The High Cost of Sports

Your large cable bill is probably due (at least in part) to sports broadcasting. Programming costs of sports are very high and networks such as ESPN are passing on the costs to cable companies which, in turn, pass the costs on to consumers. According to the Wall Street Journal, “ESPN charges the highest per-household subscription fee of any cable channel, according to SNL Kagan [a study], which estimates its monthly per-subscriber fees for the flagship channel have risen 42% to $4.69 since 2006. The average cable channel fee rose 24% over that same period to 26 cents a month.”

Of course the market for sports on TV is fragmenting as more and more viewers can stream games on the internet at a fraction of the cost (or for free). However a spokesperson for ESPN defends its value in a statement "ESPN is consistently ranked by cable operators as the most compelling and comprehensive driver of their businesses, offering more total value in a multiplatform world than any other basic cable network by far." How the cable and satellite companies react (either changing bundles or updating costs for sports programming) will be interesting. Personally I think most sports fans will continue to pay rising costs to keep sports broadcasting in their homes, however I do not know home much longer the cable companies will be able to justify spreading those costs across all subscriber packages. Ref. wsj.com Pic Ref. wsop.com