Is the way we watch college football about to change?

[Seaa Blue]

http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/08/03/college-sports-consumers-espn-punt-pass-pork

ESPN and competitors such as FOX Sports will need the rights to premium live sporting events more than ever to drive subscribership in the era that’s coming. That’s why I disagree completely with what Pac-12 commissioner

Scott on ESPN cutbacks impacting rights fees: “I’m glad we’ve got our deal done. I’d be more worried if I were the Big Ten coming up."

Scott is correct that rights fees won’t go up forever, but the Big Ten deal could be the last hurrah before networks get more cost-conscious because of cord-cutters. The Big Ten is going to get a massive deal because ESPN and Big Ten Network partner FOX need those rights to compete in the new marketplace. With deals for all of the other Power Five leagues, the NFL, NBA and MLB all locked down until at least 2020, the Big Ten’s deal next year is the biggest thing left. It might be the last one of these deals signed for a primarily bundled marketplace.

And what about the ACC? The league is in talks with ESPN about forming a network, but with the ground shifting beneath the industry, will ESPN be willing to create a new channel? Meanwhile, the Big 12 has no conference network because Texas partners with ESPN for the Longhorn Network and Oklahoma partners with FOX for its network. Can the league survive if other leagues are making money with over-the-top deals? Or would all the Power Five leagues come together when their current deals end and pool their rights to sell at a larger premium?

 

[Fishy]

The answer is "probably not".

But it would be in keeping with our streak of misfortune that the entire system that enabled conference realignment falls apart with us standing behind the velvet rope.

 

[UConnJim]

Change is coming for TV and sports on TV. We already see games online on ESPN3 and we have had CBS stream the NCAA tournament. Yahoo is going to live stream an NFL football game in October, Buffalo/Jacksonville. And, it looks like companies like Google, Yahoo, Amazon... will be bidders for future NFL games. The cable bundle is slowly declining, but the incremental margin of losing a subscriber is close to 100% so even small sub losses kills profitability as the fixed costs are high.

In my opinion, this is good for UConn as having a fan base and attracting viewers will become much more important in the future as the way we watch sports evolves.

 

[billybud]

Yep....in the future, having a large audience wanting to view your product will become even more important.