Nov 19 2008
ESPN Wins BCS TV Rights: Another Blow to Football Fans Without Cable
For those football fans without cable TV, you are now officially in trouble:
ESPN and the Bowl Championship Series confirmed Tuesday that they have reached agreement on a four-year television deal beginning in 2011 that gives the cable network broadcast rights to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and the national championship game, which rotates among those three plus the Rose Bowl. Sources from both sides said the contract is worth $500 million.
Perhaps this is a sign of the times. It’s getting harder to find the “free lunch” in the sports world. Prime sports are moving more toward a pay-per-view option:
ESPN and other cable network providers say this isn’t a big deal, noting that in most American homes today, subscription TV is a utility, like power and water. An estimated 98 million of America’s 118 million television households have cable or satellite systems.
Moreover, some of that other 20 million are a step ahead, not a step behind. They’re iPhonegeneration kids who skip cable so they can get higher-octane Internet – and watch TV that way.
But still, for the 15 million to 20 million households that only have broadcast TV, Tuesday’s announcement is the bluntest declaration so far that they’re being shut out of one of America’s biggest cultural common denominators: major sports.
It is true, as cable and sports operators note, that this is a business with costs, and no one has a right to enjoy the product for nothing.
OK. So most of us already have ESPN and having access online helps those who do not have cable. Add to that the digital TV conversion in February and it looks like not having cable/satellite is no longer even an option for sports fans or TV viewers in general.
I know the “bottom-line” mentality has been around since the first exchange of goods, but it seems that we are getting out-of-hand. Advertising is squeezed into every possible corner, even on the field of play and the player’s uniforms. Commercials run over top of plays and have worked their way into the play-by-play. We are already paying for the right to view sports. At what point does it end?
