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Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

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Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#41

Post by mdaniel »

ubernostrum wrote: post #35
tmuir wrote: post #7

I think live sports is the last bit of programming that prevents a lot people from getting rid of cable completely. On the other hand, sports, football in particular, are one of the biggest selling points of HDTV and the high resolution picture it provides. If the future of watching football consists of the same buffering, crappy framerates and resolution, and all around frustration of using Youtube as it exists toda…

I have an MLB.tv subscription, and watch on my computer, iPad and TV (through the PS3 app). I have never had "buffering, crappy framerates and resolution, and all around frustration".

Arguably baseball television coverage has an entirely different pace to it, and I would suspect that football has a lot more complex camera-work, including multiple cut aways per play.

Based on my understanding of how most video compression works, I bet it effects the bandwidth requirements.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#42

Post by benburleson »

heyheyhey wrote: post #34
VikingCoder wrote: post #17

The math here is all wrong. It's vastly more expensive than this, if you want to provide it a la carte. All cable subscribers are currently subsidizing live sports, whether they want to or not. It's a dinosaur that should die. Sports salaries should be 1/10th of what they currently are.

> Sports salaries should be 1/10th of what they currently are. So where should that 9/10 go?

Teachers, to start.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#43

Post by eli »

tmuir wrote: post #7

I think live sports is the last bit of programming that prevents a lot people from getting rid of cable completely. On the other hand, sports, football in particular, are one of the biggest selling points of HDTV and the high resolution picture it provides. If the future of watching football consists of the same buffering, crappy framerates and resolution, and all around frustration of using Youtube as it exists toda…

Heck, last year I paid Comcast for the NHL package and it had crappy framerates and very noticeable compression artifacts. I suspect someone at Comcast was trying to save some bandwidth. Other HD channels look fine.

Which is a long way of saying, I don't think streaming video content via a cable modem is all that different from watching content via a cable box.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#44

Post by harryh »

VikingCoder wrote: post #38
heyheyhey wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sports salaries should be 1/10th of what they currently are. So where should that 9/10 go?

If the major expense of your business is the salaries of your employees, and your number of employees need to remain relatively unchanged, and your revenue drops in 1/10th, then roughly you will need to higher employees who will accept 1/10th of the wages. Some of your current employees may accept, but you can expect massive turn-over. And arguably lower-quality employees. In short, I'm being forced to pay for live s…

I'll bet you any amount that you care to wager that the salaries for NBA/NFL/MLB players don't drop by anything close to 90% at any point in the next 10 years.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#45

Post by bluedino »

tmuir wrote: post #7

I think live sports is the last bit of programming that prevents a lot people from getting rid of cable completely. On the other hand, sports, football in particular, are one of the biggest selling points of HDTV and the high resolution picture it provides. If the future of watching football consists of the same buffering, crappy framerates and resolution, and all around frustration of using Youtube as it exists toda…

The good thing about sports is you can generally go to a bar or something and watch 'the game', on the plus side they have beer and food and other people to watch it with.

You can't go to the bar (at least around here) for the sole purpose of watching the latest episode of 'Breaking Bad'.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#46

Post by VikingCoder »

harryh wrote: post #44
VikingCoder wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the major expense of your business is the salaries of your employees, and your number of employees need to remain relatively unchanged, and your revenue drops in 1/10th, then roughly you will need to higher employees who will accept 1/10th of the wages. Some of your current employees may accept, but you can expect massive turn-over. And arguably lower-quality employees. In short, I'm being forced to pay for live s…

I'll bet you any amount that you care to wager that the salaries for NBA/NFL/MLB players don't drop by anything close to 90% at any point in the next 10 years.

No try, major league sports athlete who is trying to mitigate his losses! ;-)

If taxes stopped supporting sports, and if cable / satellite customers didn't have to subsidize sports, something would have to give.

Are you just saying those things are impossible, or are you saying I'm overstating what the outcome would be?

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#47

Post by harryh »

benburleson wrote: post #42
heyheyhey wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sports salaries should be 1/10th of what they currently are. So where should that 9/10 go?

Teachers, to start.

That's a silly answer for a lot of reasons. But more than any it doesn't make much of a difference.

The NFL will spend about 3.8B on salaries next year. The NBA is around 2B. MLB is around 3.2B. Add that up and you get 9B. Spread that evenly among the 7.2 Million teachers in the US and you get: only 1,250 each.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#48

Post by harryh »

VikingCoder wrote: post #46
harryh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bet you any amount that you care to wager that the salaries for NBA/NFL/MLB players don't drop by anything close to 90% at any point in the next 10 years.

No try, major league sports athlete who is trying to mitigate his losses! ;-) If taxes stopped supporting sports, and if cable / satellite customers didn't have to subsidize sports, something would have to give. Are you just saying those things are impossible, or are you saying I'm overstating what the outcome would be?

I don't think your judgement about the degree to which cable customers subsidize sports is anywhere near correct.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#49

Post by VikingCoder »

harryh wrote: post #48
VikingCoder wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No try, major league sports athlete who is trying to mitigate his losses! ;-) If taxes stopped supporting sports, and if cable / satellite customers didn't have to subsidize sports, something would have to give. Are you just saying those things are impossible, or are you saying I'm overstating what the outcome would be?

I don't think your judgement about the degree to which cable customers subsidize sports is anywhere near correct.

> Needham & Co. estimates that ESPN rakes in $7 billion from cable customers, even though many never even watch the channel.

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/07/209820647/the-history-and-futu...

> Threatened by Internet streaming services and a fragmenting TV audience, Comcast/NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports, Turner, and CBS have agreed over the last 20 months to spend $72 billion for the TV rights to professional, Olympic, and college sports well into the next decade.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-19/news/35187681_1_sports...

> In some TV markets, Abdoulah said, sports channels account for 60 percent of the overall programming costs in the cable-TV bill because of fees for regional sports networks.

Re: Netflix should buy the NFL Sunday Ticket rights, not Google

#50

Post by harryh »

VikingCoder wrote: post #49
harryh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think your judgement about the degree to which cable customers subsidize sports is anywhere near correct.

> Needham & Co. estimates that ESPN rakes in $7 billion from cable customers, even though many never even watch the channel. http://www.npr.org/2013/08/07/209820647/the-history-and-futu... > Threatened by Internet streaming services and a fragmenting TV audience, Comcast/NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports, Turner, and CBS have agreed over the last 20 months to spend $72 billion for the TV rights to professional, Olympic, and coll…

Yes, cable is not a la carte. That doesn't automatically mean that you're subsidizing ESPN. Maybe it's the people that sign up for cable solely to get ESPN that are subsidizing all the other channels.
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