If Disney has its way, it will not be a fairy tale ending for those who don’t have cable by 2010. According to an article, Disney place a bid for $125 million to air the five BCS bowl games on ESPN.
This is not a big deal for those of us with cable, but I did not realize how many households are do not have cable. There is an estimated 16 million households in the United States that does not have cable.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Obviously, if you do not have cable and want to watch the big games you can go to a sports bar or to a friends house, but there are situations in which cable is not an option.
For the hunters out there, you will not be able to bring your TV to the camp and watch the games. If this deal goes through many people will not be able to watch something they enjoy watching.
Honestly, I understand it is a business move and it will not hurt me as a fan, but I do not agree with this. If ESPN wants rights to the BCS bowl games, they should be able to at least make it available to everyone not just those with cable.
Over the years ESPN has changed sports for the better, but they will eventually have a monopoly on the sports world and this will give them to much influence.
What are your thoughts on this?
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about 1 month ago
I can't say I like it either, but this seems to be the direction that television is going. See also, the NFL Network, and Monday Night Football getting moved to cable.
Presumably, whatever money the bowls stand to gain from these contracts is at least as much as they stand to lose in ad revenue from losing the viewers who lack cable (considering the negative publicity this is likely to receive, the bowls probably stand to gain substantially more than what they project they would lose).
about 1 month ago
the problem is that with network tv sports ratings declining at a rapid rate over the last ten years there is no longer the same demand for sports on network tv. the bcs had record low ratings last year
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