Updated Estimate Cost of Sports Programming on Pay TV

[jimdandyvi]

FYI


The spiraling cost of sports programming "threatens to blow the entire media model apart," according to a report from Bernstein Research senior analyst Craig Moffett. Sports affiliate fees are estimated to total $12.15 a month, or about half of the average pay-TV bill. ESPN/ESPN HD and regional sports networks reportedly receive the bulk of the affiliate fees, with the former charging $4.69 and RSNs pulling in $2.28. PaidContent.org (4/6)

 

[Mr Tony]

Sports affiliate fees are estimated to total $12.15 a month, or about half of the average pay-TV bill.

I WISH my bill was only $25

 

[Ramy]

I WISH my bill was only $25

Me too, Mine is about 4X that.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

That is not the accurate costs though... as if a cable or satellite company wants to carry ESPN then it must also pay for the rest of the Disney owned networks, ESPN2, ESPN U, ESPNnews, ESPN Classic, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family and SoapNet (which is still on the air).

So there is more to the cost then just the base cost of one sports channel.

 

[dangue]

That is not the accurate costs though... as if a cable or satellite company wants to carry ESPN then it must also pay for the rest of the Disney owned networks, ESPN2, ESPN U, ESPNnews, ESPN Classic, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family and SoapNet (which is still on the air).

So there is more to the cost then just the base cost of one sports channel.

True, but that can be said about just about any channel that shares a parent company with other channels that are less desirable. So I'd called that a systemic problem, rather than a problem that can be directly tied to the sports channels. And since there's no way to accurately break down costs related to the issue, I'd say the per channel price is still going to be our best comparative analysis tool related to carriage cost.