but all but the Big East are putting content on their conference networks. And, they do show MLB (180 games), NHL (180 games), MLS (250 games), PGA golf (50 days), CFL (200 games), as well as college football.

Remember when ESPN3 started and you had to watch games on your computer? Well, Comcast changed that and you can watch the games with one click on your TV. Same thing I can do now with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max, CBS All Access, DAZN, YouTube,...

One last point. We watched many NFL games on our phones when playing golf this fall. Quality was great.

 

[BlueDogs]

The transition to streaming is happening faster than you think. The cable operators like Comcast know the days of offering a bundle of cable channels to consumers are coming to an end and they are preparing. That is why you can access many of the streaming services from the Xfinity box. Their plan is to offer broadband, which is a much higher margin than offering cable services, and be the software interface for your streaming services which they will be paid for.

As for content, there is lots of content. For colleges, you can watch Big 12 basketball and they have every other conference except the Big East, Big 10, PAC 12, ACC, and SEC, but all but the Big East are putting content on their conference networks. And, they do show MLB (180 games), NHL (180 games), MLS (250 games), PGA golf (50 days), CFL (200 games), as well as college football.

Remember when ESPN3 started and you had to watch games on your computer? Well, Comcast changed that and you can watch the games with one click on your TV. Same thing I can do now with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max, CBS All Access, DAZN, YouTube,...

One last point. We watched many NFL games on our phones when playing golf this fall. Quality was great.

Content fragmentation and capture is only going to get worse. Pretty soon you’ll need a Gilligan’s Island Episode 5 app. As much as I like an unbundled environment, the evolving environment is chaotic and likely will cost consumers more, not less, to access the range of premium context desired.

 

[Exit 4]

The transition to streaming is happening faster than you think. The cable operators like Comcast know the days of offering a bundle of cable channels to consumers are coming to an end and they are preparing. That is why you can access many of the streaming services from the Xfinity box. Their plan is to offer broadband, which is a much higher margin than offering cable services, and be the software interface for your streaming services which they will be paid for.

As for content, there is lots of content. For colleges, you can watch Big 12 basketball and they have every other conference except the Big East, Big 10, PAC 12, ACC, and SEC, but all but the Big East are putting content on their conference networks. And, they do show MLB (180 games), NHL (180 games), MLS (250 games), PGA golf (50 days), CFL (200 games), as well as college football.

Remember when ESPN3 started and you had to watch games on your computer? Well, Comcast changed that and you can watch the games with one click on your TV. Same thing I can do now with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Peacock, HBO Max, CBS All Access, DAZN, YouTube,...

One last point. We watched many NFL games on our phones when playing golf this fall. Quality was great.

Sure- but no one knows if ESPN will come out ahead here in this new model. And yes the transition is happening fast, but looking around there a lot of people who never watched sports in the old model that paid for sports that now are no longer paying for sports and never plan too so under the new model. So now ESPN has to dump that cost on the fewer true sports fans. All this serves to tap the brakes on content pricing unless its for a true household must like the NBA or NFL or marque CF etc.

Wake me when something important is goes to ESPN+.

 

[Drew]

When ESPN has the courage to migrate meaningful content the world expects to find with easy under their ordinary cable package we'll know ESPN+ has truly arrived. It could happen, maybe a decade or two from now in the 5G world were cable is indeed shredded and smart devices have 95% of the screens.

They’re putting 14 SEC football games and 20 SEC basketball games on ESPN+ annually as part of the new deal announced when the CBS package moves over. They already have AAC and Big 12 football/hoops on ESPN+, as well as UFC.

To be honest, I’ve actually enjoyed the ease of using ESPN+ to watch games this fall. Whenever ESPN is able to acquire the RSN ACC games for football and hoops, I’d bet those wind up on ESPN+ as well (already simulcast for streaming on ESPN3 today). Eventually, all ESPN3 content will be folded into + and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the traditional ESPNU cable channel/network disbanded and their shows/content streamed through + (same goes for ESPN Classic and News). Would leave linear broadcasts for ESPN, 2, ABC, ACCN, SECN and the remainder of the networks and corresponding content would go to +.

 

[Exit 4]

They’re putting 14 SEC football games and 20 SEC basketball games on ESPN+ annually as part of the new deal announced when the CBS package moves over. They already have AAC and Big 12 football/hoops on ESPN+, as well as UFC.

To be honest, I’ve actually enjoyed the ease of using ESPN+ to watch games this fall. Whenever ESPN is able to acquire the RSN ACC games for football and hoops, I’d bet those wind up on ESPN+ as well (already simulcast for streaming on ESPN3 today). Eventually, all ESPN3 content will be folded into + and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the traditional ESPNU cable channel/network disbanded and their shows/content streamed through + (same goes for ESPN Classic and News). Would leave linear broadcasts for ESPN, 2, ABC, ACCN, SECN and the remainder of the networks and corresponding content would go to +.

Yeah, but all that stuff is product that still has modest viewership; they haven’t tried moving stuff that should get 2m+ viewers on linear cable. Let’s see them Move a major bowl game, move a major SEC game, move a major NBA game to + and then do it for several years. Of course they are going to experiment, they have too try it. This is all testing.

 

[UCFBfan]

Yeah, but all that stuff is product that still has modest viewership; they haven’t tried moving stuff that should get 2m+ viewers on linear cable. Let’s see them Move a major bowl game, move a major SEC game, move a major NBA game to + and then do it for several years. Of course they are going to experiment, they have too try it. This is all testing.

I agree with you 100% and almost feel like ESPN needs to do this to push people firmly onto ESPN+. Look at what was going to happen if UConn stayed in the AAC and all of the games would be stuck on ESPN+. All of the WBB games would be on there and all of our fans were quickly figuring out how they can get ESPN+ on their TVs. I know I spent hours with my mother-in-law trying to help set up ESPN+ just for a few games last year.

If ESPN forces fans to have to watch a major bowl game on ESPN+, people will do it. If they put major SEC games or all ACC games on ESPN+ (just using as an example, not reality) people will move over to ESPN+.

As long as people can still watch their games on regular cable that they already pay for, they will not fully move to ESPN+ or pay for it. It's still a slow move but if they force fans to move, they will. There will be anger, but people will move over. It's reality.

 

[Exit 4]

Well to be clear, I think ESPN+ and Disney+ are the future of cable bundling so to speak. I just think there will be this transition where they can get maybe 40% of the households - but a sizable portion resists because of price, technology and awareness. Until you have a smart tv this stuff is more hassle than many will tolerate and so getting the second half of households back will take a lot more time, like a decade. Frankly it will happen at the speed they replace their TVs for smart models and upgrade their data packages. In the mean time its the casual drop in fan of sports that will be lost in the + world.

 

[Drew]

Yeah, but all that stuff is product that still has modest viewership; they haven’t tried moving stuff that should get 2m+ viewers on linear cable. Let’s see them Move a major bowl game, move a major SEC game, move a major NBA game to + and then do it for several years. Of course they are going to experiment, they have too try it. This is all testing.

Don’t know why they would move any of what you had listed above to the + as the advertising $$ from those games is critical to ESPN’s operation. But they will continue to add content that makes it worth having the + as part of your streaming subscriptions. Biggest game I can remember was a Big 12 hoops game like a year or two ago with 2 top 15 teams being on +, think it was Baylor and someone.