This from Awful Announcing:


The other potential suitors would be interesting, but I'm not sure why Disney would go to the trouble of buying them if they just wanted to unload them immediately.

(06-18-2018 02:51 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  This from Awful Announcing:


The other potential suitors would be interesting, but I'm not sure why Disney would go to the trouble of buying them if they just wanted to unload them immediately.

Yes. Both have indicated that they might indeed do that. It's why I haven't responded to the posts about the usage of the RSNs. It's typical when there are plumbs in a deal that you also take the sour grapes and ditch them for the parent company who might have political issues regarding them.

(06-18-2018 03:43 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 02:51 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  This from Awful Announcing:


The other potential suitors would be interesting, but I'm not sure why Disney would go to the trouble of buying them if they just wanted to unload them immediately.

Yes. Both have indicated that they might indeed do that. It's why I haven't responded to the posts about the usage of the RSNs. It's typical when there are plumbs in a deal that you also take the sour grapes and ditch them for the parent company who might have political issues regarding them.

I can see that.

I think the RSNs themselves might not be that valuable, but I think the localized content would be.

Then again, perhaps with the pay model changing there won't be a demand for such outlets because the amount of content is limited. It would be cheaper and more consumer friendly to bundle more content rather than have it distributed locally and not allow out of market viewing.

That and it might be hard to maintain so many different linear feeds if you can't broadcast that content to large national audiences.

I still think ESPN would be interested in owning the rights though. Otherwise, the RSNs wouldn't be worth much in a sale to another entity.

(06-18-2018 04:43 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 03:43 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 02:51 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  This from Awful Announcing:


The other potential suitors would be interesting, but I'm not sure why Disney would go to the trouble of buying them if they just wanted to unload them immediately.

Yes. Both have indicated that they might indeed do that. It's why I haven't responded to the posts about the usage of the RSNs. It's typical when there are plumbs in a deal that you also take the sour grapes and ditch them for the parent company who might have political issues regarding them.

I can see that.

I think the RSNs themselves might not be that valuable, but I think the localized content would be.

Then again, perhaps with the pay model changing there won't be a demand for such outlets because the amount of content is limited. It would be cheaper and more consumer friendly to bundle more content rather than have it distributed locally and not allow out of market viewing.

That and it might be hard to maintain so many different linear feeds if you can't broadcast that content to large national audiences.

I still think ESPN would be interested in owning the rights though. Otherwise, the RSNs wouldn't be worth much in a sale to another entity.

ESPN will be all about owning as much of the top content as possible. Their plans for the Ivy League, CUSA, the AAC, etc, will be to provide it all on streaming. The game will still be to have the largest viewing audience for top games, but with the streaming I would think they will sell adds that will appear on just the streaming aps, but the same ads will run for all games streamed that day. So picking up all of the niche conferences and small teams can still add up to what an Auburn/Alabama, Ohio State/Michigan, Texas/Oklahoma kind of game might bring by essentially (for advertising purposes) bundling all of those games into 1 cumulative number of hits.

Conference networks essentially bundle the interest of that conference's viewers for another advertising paycheck.

The San Jose Mercury News Wilner had in interesting look into all of this today and while I didn't agree with all of his positions he raised some good questions as to whether conferences will or will not be motivated to add more schools in the next round. He seems to think that if there are multiple interested parties bidding that no realignment will be likely. Why? Because if everyone is going to get paid more anyway there is no real motivation to add schools, except.......for the addition of content. That's why, and the only reason why, I see the PAC, SEC, and Big 10 going hard after Texas and Oklahoma. They have everything. Huge fan bases, history, brand recognition, and massive content value. That's the only reason I believe they will be able to leverage little brothers in.

Seriously ask yourself who else in the Big 12 is a no brainer addition for the SEC or Big 10? There isn't one and as your other thread points out it sure as heck isn't Kansas.

West Virginia is best suited for the ACC.

The PAC might win Texas if they offer all four Texas schools. If not ESPN and the SEC/ACC will definitely be interested, as will the Big 10.

IMO, the safest course of action is to do what the Big 10 can't, offer both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and get our content in hand, upfront, and before the next T1 negotiations because if CBS wins it again they sure as hell won't up the ante after additions.

Disney is now a 71.3 Billion for FOX and the FOX people are calling the offer superior to Comcast in every way.

I think it might break Comcast to offer even more and FOX likes the Disney package. It looks like ESPN will be in fine shape and that ESPN might be picking up those T3 Big 12 rights after all. That's a nice step on the way to being able to broker deals.

Assuming the deal passes the regulatory process, I wonder if we see this outcome:

Disney decides to bank the content owned by the RSNs while simultaneously discontinuing most of the RSNs...

Dropping the number of feeds, especially any that are redundant, would save a lot in operating costs. The important thing would be finding the proper outlet for the content you've acquired. ESPN+ is something I think Disney really wants to focus on big time and you've got a few other current linear channels underutilized.

ESPN's model has always been to take everything national and create as wide a platform as possible. The purchase of the RSNs would depart from that strategy so maybe they have something up their sleeve there.

(06-20-2018 02:51 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Assuming the deal passes the regulatory process, I wonder if we see this outcome:

Disney decides to bank the content owned by the RSNs while simultaneously discontinuing most of the RSNs...

Dropping the number of feeds, especially any that are redundant, would save a lot in operating costs. The important thing would be finding the proper outlet for the content you've acquired. ESPN+ is something I think Disney really wants to focus on big time and you've got a few other current linear channels underutilized.

ESPN's model has always been to take everything national and create as wide a platform as possible. The purchase of the RSNs would depart from that strategy so maybe they have something up their sleeve there.

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and SEC Network already get a pretty good dose of content. ESPNews gets some events during the year and is often used as an overflow channel. ESPN Classic is still out there and I have no idea what's on it. The ACC Network is about to be up and running. The Longhorn Network can't offer much, but it's there for use.

Buying 22 regional sports networks doesn't really fit into what ESPN has traditionally done. In the past, they've tried to take everything national and get as many subs as possible for every channel. So what if the RSNs are just a means to an end?

It's possible that FOX's share of the YES Network will end up getting bought by the Yankees as they have the first option to buy and perhaps their move will give us a tell as to ESPN's direction. If the Yankees buy the other portion of the network then perhaps that means ESPN isn't planning on maintaining a ton of feeds. If the Yankees don't buy then perhaps the YES Network will just be used as a bargaining chip like any of the others.

ESPN could use the RSNs to leverage sub rates in a variety of markets across the country...

Or ESPN could bank the content and use it to increase the value of all their platforms on a national scale...

What if ESPN uses all that local content along with a mixture of college rights to increase the content schedule for all their other networks?

Whatever they can't fit on their national feeds, they just stick on ESPN+ and potentially increase the value of that property to a significant degree.

What if ESPN buys the PAC Network in an effort to gain control over that content and help pay for any other rights they may purchase from the PAC? Similar to what we saw suggested as a strategy for the ACC Network?

Not only would that give ESPN flexibility to control more realignment moves, but it would mean the other feeds have room for pro sports content that could make them more marketable. ESPN could discontinue virtually all of these RSNs or perhaps sell off the infrastructure. Their national feeds could get a huge boost...

(06-24-2018 10:02 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(06-20-2018 02:51 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Assuming the deal passes the regulatory process, I wonder if we see this outcome:

Disney decides to bank the content owned by the RSNs while simultaneously discontinuing most of the RSNs...

Dropping the number of feeds, especially any that are redundant, would save a lot in operating costs. The important thing would be finding the proper outlet for the content you've acquired. ESPN+ is something I think Disney really wants to focus on big time and you've got a few other current linear channels underutilized.

ESPN's model has always been to take everything national and create as wide a platform as possible. The purchase of the RSNs would depart from that strategy so maybe they have something up their sleeve there.

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and SEC Network already get a pretty good dose of content. ESPNews gets some events during the year and is often used as an overflow channel. ESPN Classic is still out there and I have no idea what's on it. The ACC Network is about to be up and running. The Longhorn Network can't offer much, but it's there for use.

Buying 22 regional sports networks doesn't really fit into what ESPN has traditionally done. In the past, they've tried to take everything national and get as many subs as possible for every channel. So what if the RSNs are just a means to an end?




It's possible that FOX's share of the YES Network will end up getting bought by the Yankees as they have the first option to buy and perhaps their move will give us a tell as to ESPN's direction. If the Yankees buy the other portion of the network then perhaps that means ESPN isn't planning on maintaining a ton of feeds. If the Yankees don't buy then perhaps the YES Network will just be used as a bargaining chip like any of the others.

ESPN could use the RSNs to leverage sub rates in a variety of markets across the country...

Or ESPN could bank the content and use it to increase the value of all their platforms on a national scale...

What if ESPN uses all that local content along with a mixture of college rights to increase the content schedule for all their other networks?

Whatever they can't fit on their national feeds, they just stick on ESPN+ and potentially increase the value of that property to a significant degree.

What if ESPN buys the PAC Network in an effort to gain control over that content and help pay for any other rights they may purchase from the PAC? Similar to what we saw suggested as a strategy for the ACC Network?

Not only would that give ESPN flexibility to control more realignment moves, but it would mean the other feeds have room for pro sports content that could make them more marketable. ESPN could discontinue virtually all of these RSNs or perhaps sell off the infrastructure. Their national feeds could get a huge boost...

Well we may have our answer today. It looks like the courts will let the Disney / FOX deal go through as long as Disney gets rid of the 22 RSNS.

Since that's what Disney was likely to do anyway it looks good depending on any Comcast counter offer.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/med...738440002/

Well, I wonder if they'll be sold in a bundle or piecemeal?

This also means ESPN isn't going to gain any new control over Big 12 schools' 3rd tier rights so from that perspective we're back to the drawing board.

(06-27-2018 04:54 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Well, I wonder if they'll be sold in a bundle or piecemeal?

This also means ESPN isn't going to gain any new control over Big 12 schools' 3rd tier rights so from that perspective we're back to the drawing board.

Not really. They have to sell the RSN's. They may not have to sell the T3 rights. The RSN's were used to broadcast the T3 rights. ESPN may just collect for those broadcasts until the current T3 contract is up.