The Sports Law Guru

On Monday the Bowl Championship Series announced that it was moving from FOX to ESPN in 2011.  This is the latest instance of ESPN exerting its force to show that it can compete directly with the over-the-air networks.  ESPN’s acquisition of the rights to NFL Monday Night Football two years ago was another big step in this direction.  While cable and satellite have been mainstream for quite sometime, they have never been able to truly compete directly with the over-the-air networks in terms of total viewers.  The cable channels just couldn’t generate the same advertising revenue that the networks could and, hence, couldn’t afford the licensing fees demanded by the major sports properties.  Once again, ESPN is changing the way we look at cable television. [Side note: In a fit of defiance, The Guru canceled his cable subscription last month when Brighthouse stopped carrying CBS (read Colts games), due to a dispute with the local CBS affiliate --- ESPN is the only channel that I miss...]

Another important point of fact is that ESPN will be paying $125,000,000.00 per year for the rights.  Whereas, FOX was paying $82,500,000.00 per year.  That is an increase of over 50%!  Wow! Who says that the weak economy is hurting sports properties…