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posted by martyb on Tuesday May 02 2017, @02:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the cheaper-circuses dept.

ESPN, which laid off 100 people this week, has a multitude of problems, but the basic one is this: It pays too much for content and costs too much for consumers.

That didn't used to matter because, thanks to the way the cable industry "bundled" channels, cable customers were forced to pay for it even if they never watched it. Now, however, as the cable bundle slowly disintegrates, it matters a lot.

[...] But it's a pipe dream to think that ESPN will ever make the kind of profits ($6.4 billion in 2014) that it once did, for two reasons. First, as is the case with so many other industries, the internet has both shined a light on the flaws of the cable model and exploited them. What was the main flaw of the cable model? It was that consumers had to pay for channels they never watched.

And now they don't.

It turns out that there were lots of people, including sports fans, who resented having to pay for the most expensive channel in the bundle. The popularity of streaming led to "cord cutting," but it also caused cable companies to begin offering less expensive "skinny bundles," some of which don't include ESPN.


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  • (Score: 1) by WillR on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:01PM (1 child)

    by WillR (2012) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:01PM (#502983)
    Food Network, too. They used to show nothing but real cooking shows, now it's nothing but "start with X contestants and eliminate one every round" competition shows. Fortunately there are plenty of people doing short form cooking videos on Youtube...
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:20PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:20PM (#503214)

    As I said above about MTV, apparently it's working out for them. You're obviously not the target audience, but apparently more people would rather watch "start with X contestants and eliminate one every round" competition shows instead of real cooking shows.