Warner/Discovery, Fox, and BSPN joining to create a sports streaming service, taking more of your money

Developing story


https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/espn-fox-warner-bros-discovery-sports-streaming

That’s just cable

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:That’s just cable

If it’s carrying a game you want to watch you’ll need to fork over more $$.

The answer is to just stop watching sports.

This is pretty inevitable. I noticed a lot of HBO/MAX shows are back on Netflix. I'll gladly cancel paramount and peacock. I canceled prime for now, but have until July to decide. Max comes with my phone bill. I'm going to cancel Disney but missed when the axial billing came up. Netflix I can easily watch about 20 hours a week.

Those businesses aren’t “taking your money”. You are making a decision to give them your money so you can watch what they broadcast..
The Golden Age of having a college or professional sports event available that’s covered in in basic cable or on air TV began going extinct the day cable and personal dish companies created the sports tier for an extra fee.

It’s not coincidental this comes out days after the Big Ten and SEC commissioners said they met about their conferences setting up a framework for college football.
Now anyone who buys the PPV or season package is an NIL donor.

So it's basically what Hulu used to be, but for sports.

After reading several articles about this move I think this is an accounting move instigated by Robert Iger to break off money losing ESPN from Disney.  

Disney was hit by multiple forces.  Cord cutters decimated ESPN income and some of the cable customers who stayed did so by cancelling their sports tier.  Add on ESPN continued to bid huge amounts for NFL, NBA and college conferences rights for as long as a decade.

All the parties of the new network know there will be more  bidding wars in the future and good way to limit bidding is to have the bidding parties merge.