Impact of Disney Acquisition of Fox Properties

[stever20]

I have previously been on record to not immediately dismiss ESPN pursuing the Big East once the contract comes close to ending. ESPN, for all intents and purposes, has pulled back from it's "Requiem for the Big East" and "R.I.P. Big East" days from a few years ago. In recent weeks, numerous broadcasters for promoted the Big East as a top basketball conference, even diminishing their own product and our local resident's favorite conference, the American. With the regional sports networks under Fox now going to ESPN, and the need for more content once again coming to the forefront, I definitely see ESPN making a pursuit to reacquire the Big East package under its banner. Not only is it one of the best basketball conferences consistently year-to-year, the Big East was - for over three decades - ESPN's baby. It probably stung incredibly hard to not only for them to see the Big East continue to thrive, after their attempt to sell off its top pieces to other conferences that it owned the rights to, but also because they are now on a competitors network. The Big East Tournament, one of the staples of ESPN, and still regularly getting close to 20k during the semifinals and finals, cannot be shown on ESPN.

Conversely, I think this will inevitably end up negatively impacting the American. ESPN's stance on the AAC has been and is currently clear: they don't view them as a power conference, and only view them as content fillers on ESPN 2 and ESPNU. They don't want to pay them a single dollar more than they feel they are worth. With all of the new channels acquired today, many of the ESPN3 games will probably be bumped to those channels. Most importantly, the big dog (ESPN) just acquired many pieces of its top competitor. Without competition, there is not demand for the content. Without demand, the American will not be able to go to other networks in an attempt to drive up its price. With the new ACC network, they will have plenty of content to distribute on the East coast through these new channels. Less competition means far fewer options and lower revenue for content providers. This has the American written all over it.

If nothing else, I hope we finally get a decent Fantastic Four movie.

It acquired many pieces of it's top competitor, but didn't acquire the big sports parts of it. There's still a group with FS1, FS2, and Big Fox that's still going to be out there as competition for ESPN. What you're saying would have applied if ESPN had gotten FS1 and all of fox's sports properties. But they didn't.

My hunch is that we see ESPN get the CBS subleased part of the Big East after that ends after the 2018-19 season. And wouldn't be surprised if it's for more games than what we currently see.

[stever20]

one thing you wonder about will be the games that are for the Big East that have gone to FSN before. Will those still go there, or will those be more on FS2 or even more on CBSSN.

[ecasadoSBU]

I don't think going back to ESPN is going to help the Big East. We are going to have to compete for TV slots for the games against Football-5 teams which have larger fanbases and eyeballs. Its not going to be like now when we have most Big East games on FS1. They'll probably put a few matchups on ESPN... but most will be on ESPN2/ESPNU. No good.

I hope Fox Sports doesn't give the Big East up after the contract ends

[DeltaV]

I don't think going back to ESPN is going to help the Big East. We are going to have to compete for TV slots for the games against Football-5 teams which have larger fanbases and eyeballs. Its not going to be like now when we have most Big East games on FS1. They'll probably put a few matchups on ESPN... but most will be on ESPN2/ESPNU. No good.

I hope Fox Sports doesn't give the Big East up after the contract ends

How many eyeballs will come via streaming vs. actually tuning in to a channel by the time our contract is up? Will it even matter?

[NJRedman]

I don't think going back to ESPN is going to help the Big East. We are going to have to compete for TV slots for the games against Football-5 teams which have larger fanbases and eyeballs. Its not going to be like now when we have most Big East games on FS1. They'll probably put a few matchups on ESPN... but most will be on ESPN2/ESPNU. No good.

I hope Fox Sports doesn't give the Big East up after the contract ends

Thats gonna happen on Fox too, so why is it bad to have some of our content on ESPN?

[NJRedman]

I don't think going back to ESPN is going to help the Big East. We are going to have to compete for TV slots for the games against Football-5 teams which have larger fanbases and eyeballs. Its not going to be like now when we have most Big East games on FS1. They'll probably put a few matchups on ESPN... but most will be on ESPN2/ESPNU. No good.

I hope Fox Sports doesn't give the Big East up after the contract ends

How many eyeballs will come via streaming vs. actually tuning in to a channel by the time our contract is up? Will it even matter?

Very good point, I think it will mostly be streaming in the next decade.

[BEwannabe]

From what I've gathered over the last week is you 2 are spot on. The competitors in the future are more likely Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter. Not sure what impact it has on sports contracts but there is going to be plenty of competition for content. I took my son and 3 of his buddies to NCAA 1st round games last year and while I was driving and listening to a game on XM they were all on their handhelds watching their game of choice. When we got to Indy and grabbed a bite to eat at a sports bar with big screens everywhere they stayed tune to the games in large part on their mobile devices. Streaming has changed the world of tv like no other change in broadcasting history. Another anecdotal case, a long time friend of mine lives in South FLorida but never misses a football or basketball game of the Ohio D3 college he graduated, again all by streaming. Apple has a $215 billion, Microsoft $113 billion and Google 50 billion in cash overseas and could be bringing it back to USA in 2018. 1 thing for sure the media space is very entertaining to watch the developments and I think the next couple of years will be fascinating and if anything Disney is playing from behind.

[ArmyVet]

Big East moving back to ESPN would be good for the league's identity, but most of the truest fans here would lament the fact that only a portion of their team's games would then be broadcast nationally.

[ArmyVet]

Well that was quick. Disney selling their sports networks for $10 billion.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, the largest U.S. broadcast station owner, has reached a deal valued at more than $10 billion to buy 21 regional sports networks from Walt Disney Co, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The deal, which would include sports channels in Los Angeles and Detroit, is expected to be announced as early as Friday, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Disney and Sinclair were not immediately available for comment.

Disney acquired the sports networks as part of its $71 billion acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's film and television assets.

The company agreed to sell the networks after the U.S. Justice Department said Disney, which owns cable sports network ESPN, must divest the Fox networks that provide sports programming for regional and local markets.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/sinc ... nance.html