(03-01-2018 02:10 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-01-2018 02:06 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-01-2018 01:34 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-01-2018 01:31 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(03-01-2018 01:02 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  [
Don't expect to see Sun Belt have any fewer ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU appearances than it is already getting, may add a few. This just a matter of shifting ESPN3 content to ESPN+

Sun Belt was logical to renegotiate now because of the championship game coming this year.

For me ESPN+ is a no brainer. It replaces MLS Live which I already subscribed to and will cost less and with that discount I get Sun Belt games thrown in.

If ESPN is willing to pay to make the shift from 3 to Plus, its kind of a no brainer. I bet they throw in some extra national coverage as an incentive to be the first FBS conference to do so.

Exactly. There likely had to be a carrot to offset moving off free(ish) ESPN3 to ESPN+

Unless of course ESPN3 is being phased out.

That may be the case but they are going to have to deal with a number of carriage agreements and content agreements regarding ESPN3 before they can do it or buy those out.

I don't think any of the partners is going to miss ESPN3. The only players in the TV game that ESPN3 matters to are the cash-poor college conferences, and they can be compensated with small amounts of cash, or ESPN TV slots, or just wait out their contracts.