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ABC/Disney to make cuts

TheBigA said:
Absolutely not. Don't think of ESPN as a cable channel. Thing of it as a brand.
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Just do demonstrate how brand recognition works. When my son (now 30) was about 8 years old, he told me about somebody who he thought was a psychic, or could read minds. He told me that person "has ESPN."
 
Dang I remember when I was a child Disney and the biggest brands at the time of Disney were Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Ducktales crew and Goofy.

Now all these decades later now the biggest brand Disney has are ESPN pundits, Star Wars and Pixar movies. I did not think the brand within Disney would shift dramatically in three decades though.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Dang I remember when I was a child Disney and the biggest brands at the time of Disney were Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Ducktales crew and Goofy.

Now all these decades later now the biggest brand Disney has are ESPN pundits, Star Wars and Pixar movies. I did not think the brand within Disney would shift dramatically in three decades though.
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Surprised they are cutting back since you can live on Star Wars alone. Well Star Wars and Star Trek.
 
TheBigA said:
Absolutely not. Don't think of ESPN as a cable channel. Thing of it as a brand. That's how Disney views it. They are building a massive subscription video streaming business, and ESPN is a big part of it. Soon you'll pay Disney, not your cable company, for sports.
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For some, that would be an ideal route to follow. I see ESPN as an added $90 a year on my cable bill for something I never, ever view.

Were the service subscription based, it might just hold ever-increasing cable bills down to a level of sustainability.
 
TheBigA said:
My cable bill went up 30% this year, and none of it was based on increases in sports channels.
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Honest question, not to be a smart aleck--was it purely cable TV? I hear friends complain, but sometimes the overall bill increase includes increases to TV, internet and/or phone--or whatever other bundled service they may have. Or their previous promotion expired, which like any promotion can cause sticker shock.

But to ESPN, I'd love not to pay for the sports channels. Given how little I watch them, I'd take those off in a heartbeat, but understand the larger economic picture...just as I can't "not pay" for my local paper's sports section even if it provides no use to me.
 
Not that I'm necessarily defending cable companies, but sub fees keep going up and up. Those charges have to come from somewhere. Local TV stations in mid to larger markets keep getting closer to the magic $2.00 per sub.

Take a market like Los Angeles; in spite of the population density, every cable subscriber is going to see an increase in their bill from local stations adding all these 'dot-2' channels like Grit, Antenna, and other classic TV networks to the local market, let alone the big four network affiliates constantly renegotiating their retrans agreements with the cable folks. Then add in the race to have the better Internet connections?

No wonder cable TV as a business, has such poor operating margins.
 
Interestingly my brother has Dish Network, and he says they keep offering to come out and install an OTA antenna for him for free. I guess that makes more business sense to them than continual carriage fee battles.

Looks like the cable systems may decide to just walk away from sub fees.
 
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RadioPatrol said:
Disney in talks with Fox over getting the film division. Note ABC will not get Fox owned stations and Fox News.
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This is a traditional horizontal merger, which usually gets the attention of the DOJ. Wonder how they'd rule now given what they said about AT&T.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Looks like the cable systems may decide to just walk away from sub fees.
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I would love it if my cable operator gave me the option to unsubscribe to the local channels. The cable co charges me a fee of nearly $11 a month for the local broadcasters.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I would love it if my cable operator gave me the option to unsubscribe to the local channels. The cable co charges me a fee of nearly $11 a month for the local broadcasters.
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They USED to be required, and they USED to be free. It was one of the things that got people hooked on cable.
 
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