UE11 wrote:Find investors, buy the digital broadcast rights to MVC and whatever other niche sport leagues you want, offer them to whomever wants them free of charge.
The MVC is in this deal through 2025 IIRC. ESPN negotiates with the MVC saying "ESPN3 is available in 80 million homes", and then drastically reduces that potential audience by un-bundling from the cable bill. I always understood that ESPN3 was paid for by my cable provider. My cable bill went up by 10% this spring, and now it does not include a substantial portion of the programming I watch in January and February.
I definitely will not be paying ESPN their extra $5 a month. Listening to road games on radio was just fine in the past, and will be fine in 2019.