Posted on 10/21/2015 1:51:46 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: ESPN is in trouble economically, financially. ESPN just announced that they're gonna have to cut a minimum of 350 jobs. And the reason why is subscribers are abandoning cable. Many people do not understand how all of this works, the cable bundle. I mean, you understand that you have to pay a minimum amount per month to get a bunch of channels, the vast majority of which you never watch, but the channels you want are in that bundle, and you have to pay for the bundle.
So let's say you want your local stations, you want ESPN, maybe HBO. Fine. You've gotta buy 25 or 30 or maybe other channels that you never watch. Now, here's the thing about that. In a free market, these networks with no audience wouldn't survive. If you have network programming that nobody watches, then there won't be any ratings and you won't be able to sell any advertising and you won't be able to operate. If, however, the cable companies collect X-amount per subscriber as though they are viewers and then pay that to the network, then the network can stay alive and viable even though nobody may be watching it.
ESPN gets six dollars per cable subscriber every month. That's ESPN's gravy train. And when cord cutting begins, when people eliminate cable from their lives, then the number of people paying for the bundle, out of which ESPN gets six bucks per customer, that starts dwindling away, and ESPN's income dwindles away, and it doesn't matter how many viewers they have or not. This is the point, with the cable bundle it doesn't matter how many viewers a network has. In ESPN's case, it doesn't matter, because they're gonna get six dollars for every household that has ESPN in its cable package.
The interesting thing is 3.2 million people have cut the cord so far, 3.2 million people have cut their cable subscription, and that means that a good percentage of that 3.2 million people are no longer funding ESPN at six dollars a month. They are leaving cable for a bunch of market reasons. Many of them are Millennials, and they just simply don't want to pay for channels. They don't have the money. Young people can't get jobs; they don't have the money. They don't want to pay for things they don't watch.
They'd rather take the money they have and a la carte their way via streaming or whatever and watch it on their device. And maybe if they have AirPlay, project it onto a TV or something, but they don't want to pay cable. Well, 3.2 million people, many of them probably not even sports fans, that's gonna add up to a serious chunk of change. That's $250 million a year for ESPN. ESPN's in close to a hundred million homes. But if they lose 3.2 million subscribers, that's a loss of $250 million a year, and that's why they are cutting 350 jobs.
But here is the piece de resistance. This is what everyone needs to know. Bundled cable subscriptions serve as the foundation for Hollywood to own pop culture. John Nolte at Breitbart makes this point extremely well today. Hollywood does not have to generate audience in order to generate income. All they have to do is secure networks being carried by cable in a basic tier, or maybe next tier up, and they get funded by customers who never watch the network, or very few do, because they're not buying for these obscure channels that are all left left-wing rubbish, many of them are.
That's how they remain viable, that's how they remain in operation, without anybody watching them, people paying the cable channels, the cable companies. Every network gets a certain amount of money per subscriber. ESPN's the top at six bucks. Not every channel gets that. Some get 50 cents, 75 cents, what have you. But the scam of bundled cable is the foundation of Hollywood's money and cultural power.
Look at it this way. If Hollywood was not able to force people to pay for networks and programming they never watch -- MSNBC has no audience. MSNBC could not stay on the air if it weren't for cable bundles. CNN, ditto, folks. They don't have enough audience to be viable with just their audience. They couldn't survive without cable and these subscriber percentages that they collect.
The same thing with Comedy Central. Nobody watches Comedy Central. Not enough people watch Comedy Central to support it via advertising. Ditto MTV. But they all get a percentage of everything you pay monthly to cable to sustain them. And Millennials are leading the way, unknowing about this impact, in taking away some of that staying power.
When my digital BASIC plan with DirecTV went from $60 to $100 I decided I had enough. We now have an HD over-the-air antenna on my amateur radio tower and I easily pick up some 60+ stations. Granted, many of them are complete CRAP but I get enough that I can find something reasonable to watch when I want to.
We also purchased a ROKU device and subscribe to Hulu and Netflix for a whopping $16/mo. Add Amazon Prime @ 99/yr and I have far more choices than I ever had with DirecTV at a fraction of the price.
One of the best decisions we've made IMO.
The same thing with Comedy Central. Nobody watches Comedy Central. Not enough people watch Comedy Central to support it via advertising. Ditto MTV. But they all get a percentage of everything you pay monthly to cable to sustain them. And Millennials are leading the way, unknowing about this impact, in taking away some of that staying power.
ESPN has been vocal in that they mostly covet the 18 to 39 yo demographic. That isn’t working out so well for them is it?
I quit satellite a few years ago too. I watch any show or sports event I want to for free via streaming. Live only, but good quality. I use HDMI to my 60”, and voila, good as satellite.
I hope the system can still provide the programs as more and more people do this.
WOW...that says life as it is.....very good!!!
ESPN’s long time ultra leftist policies are coming home to roost....in a financial toilet where it belongs.
A lot of speculation that Disney is about to spin them off.
But then, as anyone who knows me would tell you --- I'm an extreme kinda guy. :-) Give 'em hell!
Remember when MTV played videos and ruled the world? Their fall came the day reality tv entered their programming and music got benched.
In the 80s/early 90s there were not many young people not glued to that channel. Then Grunge and the 90s depressed everyone and the Proto-Snookie/Paris Hiltons began depressing a culture.
And the collapse of the empire began.
Cage Theory. Embrace it ;)
Liberalism destroys all it touches. Just like the churches, liberals invaded sports to push agenda. There is no thing a liberal will not co-opt and destroy to accomplish it’s goals.
What libs did with ESPN is exactly what they did with Education.
People are tired of everything being “imaginary” and being told they are not with it...
Well I run circles around the finest Fruit of this generation like water through a sieve...
They do not think, they take what they are told and march ahead...
The “E” word again...
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
It is extreme today. I admit it openly. It’s also factually accurate ;)
People hate it. I hate it. But it’s the truth.
Cable/Satellite free since 2006.
Amen!
Today a lot of people are summed up by a simple idea. “I am an individual just like all my friends!”
And thats why so many are so easily led straight into the toilet. They lost, or more accurately were actively dissuaded, from thinking for themselves and simply follow. Like herd animals.Now they don’t even know they don’t know how to think for themselves. It’s Rumsfeldian.
Last time I had TV, Earnhardt had a concrete snack.
You are Completely correct regarding priorities.
Just think of what could be done to correct our impending downfall if the energy spent watching games was redirected toward something that really mattered:
We could All save a bundle of time preaching to the choir here how bad things are, and many Thousands of dollars of future tax misery, if only 1% of 330 Million citizens (3.3 Million):
Showed up at All state capitol and DC protesting fearlessly making politicians afraid for their political future.
Monthly
Flash mob like #BlackLivesMatter -
“Hey hey, how ho, criminal Obola has got to go.
Stop supporting murderous ISIS
Stop wrecking Europe
Stop wrecking America
Stop destroying or Freedom”
A couple of million man hours from 3.3 Million conservatives could turn everything around.
When they feel the heat, they see the light.
Silence is perceived as condoning.
Apathy is what is really killing us.
Meant: “Stop destroying Our Freedom”.
Yep...I think “Real World” was one of their first reality shows.
Nobody cared about that stuff. They tuned in to see videos, period. And now the ‘80s is pretty much known as the golden era of MTV...i.e., before they went stupid.
I’m going on 3 years since I fired the wire.
The savings are really adding up.
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