Sports are becoming more reliant on media rights fees even as traditional TV faces challenges.
Share of sports revenue for media rights according to PwC:
1) 2013–22%
2) 2014–24%
3) 2015–26%
4) 2016–27%
5) 2017–28%
6) 2018–28%
7) 2019–29%
8) 2020–29%
9) 2021–29%
10) 2022–30%
Projected growth between 2013–22:
1) Media rights — ↑ 94%
2) Non-media rights — ↑ 42%
More growth? PwC projects that legalized sports gambling could increase media rights fees by 18%!
Subscribers by year for ESPN:
1) 2017–88M
2) 2018–86M (↓ 2%)
Flashback #1: Can a New President and Streaming Service Help ESPN Win Again?
How ESPN makes money (% of total):
1) Subscriber fees — $9.5B (79%)
2) Advertising — $2.6B (21%)
Flashback #2: What The ESPN Critics Are Missing
An excellent counter-argument to the ESPN is dead theme w/ quarterly profit estimates @ various subscriber levels and monthly pricing ($7.21 + 25% price increase):
1) 80m subs — $1.4B — $2.0B
2) 70m subs — $800M — $1.5B
3) 60m subs — $500M — $1.1B
4) 50 subs — $200M — $750M
