https://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2017/06/espn-distribution-contracts-update-2017.html?showComment=1498678629808#!/2017/06/espn-distribution-contracts-update-2017.html
According to Sports Business Daily...
Between now and the ACC Network’s planned launch in 2019, ESPN also has affiliate deals coming up with Verizon Fios (at the end of 2018), Charter (mid-2019) and AT&T (late 2019)Add to that some information I was able to Google about current subscribers for Sling, DirectTV Now and Playstation Vue, along with information in my previous post on ACC Network distribution, and we come up with an updated table of ESPN distributors:
ESPN Contract Renewals with TV Distributors
| Distributor | Renewal | subscribers* |
| Comcast | 2021 | 22.4 |
| DirectTV | 20.8 | |
| Charter | 2019 | 17.3 |
| DISH | 2022 | 13.6 |
| Verizon/FiOS | 2019 | 4.7 |
| ATT Uverse | 2019 | 4.5 |
| Cox | ? | 4.5 |
| Altice | 2017 | 3.6 |
| Frontier | ? | 1.3 |
| Sling TV | ? | 1 |
| Mediacom | ? | 0.8 |
| DirectTV Now | ? | 0.4 |
| PS Vue | ? | 0.4 |
| Windstream | ? | 0.36 |
| RCN | ? | 0.33 |
| Cable ONE | ? | 0.3 |
| Hulu | ? | ? |
| YouTube TV | ? | ? |
see also: http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2016/07/acc-network-distribution-hurdle.html
BOTTOM LINE: According to the best information I can find, ESPN will be a chance to negotiate carriage of the ACC Network for at least 30.1 million subscribers by 2019, and up to 66.1 million by 2022 at the latest. Keep in mind that there are another 30.2 million subscribers out there with unknown renewal dates for their carriers - some or all of those could be on board by 2019. So to keep it simple, let's say the ACC Network will launch with somewhere between 30 and 96 million subscribers.
Let's further assume an average of around $0.70 each (a little less than the SEC Network). That translates into
Est. 30M to 96M X $0.70/month = $21.0M to $67.2M per month
$21M to $67M per month X 12 months = $252.0M to $806.4M per year
Assume half of that goes to ESPN, leaving $126M to $403.2M
divided 15 ways* comes to $8.4M to $26.9M per team
* if you prefer assigning a share to the conference, divide 16 ways: $7.9M to $25.2M each
Of course, I'm not accounting for the costs of production because I have no idea what those are.
If you think the ACC Network only gets an average of $0.35 per month, just divide those numbers in half -- it's still a lot of money!
If the accn is being negotiated concurrently with the secn, we'll find out how good of a partner espn is. They should be leveraging the two to get coverage in each other's footprint at essentially the same rates. But if that's not what they do...
ReplyDeletethen the ACC is screwed. I have yet to see much that proves ESPN cares much for the ACC. All the talking heads are SEC talking heads, all the revenue is giving SEC a huge advantage, pro conference media goes to the SEC while the ACC often gets attacked (see Winston years), and they move quick to help SEC and take years to move on ACC efforts.
DeleteHopefully that evidence isn't proof the revenue won't be there for the ACCN, but I'll believe it when I see it.