I was reading some articles about the recent announcement that ESPN would layoff 300 employees. They negotiated with the cable providers a $6 per subscriber fee. Issues are arising due to a reduction of total subscribers and a rising cost of content. A lot of this is driven by Monday night football ($1.9B ESPN pays for the rights) and other sports (NBA, etc.).
It got me thinking as they feel the heat, is there a possibility they push back on the conferences/re-negotiate terms? I honestly don't know any of the dynamics in who has leverage, I know a conference like the American has little to none on ESPN but I wonder if any of the P5 conferences take a hit down the road?
What ESPN pays for (annually):
College Football Playoffs ($608M, previous deal was $124M)
SEC ($300M, previous deal was $150M)
ACC ($240M, previous deal was $155M)
Rose Bowl ($80M, previous deal was $38M)
AAC ($15.5M)
MAC ($7.7M)
It got me thinking as they feel the heat, is there a possibility they push back on the conferences/re-negotiate terms? I honestly don't know any of the dynamics in who has leverage, I know a conference like the American has little to none on ESPN but I wonder if any of the P5 conferences take a hit down the road?
What ESPN pays for (annually):
College Football Playoffs ($608M, previous deal was $124M)
SEC ($300M, previous deal was $150M)
ACC ($240M, previous deal was $155M)
Rose Bowl ($80M, previous deal was $38M)
AAC ($15.5M)
MAC ($7.7M)
