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Message: [QUOTE="HuskyHawk, post: 4673481, member: 1414"] I agree with what you said about committing to sports and not pre-empting other programming. That made ESPN unique, along with SportsCenter, which was the only place to really get sports news. I don't think they are in danger of irrelevance though. Cable isn't dead yet and won't be a long time, even if it is diminished. The main difference between the streaming services and cable is in how they are monetized. Subscription vs advertising. The value in live sports is that it still has advertising value. Serial TV shows have lost much of that value with the advent of DVR, so a subscription streaming service was a better way to monetize that content. It's still shifting that way. But sports remains the thing people watch live, so is better suited to the advertising model than the subscription model. It's all in motion of course, but Apple is unlikely to make a huge splash on college sports. Reports are the MLS deal isn't really working for them, although Messi may change that. Streaming services only have a toe in the water on sports, but the early results are that they don't drive more subscribers. If they stream sports, it will be with advertising, but Apple/Amazon don't know how to do that well. This is why I think we may see a shift to PPV on streaming services. So if Apple or Amazon picks up a conference, you aren't likely to get that content free with a normal subscription. [/QUOTE]