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Message: [QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 4831728, member: 833"] Every report I have read is that ESPN has an OPTION to extend past 2027. There does not appear to be any trigger for that option, it is just there. In 2023 the media payments to the ACC are below market which makes that contract is good for ESPN. As the contracted payments escalate, people cut the cord, and the cable bundle comes unwound, that contract is going to become a horror show for ESPN. Months ago I said ESPN was going to try to get out of the back end of the ACC contract, and that was before we knew there was an option for 2027 on. ESPN is on the block, and has been for at least a year. Analysts are crapping all over it and Disney stock went up about 15% when the Mouse House released summary ESPN financials in October to show it was serious about selling the worldwide leader. Wall Street does not like ESPN. ESPN's business model of extortionary carriage fees on people who don't watch ESPN was great while it lasted, but is as dead as a business model can be. Now raise your hand if you think ESPN wants any part of an escalating media rights contract until 2036 that is predicated on a cable bundle that may not exist in 24 months. Given that the ACC will not even share the contract with its own members, the contract is likely to be even uglier than that for the ACC. I would not be surprised if ESPN has a unilateral renegotiation period, which it will use to tear the league apart. ESPN has a well-tested model for breaking up a league. Take the two marquee programs, and then keep picking away 1 or 2 programs at a time until the league collapses and can't get a new contract, at which point ESPN offers peanuts to whatever is left. [/QUOTE]

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