So much for Liberal communism thinking it is the inventor of innovation….

I wonder if Obama thinks that because Al Gore invented the Internet?

“Except they are guaranteed truck loads more money ”

Hardly they would make 5 times per subscriber compared to what they make now.

So as long as they got a 5th of all the people who have cable (and would if that was the only place to get thier channel) they would make AS MUCH as they do currently without having someone else mark up thier product.
And in the proccess would be able to charge more to cable providers than they do now since losing that cable distribution would no longer be a threat anymore.

Yep MLB TV is subject to the same local blackout laws…Your point is?

As for your dumb captive audience remark…

If they are so CAPTIVE then why are they leaving the system and cutting the chord in droves eh?
Why don’t they get the dogs out and FORCE thier captive audience to keep on paying thier ver inflated bill each month huh?

I hope you learn a skill because you would be doomed if you ever had to do something that required some sense of business.

Actually, the phrase is “You didn’t build that by yourself”

“The only ones who have to worry about people cutting the chord are the ones who own the chord.
The TV Network could just as easily offer thier services on the net via Hulu or Netflix.”

Except they are guaranteed truck loads more money from their current cable deals than if they went ala cart and let people buy on a case by case basis.

“In fact the MLB has been doing that for years now.”

Have you used MLB.TV? It is subject to the same local blackout restrictions as regular TV. And guess which produces exponentially more revenue. The fact that the cable providers have an almost captive audience (ie they are paying for it whether they watch it or not) is something that internet can’t compete with right now.

“If I had to predict 20-30 years from now TV will eventually be an ala carte service where you subscribe to the networks you want to see that downloads an app to a smart TV and that $150-$200 average cable bill gets reduced to $50-100 but all you get are the channel you actually want to see.”

Except the majority of households with broadband are getting it from their TV provider as well. And the cable TV service deals are worth way more. What you propose is for the Cable companies to facilitate their own demise.

also, I do think what you proposed will happen eventually after a lot of ugliness (and probably federal intervention) but it will come full circle. You’ll have to subscribe to youtube/Hulu/Netflix/Amazon etc etc to get certain shows. So, you’ll be buying the whole package of what the respective providers offer to get what you really want.

The only ones who have to worry about people cutting the chord are the ones who own the chord.
The TV Network could just as easily offer thier services on the net via Hulu or Netflix.

In fact the MLB has been doing that for years now.

The TV Industry is transforming albeit slowly and hesitantlly….

But thats why the Network is still a safe thing to have because the network produces content and is not limited to distibuting over one method and can sell itself on many different chords and systems.

If I had to predict 20-30 years from now TV will eventually be an ala carte service where you subscribe to the networks you want to see that downloads an app to a smart TV and that $150-$200 average cable bill gets reduced to $50-100 but all you get are the channel you actually want to see.

I was asking myself why in the world would the Yankees want to part with any of their portion of the YES Network while it is reaping in so much. I agree with you, I think they will live to regret it especially because it is YES that is making so much the Yankee fortune.

Unless they see the handwriting on the wall for the value of sports networks – there being such a glut of them – going down in worth. I’m not a corporate marketing executive so that is only a hunch on my part based on nothing else but wondering why one would want to sell a portion of anything that lucrative – unless there is something in the Yankee financial empire we don’t know about. Or maybe this is the start of the Steinbrenner family getting away from the Yankee business while the selling price is high – for it is not beyond reason that a few years from now they might not be the money maker they are now but more like the team that spent everything they could and got nothing in return for the years between 1980 and 1995 (I don’t count 1981 for they were essentially a mediocre team that got lucky due to the split season format from the strike)

As far as SNY is concerned, we know Fred Wilpon has been adamant that selling any portion of his share of the network (after the approvals, of course) is out of the question. That in itself is an indication of how lucrative sports networks – even if not on the scale of YES – can be.

….. or is it that with all the debt tied into SNY at this point, the Wilpons would not be getting a fair share of the network’s worth?

That said, I think all Mets fans need to hope for this kind of get out of jail free card. Again, please move on from the elementary debate that more money doesn’t guarantee championships. Yes you have to spend money money wisely, but that means being wise and spending. Again, let’s say the Mets can commit to a $140MM payroll for 2013 and beyond…that would mean re-signing Wright and Dickey and bringing in more pieces to fill holes. Or trading Wright to add hitting prospects to our system that has one close to the majors, and then bringing in more MLB talent to fill holes. Oh the possibility (for good) are endless. We’re just used to always holding out for the possibility for bad.

The Dodger deal was a straight rights deal, not for a network itself.

SNY is it’s own network and therefore has more value than the simple rights it owns to broadcast Met games.

Yes would concievably be worth more as it does have a way to profitize via ad sales more revenue for more than just the baseball season but that is not the main component that would drive thier sale price.

As I stated below it is the contracts for channel space that is the most imporant asset a TV network owns.

It is those subscriber fees that pays all the operating bills and the profit is then derived (if sub fees only set break even) from ad sales that are the only things that are actually ratings based.

has NOTHING to do with thier programming and or Ratings.

Content can be changed overnight and the Rights contract is not all that valuable to the network as it can expire and not be an asset anymore.

The Value of Yes is not in the teams it has rights for but in the contracts with Cable Carriers for channel space.

If lets say the Yankees and Nets left YES network tomorrow the network would still have a contract that pays them X amount per subscriber with every cable/sat provider that they would get until the contract expires.

Since these contracts normally go for as long as 5-10 years they would have that amount of time to find new programming that might even increase viewership to use as leverage during the next contract negotiation.

If you have a contract to be carried it’s a guaranteed channel that you can turn into anything you want and still get paid regardless of the content showed on it.

So the fact that the Mets are not a great team really has no affect on the value of SNY when compared to YES.
What matters is the contracts and length of them each has with the providers to fill channel space.

The Advertising is about the only thing that is ratings driven for a TV network. And the difference between the price for a show that gets a 1 share and a 3 share is not an awful lot of money when it comes down to it…About 2-3K a pop

I don’t know if anyone predicted the Fox Sports deal if the rumors turn out to be true could be in the $6B to $7B range. I read an LA Times article that referenced the previous Dodger ownership seeking half that in the Fox Sports deal.

What has yet to be known and may not be for some time is what is SNY worth today? Could they be worth more than what some might suggest? I’d be curios to know that.

What are you getting if you purchase SNY right now? You’re getting a 70-80 win baseball team on your network annnnd?

nothing.

The 3 biggest tv markets/fan bases in the Big East were Rutgers, Syracuse and Uconn. Once Uconn officially goes to the ACC, what is left for the big east on tv? It’s value plummets.

The football season brings them nothing but games nobody in the market cares for, the nba season nothing, nhl nothing, ncaa b brings some low level games at best.

Fox is trying to nationalize their sports brand to rival ESPN. That is why they bought the Yes shares. They want Yanks and Dodgers, two largest sports markets across the country with 1 network. Plus they have the Pac 12 and the Lakers, now Brooklyn Nets with the deal.

The Mets have nothing to do with that.

Also, this is just the Yankees hedging their bets against the upcoming bubble bursting. We’re seeing customers fighting back against rising cable rates and the cable providers turning on the sports networks.

The Mets would be dmb to sell of the network and truth is Time Warner would never allow that deal to go through.
The only reason why Fox could get the 49% was because a 30% partner wanted out of the investment.

In rder for the Wilpons to do a similar thing they would have to get Time Warner to want out of the partnership.

Considring thier past fights with the folks at Fox it is unlikely they would agree to it and more likely that they would instead buy Wilpon out and own the network outright.

This is not the time to sell a TV network no matter how much money is thrown at you.

The industry is in the throws of a transition phase with Digital over IP being the next big distibution method (See Hulu and Netflix as examples)

And bottom line even if they did make a similar deal there is no proof that any of that money would go towards spending on a team that it’s own fans refuse to go see and support.

I read last year SNY was reported to be bringing in about $300M a year from just monthly subscriber fees. If SNY is indeed worth 2 or 3 times more than what it was say last year then I would think as Joe D said SNY would be like a “Get out of jail free card” or in this case a “Get out of debt free card”.

If you think losing year after year is cool, become a Pirates fan.