Decision time nearing | The Boneyard

Decision time nearing

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$5 a month for ESPN+? Is that what this is about basically? Because if that’s how our games are broadcast the article is correct because aside from the hard core no one will subscribe. Included with cable a different story, and even though I stream my tv, the general public is a long way from doing that. The argument is everyone has Netflix they pay for but in reality they don’t. Not being readily available on tv will not be good for our recruiting.
 
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I hate to take the optimistic view on the deal, but with ESPN+ I don't think there will be an issue affecting recruiting. How many recruits have a cable package with the U, News, etc? All it takes now is a "friend of the program" to foot the bill for a few ESPN+ subscriptions and recruits can watch us at any time.
 

SubbaBub

Your stupidity is ruining my country.
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ESPN+ is a death sentence. UConn should refuse to sign a stream heavy agreement.

UConn stream its own content or license to other outlets on it own while making similar cable $$ on national/regional networks like SNY/YES.

The job of the confernce is to add value in terms or dollars or national exposure. ESPN+ is not national exposure. Regular timeslots on cable/broadcast is.

If streaming is the value being added here. we don't need this confernce, at all.
 
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Without a miraculous turn-around, UConn's one saleable sport is women's hoop. The vast majority of women's hoop fans are 50+ years old, and there's a real question whether they would "follow" the team to a streaming platform.

At this point, the AD and new president need to seriously consider the school's future as a member of the AAC. It that the path that will ultimately reduce the $40 million annual bill the athletic dept. hands the university?
 

MTHusky

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Losing the exposure is important, but for an Athletic Department losing 41 M, the loss of income from SNY is a disaster.
 

pepband99

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I'll go on record and say this won't be nearly as bad as it's being depicted now.

1) The "majority of games" comment from various sources will be made up largely of games that had no TV at all, or CBS Sports Network games. ESPN+ wants content, even if it's of marginal viewership value (see: soccer), so it gets that for (comparative) peanuts.
2) Yes, there will be UConn events on +, but they will be performance and interest-tied, which will keep them at a minimum. Similar to other ESPN rollouts, they will try to juice up subscriptions by putting events there, but not too many.
3) I think the big loser here *may* be the out-of-market fans, who have gotten ESPN360/ESPN3 games for nothing for years. It wouldn't shock me at all if SNY bought the games they traditionally had, but + was required for out-of-market.
 

CAHUSKY

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3) I think the big loser here *may* be the out-of-market fans, who have gotten ESPN360/ESPN3 games for nothing for years. It wouldn't shock me at all if SNY bought the games they traditionally had, but + was required for out-of-market.

This would actually be way better for this out of market viewer. I dumped my $176 a month DirectTV bill last month in favor of a $49 Hulu Live subscription. The one downside was losing SNY and any UConn games they had. If I could pick them up for $5 a month on ESPN+ that would be awesome.
 

pepband99

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This would actually be way better for this out of market viewer. I dumped my $176 a month DirectTV bill last month in favor of a $49 Hulu Live subscription. The one downside was losing SNY and any UConn games they had. If I could pick them up for $5 a month on ESPN+ that would be awesome.
...but you could always get SNY games for free online, being outside the SNY footprint.
 

CAHUSKY

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...but you could always get SNY games for free online, being outside the SNY footprint.
Not out of market. The only way I could get them in Reno was on via my DirectTV account.


During 2018, all Mets and UConn Men's and Women's basketball games on SNY will be streamed in-market on SNY.tv on PCs as well as on the NBC Sports app - NBC Sports Group's live streaming platform for desktops, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs.
 

pepband99

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Not out of market. The only way I could get them in Reno was on via my DirectTV account.


During 2018, all Mets and UConn Men's and Women's basketball games on SNY will be streamed in-market on SNY.tv on PCs as well as on the NBC Sports app - NBC Sports Group's live streaming platform for desktops, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs.

ESPN3 had these for free, promise...
 
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Well, almost all viewing is moving towards streaming and pay for content as the cable bundle continues to decline. Do you think the majority of SNY subs are going to be part of a bundle in 5 to 10 years? On my TV, all I have to do is hit 2 buttons to get to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sling, You Tube TV, ... Getting streaming services on a TV is easy and getting easier. I really don’t understand the negativity around ESPN+.
 

pepband99

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Well, almost all viewing is moving towards streaming and pay for content as the cable bundle continues to decline. Do you think the majority of SNY subs are going to be part of a bundle in 5 to 10 years? On my TV, all I have to do is hit 2 buttons to get to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sling, You Tube TV, ... Getting streaming services on a TV is easy and getting easier. I really don’t understand the negativity around ESPN+.

Our viewership will plummet on ESPN+ games.
It's also disruptive for those who haven't cut from cable/satellite, which is still the majority.

My household is an example - i pay a hefty bill to allow for live sports viewing across all the sports i care about, which unfortunately are all in-market. A service that would give me equivalent online sports viewing would be prohibitively expensive. Adding another $5 a month to watch (hopefully) and handful (only) of UConn events is annoying at best, insane at worst.

I will re-research my cord-cutting cost comparison, but unless it's at least 10% cheaper, it's not worth the hassle or up-front cost.
 
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Our viewership will plummet on ESPN+ games.
It's also disruptive for those who haven't cut from cable/satellite, which is still the majority.

My household is an example - i pay a hefty bill to allow for live sports viewing across all the sports i care about, which unfortunately are all in-market. A service that would give me equivalent online sports viewing would be prohibitively expensive. Adding another $5 a month to watch (hopefully) and handful (only) of UConn events is annoying at best, insane at worst.

I will re-research my cord-cutting cost comparison, but unless it's at least 10% cheaper, it's not worth the hassle or up-front cost.
Soon, Netflix subscribers will pass cable subscribers. Amazon Prime has more members than cable subscribers in the US. I remember my father in the day saying he wasn't going to subscribe to cable when he could watch free TV. That lasted about 5 years.

The video world is changing rapidly and what is clearly in decline is the cable bundle.
 
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I hate to take the optimistic view on the deal, but with ESPN+ I don't think there will be an issue affecting recruiting. How many recruits have a cable package with the U, News, etc? All it takes now is a "friend of the program" to foot the bill for a few ESPN+ subscriptions and recruits can watch us at any time.

It's not about recruits seeing us. It's about recruits thinking they won't be seen by the masses.
 

pepband99

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Soon, Netflix subscribers will pass cable subscribers. Amazon Prime has more members than cable subscribers in the US. I remember my father in the day saying he wasn't going to subscribe to cable when he could watch free TV. That lasted about 5 years.

The video world is changing rapidly and what is clearly in decline is the cable bundle.

I'm with you, but it's not quite there yet.

I'll declare the tide fully turned when you can subscribe to ESPN, fully, OTT. I can't believe this $5 a month doesn't include at least the main 2 channels.
 
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This is a 12 year media contract. TWELVE! Within 12 years streaming will be the only option, cable will be gone....this wasn’t a deal made for UConn and UConn knows and is okay with that, that’s why there is the opt-out clause.

They got their $7M a year, and are looking towards 2023.
 

zls44

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They got their $7M a year, and are looking towards 2023.

$7m a year is a common misconception. That's the average. In truth, it slowly escalates- it'll be $5ish at the start and $8ish at the end.
 

HuskyHawk

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So many people named Nostradamus on the Boneyard. I don't think we have any idea what this will really look like for basketball or football. I don't think we know what ESPN+ will mean to ESPN, what the adoption rate will be or how it will function in another year or two. It seems clear enough to me that ESPN wants to drive valuable content to that platform, not just garbage. College sports, and programs like UConn should have loyal fans who are willing to subscribe. If we don't, the our biggest problem isn't this deal, it's that our fans suck.
 
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After this march madness is over i'm building a simple PC to hook into my main TV. Creating a Reddit account that is only linked to the sports streaming subs, and using that for all my sports. Free 99.
 

ConnHuskBask

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So many people named Nostradamus on the Boneyard. I don't think we have any idea what this will really look like for basketball or football. I don't think we know what ESPN+ will mean to ESPN, what the adoption rate will be or how it will function in another year or two.

Yeah, which is sorta the point why you don't want to get locked in for 12 years.
 
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This is a 12 year media contract. TWELVE! Within 12 years streaming will be the only option, cable will be gone....this wasn’t a deal made for UConn and UConn knows and is okay with that, that’s why there is the opt-out clause.

They got their $7M a year, and are looking towards 2023.
Can you imagine how cheap this will look in 4 or 5 years, let alone 12 years.
 

HuskyHawk

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Yeah, which is sorta the point why you don't want to get locked in for 12 years.
Can you imagine how cheap this will look in 4 or 5 years, let alone 12 years.

I am not convinced that we will see numbers go up. I think we may have reached a peak, and things may change dramatically in the near future.
 
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Mike Anthony: SNY VP: Future of UConn-SNY relationship unclear as ESPN, AAC prepare to announce TV deal

>>“Frankly, we’ve been hearing probably as you’ve been hearing,” Morgenstern said at Harbor Yard Arenea, where network reps gathered for the announcement of an annual hockey tournament involved all four Conneccticut Division one teams. “We don’t know too much about it. We’ve been contacted by ESPN simply to say, ‘There’s a contract and we’re going to go through it and understand all the components of that.’ But we frankly don’t know what it means for us.”<<
 

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