"It’s a great business model when a whole bunch of people pay for something they don’t really care if they have or not, which is what the cable bundle did for us. It’s hard to replicate that."
Going from out-of-footprint to in-footprint in the Los Angeles market alone appears like it would get BTN at least $17.9 million more in per-subscriber fees annually.
Previously, an annual subscription cost $59.99.
With ESPN's contracts stating they have until Sept. 2021 to make up their promised number of events, don't expect them to offer rebates any time soon.
With no live sports on ESPN, Dish is reportedly trying to withhold the per-subscriber fees they'd normally pay Disney for ESPN channels.
ESPN+ now has 3.5 million paid subscribers, as per Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The only other networks to see a drop in average sub fees from 2012 to 2017 were beIN Sports, The Olympic Channel, and The Tennis Channel.
Disney could make hundreds of millions more annually from ESPN fees with successful carriage negotiations.
There was reportedly significant opposition to the NBA deal from key ESPN executives.
There are concerns about ESPN relative to its past performance, but it still makes way more than its competitors.
Soaring broadcast deals for leagues are leading to massive costs for networks, which are then passing those costs...
