ESPN Losing Viewers

[Triple B]

30 minutes ago, Capital H said:

Regardless of which way they lean, I don't even bother with Sportcenter anymore because I don't even get the lame highlight package we used to.

I'm not sure why anyone would watch Sportscenter at all any more with the specialized sports networks now.

[The Great 8]

4 hours ago, charsibb said:

Far better to give the customer what they want, and ONLY what they want, than to charge some customers for things they don't want to subsidize other customers. If a channel can't survive on subscription fees, it deserves to die.  Capitalism > socialism.

I agree on the last point. But, there's a certain amount of "discoverability" created by being a channel on a package deal. It's also a lot easier conceptually to "just get" HGTV than to pay explicitly for it. I enjoy HGTV but if cable doesn't give it to me, I'll never buy it.

I think neither me nor the channel came out victorious in that case.

Simply put, I suspect you won't end up paying any less but end up with far less channels in, say, 20 years.

[Bullrush33]

41 minutes ago, The Great 8 said:

I agree on the last point. But, there's a certain amount of "discoverability" created by being a channel on a package deal. It's also a lot easier conceptually to "just get" HGTV than to pay explicitly for it. I enjoy HGTV but if cable doesn't give it to me, I'll never buy it.

I think neither me nor the channel came out victorious in that case.

Simply put, I suspect you won't end up paying any less but end up with far less channels in, say, 20 years.

Like u said a la carte means we will pay more for less.

[charsibb]

8 hours ago, Bullrush33 said:

Like u said a la carte means we will pay more for less.

Not really.

You're able to enjoy what you have today because millions of people are paying for things they're not watching. Why should they subsidize you? FTM, why should you subsidize them?

In the end, it will be an alacarte world. You won't be forced to pay for things you don't want in order to get the things you do want. That's mafia/ communist thinking and disintermediation of the free market will send it packing.

[JTrue]

5 hours ago, charsibb said:

 

In the end, it will be an alacarte world. You won't be forced to pay for things you don't want in order to get the things you do want.

But you will be forced to pay 5x as much for the few things you want, unless you think the providers are going to be happy making less profit.

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, JTrue said:

But you will be forced to pay 5x as much for the few things you want, unless you think the providers are going to be happy making less profit.

It's about time that capitalism and altruism found a way to get along. Cable TV would be the perfect vehicle. 

[charsibb]

4 hours ago, JTrue said:

But you will be forced to pay 5x as much for the few things you want, unless you think the providers are going to be happy making less profit.

At the risk of being called a genderist/sexist, I will share the following joke to cement the point.

The difference between men and women is that men will pay $2.00 for a $1.00 item they want, while women will pay 50¢ for a $1.00 item they don't want.

I want what I want, and would rather pay a higher per-item rate to get just what I want than to pay more in total dollars to get bundled things I don't want.

 

[The Great 8]

12 minutes ago, charsibb said:

At the risk of being called a genderist/sexist, I will share the following joke to cement the point.

The difference between men and women is that men will pay $2.00 for a $1.00 item they want, while women will pay 50¢ for a $1.00 item they don't want.

I want what I want, and would rather pay a higher per-item rate to get just what I want than to pay more in total dollars to get bundled things I don't want.

 

Yeah. Hence prices of _everything_ will rise up in an ala carte world. So much so that if you want 5 things, you'll probably pay more than you currently pay for 50 things right now.

To some that's worth it (like me, because I only want 2 things). It's quickly going to be diminishing returns though.

[usf97]

The future of the college football fan:

 

 

[K-Rock Da Bull]

On 5/29/2018 at 8:59 AM, ToroDeFuego said:

An interesting test case to watch is Fubo.tv. They are doing without ESPN because they can't reach a deal with them. As far as their interface they are my favorite streaming service. YouTube ended up caving an added the Disney/ESPN channels and jacked their price up accordingly. The good thing about most of the streaming services is that they have no contracts like cable/satellite. I switch them out all the time.

I have been on Fubo since their $7 package, now I have the whole suite for $35. I have to use a friend's login for ESPN but that's all