A friend of mine did tell me back in February that he wouldn't be surprised if NESN, Yes, SNY were the only RSNs left by the end of this year. I guess I can prove him wrong eventually since the new year is in just over two months from now? LOL
Since you brought up NESN, I will use them as a example how bad it will be.
Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area population is about
4.9 million people.
Typical Household size is 2.6 people, divide by the population means there are almost 1.9 Million Households.
Nationally, only about 40 Million out of 70 Million has a service that receives the RSN ( Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, smaller cable companies), the rest have a service that does not carry it ( Dish, YTTV, etc) or they have a package without it ( like entertainment with DirecTV).
So nationwide, only 58% of Live TV Subscribers get the RSN.
Apply that to the Boston area, leaves it with only 1.1 Million households.
So, the average per sub fee I keep hearing for a RSN is $6-8 a month.(ESPN is $9 for example)
So, if $6 a month, that means $6.6 Million a month, $79.2 Million a year.
If $8 a month, $8.8 Million a month, $105.6 Million a year.
From that, that have to pay very high rights fees for Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics.
I have read the Red Sox gets , estimated, $104 million a year
Then cord cutting continues, this year and next, another 10% loss, which is roughly, another 100,000 leaving Live TV in the Boston Area.
Again, give them 2-3 years
While revenue is very much in question for the 2020 season, it was time to update our local revenue estimates from 2016.
blogs.fangraphs.com