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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.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:13PM
Sorry, but your ideas are ridiculous. The public getting to use the stadium they paid for? Are you absolutely insane? High schools using it for graduation? That's crazy. If a high school wants to use it, they need to pay for it, just like anyone else, even though it was build with taxpayer funds. The stadium owner *deserves* to get rich off the backs of the taxpayer.
If you disagree, too bad, because most of your fellow citizens in your city think this is a great idea, and they happily vote for politicians who pass taxes to fund privately-run stadiums.