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I, for one, welcome our new overlords (from ESPN)

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Songbird, Aug 15, 2013.

  1. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    The Atlantic breaks down the WWL's global dominance.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-most-valuable-network/309433/?single_page=true
     
  2. amraeder

    amraeder Well-Known Member

    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.
     
  3. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

     
  4. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Kneel before Todd (Blackledge) !
     
  5. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    I wanna kiss you. I couldn't care less about the (article)... :)
     
  6. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    And I am proud to say, as someone who has neither cable nor satellite TV, I have not contributed one dime to that total.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    It's dumbfounding that no real challengers have risen up to dent ESPN's dominance as a national sports network. Can you imagine just one 24-hour news network? I guess this is the perfect sweet spot for a dominant player like this - national sports are a niche in that you don't have the room for multiple networks, but they are an enormous niche, in that the one player in the field can turn a huge profit and obtain big-time leverage in cable negotiations.
     
  8. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    You da man.

    Mind you, I'm not editorializing. Just stating the obvious.
     
  9. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    what if, and this is a really big 'IF', you could select your cable channels on an a la carte basis and only pay for the channels you wanted?

    every member of this board would take ESPN, without question. But I could do without having a single MTV/VH1 channel, Lifetime, OWN, Nickelodeon, Disney, ABC Family. I could do without DIscovery, now that its crap, and Spanish language channels (though I do sometimes just watch the variety shows for the women even if I can't understand a single word).

    Frankly, I don't think I would pay for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox broadcast if I could get the sports programing seperately.



    CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, TBS, TNT, FoodTV, Travel Channel, CSPAN, Weather, HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, Bravo, AMC, TMC, and the other movie channels. In my area MASN and COMCAST Sports which both suck but I still watch the live events would be part of my rotation. I'm probably leaving some stuff out.

    Is ESPN so ubiquitous that even if households had the choice of having to pay for it, they would still get it?
     
  10. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    You say "without question." But what if ESPN suddenly cost $20 a month? Would you take it then? I don't think I would. I could live without MNF, the NBA playoffs and the odd baseball game involving my team that ends up there. The BCS would be tough but I think I could live without it. And everything that isn't live sports is a complete nothing.

    That's the biggie with a la carte pricing. There is no "without question" and you'd have a lot more beefs like the one that kept the NFL Network off cable for so long.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    If I could go a la carte, I would probably get all the ESPNs, National Geographic Channel, Science Channel (I think that's what it's called - basically the ones that show outer space documentaries), NBC Sports (hockey), Comcast Chicago Sports, MLB Network, HBO, AMC, and one of the 24-hour news networks. Probably CNN. Maybe MSNBC for "Morning Joe" and that's about it. I don't watch a whole lot of TV. My wife would get more. Probably Comedy Central for "The Daily Show" and Bravo for "Project Runway," and I think she watches a couple of the food channels from time to time.
     
  12. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    My channel choices would be humiliating.

    I would go with Bravo and History before ESPN.
     
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