re: Sling TV Releases Sports Package - $5 Per Month

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Their business model is based around offering services through cable providers. If they went a la carte, which is what we're talking about, they would have to develop a new business model.

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Again, ESPN CANT do that b/c they wouldnt be able to pay the money they owe to the content providers.

ESPN doesn't want it b/c they are a middle man for sports content providers and need to be have an extremely high subscription rate in order to function. Cable and satellite tv providers don't want it b/c they are the middle man for tv networks. Sports content providers don't want it b/c their enormous profits are heavily based of the exorbitant deals ESPN (and others) pays for the rights to air their product. Athlete players associations (and athletes by extension) don't want it b/c their salaries are now huge due to the revenues generated from TV deals. Disney doesn't want it b/c ESPN is one of their most profitable investments.

Its not just ESPN that has a vested interest against a la carte. Nobody involved in providing the content to us is going to want to go to a la carte b/c its all just one big merry go round of money that would be severely cut into if the model drastically changes.

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Simply put, if ESPN went a la carte, they would not be able to charge anything close to $100/Mo.

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again, I never said ESPN by itself would be $100 a month.

the max I put it at was $50.

The $100 would be far ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, and SECN as a package.




Also, for many reasons, HBO cannot be compared to ESPN like has been done in this thread. Their business model is not heavily based off of captive audience advertising like ESPN, they do not pay anywhere near the fees ESPN does for the rights to air movies, and they actually create original content that people want to see.