Even if you don’t care to watch Kobe Bryant (24), your cable payment helps pay his salary. (Photo: The Associated Press)
There’s an interesting piece in the Sunday LA Times by Joe Flint and Meg James on how the megadeals between cable providers and sports leagues and franchises are impacting those who never watch the games. In other words, if you hate sports, you gotta pay anyway.
Then again, there are a lot of channels I never watch, but they’re included in my cable bill anyway. You see me complaining? (Wait, don’t answer that.)
This is, of course, at the heart of the current dispute between the Pac-12 Networks on one side and DirecTV and Charter on the other, or the recent staredown between DirecTV and Time Warner Cable over the SportsNet and Deportes (re: Lakers) channels.
Should those who don’t watch them have to pay for them on a basic tier — because you know the cable or satellite provider is going to pass on the costs of the contract to you, the subscriber — or should they be on a tier where only fans pay for them?
Realize, too, that if THAT happens, either these insane rights fees agreements go down, or more likely the price of the sports tier spikes even higher. And if you’re a network that has already entered into, say, a long-term $3 billion contract with, say, the Lakers, and then the mode of distribution changes halfway through the contract, you’re stuck.
Are we ultimately headed for a la carte programming, as has been suggested in This Space before?
“The technology is already there to go a la carte,” said Paul Swangard of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon in a recent interview. “I just don’t know if fans would embrace the idea. If it went to a true a la carte menu, a lot of people would probably be paying more than tey have in the past.
“It’s all built on the premise that the fans who are out there will ultimately swallow the new model and be willing to pay the premium to get it. Will they still watch the way they once watched, so the advertising revenue continues to be there?”
Still, if it’s your favorite team, and that’s the only way to watch, odds are you’ll pony up.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Fox missed the deadline on their exclusive negotiating window, but the parties are said to still be in talks over the reported mega-mega-mega deal for $6 billion or so, including equity for the team in the Prime Ticket channel. It’s a deal that would (a) justify the $2.1 billion Guggenheim Partners spent for the franchise and (b) rock baseball’s competitive balance but (c) pay Dodgers fans back for the hand-to-mouth existence of the Frank McCourt years.
But keep this in mind: Once the Dodgers reach a new TV deal, which goes into effect in the 2014 season, you can say goodbye forever to those 50 or so games a season on free TV.
And if so, there’s a case to be made that it’s your own fault.
“People can complain all they want,” Swangard said “But it’s partly the fans’ own bhavior that not only explains but perhaps justifies the (complete) shift to cable.”
