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ESPN buying all Fox Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports.

That's interesting because a lot of those channels own the rights to basically all NBA, NHL and/or MLB games for the teams in those markets. Does ESPN now own those or does Fox retain? The latter wouldn't make much sense.
 
Bizarre decision by EPSN. Truly bizarre.

What's eaten up ESPN the last few years? Cable cutting and overpaying for licensing rights. So what do they do? Go buy a bunch of cable dependent regional networks who have financial issues negotiating rights. Huh??? Now they're responsible for hours and hours of programming after having just cut tons of on air and behind the scenes talent. What???

I have zero idea why they're doing this. It looks like a disaster on paper.
 
That's interesting because a lot of those channels own the rights to basically all NBA, NHL and/or MLB games for the teams in those markets. Does ESPN now own those or does Fox retain? The latter wouldn't make much sense.

I hope if ESPN owns the rights now, they’ll be available on WatchESPN
 
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From the link:

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reported that “[Rupert] Murdoch has not been high on the RSNs for several years. Same old media story: rights fees rising at a faster rate than affiliate revenue.”

Mojocat: something that can't continue indefinitely, won't.
 
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I thought ESPUNC was having financial problems?

ESPN Itself is hemorrhaging money like crazy. When your parent company is Disney though there is and endless supply of cash to do as you please. It's a long term move to buy up some of the competition and regain a stable control over the market. I think their programming is the issue, it's gone downhill past 10 years quickly. Too many dumbass shows with people who aren't enjoyable to watch. Until they deliver a better product I see them still losing money at a steady pace.
 
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You bring up a very interesting point. Didn't realize that IF the Disney acquisition of Fox goes through that the sports assets would be potentially merged. Or they could operate a tad separately. For example, NO WAY would ABC and Fox channels merge, or the Fox News and ABC News Channels merge...that would be kind of funny however...

But they will want to negotiate TV Sports deals together, so likely keep them separate. This will help ESPN since Fox channels would likely be included in the Cable packages.
 
You bring up a very interesting point. Didn't realize that IF the Disney acquisition of Fox goes through that the sports assets would be potentially merged. Or they could operate a tad separately. For example, NO WAY would ABC and Fox channels merge, or the Fox News and ABC News Channels merge...that would be kind of funny however...

But they will want to negotiate TV Sports deals together, so likely keep them separate. This will help ESPN since Fox channels would likely be included in the Cable packages.

They aren't buying Fox News or Fox as a channel. They are buying the regional sports networks such as fox sports south, fox sports Midwest etc.

Edit: nevermind reread and realized you are right. That is an interesting discussion for sure. ABC and Fox are quite different in my mind. Will be interesting to see what happens moving forward.
 
I thought ESPUNC was having financial problems?

No, ESPN is not having financial problems. The problem is that the grotesquely large profits are now just large profits. They are still growing revenue but just not as fast as before.

ESPN Itself is hemorrhaging money like crazy. When your parent company is Disney though there is and endless supply of cash to do as you please. It's a long term move to buy up some of the competition and regain a stable control over the market. I think their programming is the issue, it's gone downhill past 10 years quickly. Too many dumbass shows with people who aren't enjoyable to watch. Until they deliver a better product I see them still losing money at a steady pace.

No, ESPN is not hemorrhaging money they are actually increasing revenues still and EBITDA is increasing once again.

ESPN_BaseCaseH.jpg
 
No, ESPN is not having financial problems. The problem is that the grotesquely large profits are now just large profits. They are still growing revenue but just not as fast as before.



No, ESPN is not hemorrhaging money they are actually increasing revenues still and EBITDA is increasing once again.

ESPN_BaseCaseH.jpg

You can be hemorrhaging money and not show a loss on the books at the present moment. Doesn't mean throwing these ridiculous amounts of money for the rights to sporting events isn't throwing money away they will never get back. Simple facts is that it will cause them to not be profitable anymore in the near future. Combine that with a drastic decline in subscribers and it proves the current ESPN model isn't profitable anymore. Look past the immediate numbers and into the decisions they have been making. There is a reason they cut back on staff and other changes they have made, it's a desperate attempt to remain profitable. Thing is they aren't making the changes needed to remain profitable moving forward. Rarely is payroll the issue just like it wasn't here.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.brei...s-losses-espn-dump-monday-night-football/amp/

https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn-cant-afford-monday-night-football/
 
You can be hemorrhaging money and not show a loss on the books at the present moment. Doesn't mean throwing these ridiculous amounts of money for the rights to sporting events isn't throwing money away they will never get back. Simple facts is that it will cause them to not be profitable anymore in the near future. Combine that with a drastic decline in subscribers and it proves the current ESPN model isn't profitable anymore. Look past the immediate numbers and into the decisions they have been making. There is a reason they cut back on staff and other changes they have made, it's a desperate attempt to remain profitable. Thing is they aren't making the changes needed to remain profitable moving forward. Rarely is payroll the issue just like it wasn't here.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.brei...s-losses-espn-dump-monday-night-football/amp/

https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn-cant-afford-monday-night-football/

Read Disney's financial statements not Breitbart.

ESPN is still grossly profitable but not growing revenue and profits as fast as in the past. ESPN contributed 31% EBITIDA to Disney minus the 20% not owned by DIS and in 2017 it is estimated to be down to 26%. But in future years ESPN is projected to start accelerating again with the cost cuts ESPN is implementing. This accounts for the cord cutting and increased rights fees ESPN will be paying. So while disruption is painful, ESPN is still increasing revenues year over year and is still wildly profitable for the foreseeable future

I know everyone wishes that ESPN is failing but that is not the case. Not saying it can't never happen but $5.1 billion EBITIDA IN 2017 and projected to increase to $6.4 billion in 2020 is very profitable (this takes into account the continued loss to cord cutters and rise in rights fees).
 
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I've heard that's going to be pay only at some point. :(
It's not going to be pay only, they're going to start selling access separately to non-cable/satellite subscribers. Like HBO. It's their ace up their sleeve. Regular subscribers would be unaffected.
 
That's interesting because a lot of those channels own the rights to basically all NBA, NHL and/or MLB games for the teams in those markets. Does ESPN now own those or does Fox retain? The latter wouldn't make much sense.
I hope the FCC nixes that.
 
How much more before they hit the monopoly ceiling? or can they be a monopoly?
 
Bizarre decision by EPSN. Truly bizarre.

What's eaten up ESPN the last few years? Cable cutting and overpaying for licensing rights. So what do they do? Go buy a bunch of cable dependent regional networks who have financial issues negotiating rights. Huh??? Now they're responsible for hours and hours of programming after having just cut tons of on air and behind the scenes talent. What???

I have zero idea why they're doing this. It looks like a disaster on paper.
It's been speculated for weeks that this could happen but this is only half of the story. The news that first broke was that Disney would be buying most of the Fox content. Think 20th Century Fox, FX, Sky, Nat Geo, FS1, Big Ten Network etc. Disney also announced plans to create a Direct-to-Consumer streaming service to compete with Netflix.

Own Disney.
 
I read several years ago that the fee ESPN charges cable companies is the single biggest part of most people's cable bill. Their world has been rocked by streaming, and so many people giving up cable/sat TV. That has to be what's behind this.
 
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The purchase if it happens will only prove that espn will destroy more sports on more channels then ever before. Heck Coach K will have a place to go for a job after retirement so that he can continue promoting the Dook product.
 
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Actually it’s more Disney buying Fox than ESPN buying fox sports. On the tv side you will probably see most of the Fox stuff stay the same, though I could be wrong. The movie side is where the big changes will happen.

And this deal was evidently being done just hours ago. It moved extremely fast. The first estimates were maybe Fox would be sold by the first of the year and Disney wasn’t even the one for sure buying it. This was just last week or so. Disney reportedly bid 60 BILLION, billion with a B, to buy Fox and the ball got rolling.
 
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