In Reply to: Deplorable, is this the apocalyptic Armageddon you keep... posted by ClockBlocker on September 08, 2024 at 07:44:34
It seems to be a fight over maintaining the disappearing linear broadcast model for Disney. DTV is seeing that model erode as consumers decline the "fat bundle" containing Disney-owned ESPN, for which ESPN collects over $8/mo from all subscribers, sports fans or not. It adds up to somewhere around $7B annually. That "free money" is what pays for the B10 contract that Ucla is now enjoying.
From the piece: "Essentially, DirecTV wants to give its customers extra subscription options that will also help it to save money in carriage fees..."
From another source: "DirecTV and other pay TV providers have lost millions of customers as streaming services have siphoned off subscribers. DirecTV lost an estimated 1.8 million subscribers in 2023, leaving it with an estimated 11.3 million at the year's end – and down from 16 million subscribers at the end of 2019, according to the Leichtman Research Group."
As DTV and other services shrink, ESPN-Disney want to hang on to the old system for as long as possible: "Disney and other networks have been resistant because fewer subscribers to their channels means fewer carriage fees."
Fewer carriage fees for ESPN mean fewer dollars for future TV rights deals which means Ucla gets cut.
In that new streaming world, Ucla's principal advantage as a media property...the size of its "TV market"...goes away since streaming doesn't require a cable or for viewers to be in a given geographic area to access content. The internet is not regional, but global. Ucla becomes just another mediocre also-ran in football.
What happens? I can't say other than to guess that the teams with consistent success and strong fan support will do fine. They likely form NFL, Jr. of 40 or so teams. The rest, like Ucla either drop football (lack of funds) or significantly downscale to what looks like a Mountain West style program operated on a shoestring budget.
This is why we can't afford the luxury of Morgan Center any longer. We have to make it to the NFL, Jr. destination by being successful. It's an existential mission.
Since Chancellor Young departed decades ago, Morgan Center has displayed disregard for football and a stifling level of incompetence in managing it. See the recent Chip Kelly debacle which they instigated, and the disastrous HC selection process they were forced into as a result of mismanaging Chip.
That's only one example. This year's schedule is another. The seating at the Rose Bowl is another. Ticket prices is another. Fighting MoW NIL development at its inception for over a year is another. Incompetence born of insular bureaucracy. The list of Morgan Center's offenses is nearly endless.
As CFB evolves into a professional sport, Morgan Center looks increasingly out of place, ill suited to the task of commercial success that we fans should demand. I will not sit quietly by while Morgan Center kills an historic program. We need business people, not government social welfare pensioners to run our program if it is to survive the coming reformation.
For all his image as a wheeler dealer and clever talent manager, Casey Wasserman looks like dumb money here. He hung his name atop a Ucla edifice that now houses the walking dead of CFB. He's not bright. He's dumb money.