[pepsionice]

There are two groups in this mix. The first group will go from heavily-packaged cable-tv options....to strictly local networks, the weather channel and old-movies channels (what I’d call raw-basic options).

The second group are dumping cable-TV entirely.

What’ll happen here....after cable managers view the consequences...prices have to go up for the remaining viewers (maybe 20-percent or more). The worst hit from this ‘drama’? Probably ESPN. There’s a fantastic amount of lost viewers for NFL and NBA action, and the political slant from ESPN destroyed their core business.

[Alberta's Child]

I once overheard a conversation between two cable TV industry executives who were very frank in their pessimism about the future. They were talking about cable news channels, but their assessment would apply across the board to TV in general.

Their basic point was that there are now so many TV channels available to viewers that almost none of them can generate the audience they need to justify the cost of operating the channel and developing content for the viewers. The industry has reached the point where it’s like having 25 different companies producing cars for a market where only 100,000 cars are sold every year. Nobody would sell enough cars to cover the cost of an auto manufacturing plant in that scenario.

[knighthawk]

I live in the Netherlands and I have only basic cable to have good internet and watch documentaries mainly.

But over here Fox Sports just became ESPN.