I've wondered about all the promos from the beginning. How is a network suppose to make money if it only advertises for itself?
Could be ... but then advertising in all media is reportedly down due to the general economy.I'm very surprised in the lack of advertisers now that most major cable companies carry the BTN. It must mean that the increased reach of the network hasn't translated in a substantial increase in eyeballs.
I was told last year by a U of M financial insider that the BTN was trying to negotiate with schools to restructure or reduce contractual payouts when they were in the battle with the cable companies. Most of the BT schools were willing to pitch in and "make it work." The one holdout was Ohio State, the wealthiest among the schools.
Clearly, this is not purely a partnership where profits are divided into agreed upon portions. Essentially, the schools don't "lose" if the network does not meet its plan. Whoever "owns" it is paying the schools, and the 51/49 ownership agreement between Fox and the schools is not an equal division of the risk.
Advertising dollars are fewer, but it may also be a sign that the sports market on TV is just plain saturated. Even for us sports fanatics, there are only so many hours you can have games on TV. It is good to go the office now and again, too.
To the point of another poster, there is no way that BTN gets 20 cents per dish!
I think you are over-estimating quite a bit on the subscriber fees. While they do get $.50-.60 per subscriber in the footprint, they get virtually nothing for the subscribers outside the footprint. On DirecTV, it is a 'basic' channel, but I'm sure they don't pay much for those outside the area. (And if they do it doesn't matter since Fox owns 100% of DirecTV and 49% of the BTN.) For Dish and Cable, they are only included in sports packs outside the footprint. So they may be an ok amount per subscriber but only a small % of overall cable subsribers pay for the premium sports package.