A Sea Of Red

PilotOnline.com wrote:Sources: Conference USA, ODU will see vastly reduced TV revenue next season

By Harry Minium
The Virginian-Pilot
Jan 12, 2016



Old Dominion and the other 13 Conference USA schools apparently will have to make do with about $500,000 less in television revenue next season.

League TV revenue is likely to fall by about half when new contracts with Fox Sports and the CBS Sports Network take effect July 1, according to sources at three schools familiar with C-USA’s TV contract negotiations.

The two networks paid the league more than $14 million per year – about $1.17 million per school – for the past six years. Although the new contracts haven’t been finalized, negotiations are nearing completion, sources said.

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Not really a surprise as the shuffling took a major toll on CUSA. But the big driver in the lower revenues was rapid decline in cable subscriptions that is hammering all the sports networks right now.

I just had the same article e-mailed to me. I was surprised to see that Sly's point wasn't mentioned in the article.

On the one hand, it makes a leap for Liberty straight to CUSA seem easier. On the other hand, even less money between all the schools probably means less desirable to bring in another member to just split a smaller pie.

USA and ASN have had a great relationship. Proud to be a big part of that on the basketball side of things. Now that ASN is 24/7 in 10 markets with plans to grow, ASN needs to really ramp up the advertising sales and get the network to be a true competitor with the other networks. I'm excited about the possibilities for growth and revenue.

Who wouldn't want to see MARSHALL play on TV all the time?

Cider Jim wrote:Who wouldn't want to see MARSHALL play on TV all the time?

Purple Haize

ATrain wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:Who wouldn't want to see MARSHALL play on TV all the time?

Purple Haize

Well if there was nothing else on.

Purple Haize wrote:

ATrain wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:Who wouldn't want to see MARSHALL play on TV all the time?

Purple Haize

Well if there was nothing else on.

...and only because you can't MARSHALL the energy to find the remote.

Best summary of how I see things standing that was posted recently:

The Big Lead wrote:ESPN Cord-Cutting Could Cause Radical Change in College Football - Like Another Realignment, Soon
By: Ty Duffy

College Football is undergoing a TV revenue bubble. ESPN is overpaying for content – be it conference deals, bowl games, or the playoff – to muscle out competition. With the cable model changing, ESPN’s outlook looks anything but promising.

ESPN has billions committed to rights deals in multiple sports through the next decade. However, its revenue stream, based on widespread, bundled cable subscriptions, is fading. ESPN has lost millions of subscribers the past two years due to outright cord-cutting.* Were cable to be unbundled, a survey found that more than 50 percent of users would cancel expensive ($8 per month) ESPN/ESPN2. At least one analyst sees ESPN tanking Disney’s stock.

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Not sure I agree with him about the "soon" part of the discussion. But these are the hard, cold facts as it related to cable network revenue.