Kolek planning to go pro
No one said to sell it 10 years ago.
I'm just glad I bought it 20 years ago when I worked for them for two years.
ESPN peaked at 110 million subscribers in 2011. Now under 85 million. 25 million gone!The last seven months have been horrific.https://twitter.com/SportsTVRatings/status/1112736050093408256@SportsTVRatingshadn't seen cable coverage estimates (how many homes each network is in) from Nielsen since August. Here's the April 2019 v August 2018 for the cable sports nets I saw:
So what is anybody supposed to do with this info, Smuggles?If DIS investor?If not DIS investor?Or is it just info you think is interesting (and there's nothing wrong with that)?
This thread is about cord-cutting (see the name). If is not a thread about being long DIS. Trying to get back to the original topic.
Cheek's point is that the discussion has shifted from ESPN set top household penetration to the horizontally integrated media properties that Disney is gobbling up including the Fox properties. So, while ESPN is in less homes, more people are watching Disney media properties. So, cost synergize these properties across their verticals and increase their media impressions with acquisitions (and set top fees for each channel and on-demand subscription fees).
Streaming Could Kill Cable In 4-5 Years: Porter Bibb https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2019-05-08/streaming-could-kill-cable-in-4-5-years-porter-bibb-podcastPorter Bibb, Managing Partner for MediaTech Capital Partners, on Disney and an overview of the digital media sector, which is in sustained transition.
The Sports TV Bubble Shows Signs of Weaknesshttps://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-06/sinclair-disney-rsn-sale-sports-tv-bubble-shows-weakness?srnd=opinionSinclair’s deal to buy the former Fox regional sports networks values them at less than expected.Fast forward to June 2018 when Murdoch agreed to sell most of his Fox television and movie assets to the Walt Disney Co. for $71 billion. As a condition of government approval, Disney promised to sell off Fox’s 22 regional sports networks, or RSNs. Analysts predicted that they would fetch between $20 billion and $22 billion, according to Bloomberg News.Instead, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. agreed last week to buy them for $10.6 billion. True, the YES Network that broadcasts the New York Yankees — by far the most valuable of the RSNs — was not part of the deal, as the Yankees bought it back for $3.47 billion. Even so, that means that the Fox networks garnered between $6 billion and $8 billion less than Disney had hoped.If Murdoch’s original deal with the NFL stands as an important early marker in the explosion of sports rights in the U.S. — and it does — I’m wondering if we’ll someday look back on the sale of Fox’s RSNs as the moment when the sports rights bubble began to burst. I think it might.My thesis is based on two interrelated factors. The first is that cord-cutting is inevitably going to impinge on the ability of the TV networks to pay ever-higher prices for professional and big-time college sports. I don’t deny that sports, especially football, has become more important than ever to the legacy networks. There are many people who continue to subscribe to cable TV solely because they would otherwise miss MLB or NBA playoff games or the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. Without sports, they would likely cancel their cable subscription.But ESPN, Disney’s all-sports network, has lost about 15 million subscribers over the past half-dozen years. That represents more than $1.2 billion in lost revenue. CBS Corp.’s revenue has been mostly flat since 2012. Disney’s chief executive Robert Iger has warned that as the company pushes aggressively into streaming services, its profits will take a short-term hit. According to Richard Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG, 1.1 million viewers cut the cord in the first quarter of 2019, the biggest quarterly decline ever. You have to wonder how the legacy networks will be able to keep paying ever higher rights fees — as they have for decades — if they keep losing viewers.Also has thisThe modern economics of sports has been built on the notion that rights packages can only go in one direction: up. That’s why Steve Ballmer was willing to pay $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, and why the New York Yankees are worth $4 billion, according to Forbes. It’s also why the Philadelphia Phillies were able to sign Bryce Harper to a 13-year, $330 million contract, while even a middling professional basketball player like the Indiana Pacers’ Wesley Matthews makes over $16 million a year.
Most cable companies are or have launched their own streaming services....so shifting from one business unit to another.
This I agree with and have been saying it for many years, the question is whether the FANG folks will keep the craziness alive.
DIS had another outstanding earnings report. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3461140-disney-plus-1_6-percent-amid-gains-parks-fox-direct-consumer"Media Networks" segment (of which ESPN is a part) made $5.53B in revenue during fiscal Q2, about equal to Q2 of last year.Most other segments were well up. Good, money-making company.
Back to Porter Bibb ... the only reason cable has not already died is live sports. So if the FAANGS (facebook, apple, amazon, netflix and/or Google) pay up for sports rights, that is the end of traditional cable. They all become internet providers.
So you think Nocera (thread above) is wrong in his assessment of ESPN?https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-06/sinclair-disney-rsn-sale-sports-tv-bubble-shows-weakness?srnd=opinion
The ending of the Sixers-Raptors game shows why these networks are willing to pay so much for live sports.It is the true "reality TV" -- pretty much the only thing a network can show that isn't contrived or scripted.If a Hollywood screenwriter had written that ending -- the star practically falling out of bounds on a high-arching 21-footer that bounced on the rim 4 times before going through the basket, with time seemingly standing still and the crowd eerily quiet -- that screenwriter would be mocked.Sports is the greatest theater out there.
If a Hollywood screenwriter had written that ending -- the star practically falling out of bounds on a high-arching 21-footer that bounced on the rim 4 times before going through the basket, with time seemingly standing still and the crowd eerily quiet -- that screenwriter would be mocked.Sports is the greatest theater out there.