What's happening at ESPN is Going to Trickle Down to Sports Salaries

I believe sports leagues and associations have broadcast contracts with distributors other than ESPN (i.e. CBS, NBC, TNT, Twitter, Facebook, etc).

 

This is the golden age for sports salaries, especially the NBA. The salary cap will decline after the next CBA.

 

Agreed - the next round of TV contracts in the coming years is going to be fascinating. It will be really interesting if there were to be a cap drop in the NBA like there was the huge bump last year, and how the league handles that. Won't happen for another 6 or 7 years, though, so a lot can change, I guess.

 

In addition to these points I find it interesting on the newer generations being less interested in watching sports... Kids still play the sports but couldn't care less, like unless it's some event... Even then they're really attached to consuming media that is not sports but on their phones instead. I remember growing up and being interested in watching Sports Center in HS or reading the Chronicle Sports section etc in the 90s.. Our kids today are oversaturated with media and that there seems to be a real disconnect from Pro Sports.

Like rather than watching the event live, they'll be on Snapchat or whatever and then catch the highlights on YouTube by some crazy commentator. I don't see this being a super issue, but in another 20+ years cable/premium TV is going to have to reinvent itself and it will definitely trickle down to tv shows and sports contracts

 

Yeah it's going to have to, unless the owners want to be more generous towards the players...

 

who cares tbh. NBA scrubs now make 10 mil and it's considered normal. Their salaries to be reduced that would only be normal. I'm not going to feel sorry for millionaires whose only skill is to shoot an orange ball in a basket.

 

Good.

The Chargers debacle sprung from teams spurning their fans for fat half billion dollar relocation paydays while knowing 3/4 of their revenue comes from broadcasting rights. Fans don't win. Taxpayers get jacked.

I don't think revenue will go down much, but it'll likely stagnate and wane for the next ten years until people figure out online streaming models for live broadcasts. Until then, the networks will continue to overpay for live content over recordable streamable programming.

 

good article, thanks for posting OP

 

Less money from TV? No problem, just raise ticket prices and charge more for hot dogs.

 

Lebron, Pop, GSW, etc. sitting out nationally televised games is contributing to this.

 

Streaming (even illegal streaming) should not effect ad revenue of a live sporting event.

Broadcasters and sponsors merely need to learn how to start counting the actual views of those live ads being broadcast. imso, Streaming and millennial cable cutters aren't hurting the live sports market, antiquated ratings analytics like Nielsen Ratings are. Sponsors have to agree to a real count of viewers...in this new world of the internet.

And please don't say ppl don't watch sports live as much so they can skip commercials,,,that's been going on for decades. Live Sports are probably the TV shows that get watched in real time of broadcast more than any other shows out there. That's probably why advertisers pay the highest dollars for sports, because least likely chance of ppl recording and skipping over commercials more than anything else.

 

Too many games is the reason though. If you reduce games, you provide for more practice time and game planning and quality increases, while the number of nationally televised games actually stays the same, since there are 30 teams.

Less games per team will increase ratings and will NOT reduce number of games broadcast by TNT, ESPN, ABC one bit.

It's so freaking simple to me how this improve everything it's maddening to me that ppl still use the argument revenue will decline with less games. That is not a proven fact at all. We are just brainwashed into believing basketball is meant to be played with weeks at a time of no full practices or strategy/game-planning like the NFL has and all other levels and foreign leagues of basketball.

Maddening to watch a game played with no team practice. Yet ppl wonder why the Playoffs are SIGNIFICANLTY higher quality and NCAAs can be too. The freaking Rockets went nearly the entire month of November with no full pracitces. Same happened to GSW in March.

Oh, they're pros....they shouldn't need to practice plays, systems and game plan defenses for upcoming games. Just roll the ball out there.

Maddening how ppl buy into that and say quality can't improve so reduction of games will be a huge loss of revenue. That's not true.

 

For all those that says streaming is going to take over sports like it's taken over TV shows, keep in mind:

The content providers are actually in a better position than ever because of streaming. Shows that would be cancelled in years past are getting the a second life because that right can more easily be packaged and distributed. NBA is the content provider.

If you're talking about illegal streams, notice how most of them are not https:\\ right? With the recent change in legislation regarding what providers can sell, I'm wondering how much easier it is now to get names of streamers.

 

Sports are unique in the content realm. Rebroadcast rights aren't worth much at all; once the outcome is known there's basically no reason to watch the game. I've rewatched the entire runs of Parks and Rec and 30 Rock multiple times (and paid Netflix for the privilege); can't say the last time i ever re-watched a single entire game of any sport.

 

Live Sports are probably the MOST WATCHED programs

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