On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 4:08 AM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote:
> Oh, I know I could. In fact, I have two of them bookmarked on my computer > right now. But that's not the point: I *want* to pay for this. I'd be happy > to pay for this. The leagues/teams simply refuse to do this because they > will not trade the known (TV rights fees) for the unknown (online licensing > payments), even though the unknown could be significantly higher. They are > the pinnacle of risk-averse when it comes to their business models. And > that just drives me up the wall. > > (Besides: those streams don't allow me to watch the event with any sort of > time shifting, which is kind of important for those who don't want to wake > up at 3:30 AM CT for a Grand Prix from Asia.) > > I will stop here before I turn this into a larger rant that ends with me > telling an entire generation of people to just start dying already. > Like Joe I too am an avid sports fan, and have both the means and the motivation to pay hundreds of dollars a year to get the kind of access I want to my preferred sports events and teams. I am not sure why living in Chicago makes it so difficult for you to sign up for the MLB package - it seems like if I wanted to I could watch every single baseball game every season, as all non-GIant and non-A's games (my home market teams) are on the package, and every single one of my home market team's games are on either cable or broadcast television. But maybe Chicago has different rules? I am content to just watch every one of my home team's (well, Giant) games. I am an avid follower of an out of market sports team (Lakers) and so I do get the NBA package, which allows me to watch every single Laker game (with one irritating exception - they have me as being in both the home market for Sacramento and Golden State, and Sacramento does not have a cable deal, so when the Lakers are playing in Sacramento I am blacked out, and have no way to see them). I do not follow what to me are more boutique sports (in the US) like F1, but I can see how getting access to that might be difficult. All of that to say that, while risk aversion does seem to be a hard wired bias for homo sapiens (I am just finishing up the interesting "Scorecasting", which explores how this relates to sports in different ways) I am not convinced that the reluctance of sports leagues to move to online licensing payments instead of TV rights fees is all that irrational. I think you (Joe) are overestimating just how many people are both able and willing to pay the kinds of online fees that would be necessary to make such a system work. The key element in the current model, which motivated this thread in the first place, is that millions of people that under (or never) utilize the project are already paying a hundred dollars a year to subsidize sports on cable television. If you were the MLB or NBA (and I agree the NFL is sui generis) I think you would need a hell of a lot more than back of the envelope figuring to be convinced that you can make more money by charging a fraction of the population more money to watch your games than you can by getting the total universe of cable homes, including the majority who don't give a damn about your games, to pay less money not to watch your games. The current model seems both more likely to generate higher revenue, but is also more stable and resistant to cycles (recession, or a downturn in the appeal of a particular team or sport, might crater niche-based online licensing payments in particular years). Part of what makes the TV rights fees so lucrative in the modern era is that first broadcasters and then cable outlets (illustrated by I think CBS in the early 90s, and Fox throughout their experience with MLB; NBC with the Olympics and SNF; ESPN with most obviously the NFL, but also other sports) are motivated to significantly overpay for sports rights, hoping that it will leverage other interests for them (advertising prime time programing, intangible prestige, extorting cable providers). As long as TV is willing to overpay, I am not sure the kind of online payments you envision will be able to generate as much, or as consistent, revenue. The situation might be different however for smaller (in the sense of US demand) sports, almost by definition those unable to get huge cable rights fees. It seems to me that the kind of system you are asking for is much more likely to start in a sport like that than with one of the well established, high demand, pro or college leagues. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
