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[QUOTE="Scooch, post: 4749671, member: 628"]
I’ll use ESPN as an example.  Right now their suite of networks costs about $10-12 dollars a month “wholesale”. Meaning that’s what a cable operator pays for those networks.  That translates to roughly $8.5 billion a year in annual revenue in a world of 65 million subscribing Hoisehold a.

When unbundled, ESPN needs to price their suite of networks in a direct to consumer model so that they at least maintain their annual revenue.  In that world, they’d be extremely fortunate to attract even half that amount of subscribers.  Likely less than that.  So now we’re talking about needing to charge $25-30 or more a month.

That same calculus will apply to every network group.  Want to watch football on Fox and FS1?  $20 a month.  NBC and USA?  Peacock goes up to $20 a month.  TNT?  Add it to Max and that’s up to $25 a month.

Plus the regional sports network model is dying, so much of those rights are going to go to streaming. Instead of YES costing $5 a month in a bundle, it’s $20 a month direct to consumer.

You see where this is going.  Now instead of spending $75-80 a month for cable basic, which gets you all the sports plus news and entertainment.  Now you’ll be plunking down $100+ for the same sports content. But you still might buy Netflix and Hulu for dramas and comedies.

Every Wall Street and consumer analyst who has studied this shows that sports fans are going to lose when the cable bundle dies.

Granted, for those who don’t watch sports it’s a different proposition.
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