Interesting article on the impact of Comcast decision to remove the Big Ten Network from the basic cable package at the end of their contract in August. This will likely extend to other conference networks.
It'll be interesting to see how far downstream this goes. Cable and satellite companies are eager to drop ESPN from the basic tier as well. A lot of college football revenue is funded by the gravy train of basic sub fees.
You can fast forward to the point where conferences have to make decisions over who brings value in a revenue model that has to rely more on advertising fees, first tier right fees for OTA games and for sports fans who are willing to 'pay the freight' for sports programming packages.
At that point you could see another huge shakeup and a realignment based off competitiveness and who can drive ratings, rather than geographic footprint.
At that point, the current B10 model doesn't make sense. (Rutgers is useless other than the TV market it brought). And a lot of conferences who see revenues being slashed will look for a more lucrative lineup of teams.
There could be an interesting shakeup on the horizon.
It'll be interesting to see how far downstream this goes. Cable and satellite companies are eager to drop ESPN from the basic tier as well. A lot of college football revenue is funded by the gravy train of basic sub fees.
You can fast forward to the point where conferences have to make decisions over who brings value in a revenue model that has to rely more on advertising fees, first tier right fees for OTA games and for sports fans who are willing to 'pay the freight' for sports programming packages.
At that point you could see another huge shakeup and a realignment based off competitiveness and who can drive ratings, rather than geographic footprint.
At that point, the current B10 model doesn't make sense. (Rutgers is useless other than the TV market it brought). And a lot of conferences who see revenues being slashed will look for a more lucrative lineup of teams.
There could be an interesting shakeup on the horizon.
