Its an endless cycle. I've got kids and Disney is sure to be pulling programming with their streaming service coming out this year. The problem is that the cable companies like Cox and Verizon just charge for the package and don't give and F what they show. Surely the NBCSN access is of less value when they're showing Red Bull Cliff Diving and curling in place of EPL games. Cable bill stays the same or creeps up every year while ESPN, NBC, Turner, etc are all looking to charge for content that was free a year or two ago. I don't have a problem paying for content, but not twice essentially. And then you have to look at the value of it and see what ESPN gives you for $5 a month compared to Flo for $6/mo. I've been toying with the idea of cutting the cord, but I need to find a balance on content and platform that will pull everything together, from Amazon that I have, prolly Netflix, maybe Hulu or YouTube and then all the one offs like ESPN, Disney, etc. Between the price and the general principles of it, theFlo package isn't even on the table. We'll watch away games the next day on ESPN, assuming we even give an F. Or maybe I just use a VPN to get around the local blackouts.
Sounds like mindless double talk from my chair. This deal will do ZERO to create new or younger fans for this club. It is gong to blow up in their face. I also really doubt that "Flo" will give out such a quality product to warrant paying for it.
A little more on #DCU's deal w/FloSports in here - nothing new, aside from one massive fact... For those of you who wonder why DCU are doing this... "industry sources said that it was worth more than $13 million to the club over the four-year commitment." https://t.co/3IahZLNzdN— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) January 14, 2019 May blow up in their face but it’s also blowing up their pockets
I'm sure they were cut a very nice check. However they will continue to take a PR hit for this fiasco.
Back of the napkin math: Let's say Flo gets 5000 subscribers (which I think is probably about 5 times more than they actually will.) Let's say they get $100/year from each subscriber, which they won't. That's $500,000/year. For 4 years, that's $2 million. Flo paid $13 million.
Flo's regular rate is $12.50 DCU is offering season ticket holders and supporter group members a $5.99 rate. Others can get is a $8.99 rate through DCU. Is DCU pouring some of that money right back into Flo? I.E. Flo gets $12.50 $5.99 from Season Ticket Holder $6.51 from DCU
5000 stop making me laugh I spit soda all over my keyboard!!! Flo is trying to legitimize itself as more than a niche service, this will not help them with the numbers of subscribers they eventually get.
But once they use their DC United clout to convince Seattle or Atlanta to switch to their service .... then their ship will have come in!!!!!
Paging the former CEO of PSINet to a red courtesy phone please ... Who knows, maybe DCU ends up owning Flo some day. It could happen. That might take things in a different direction, but I still think the streaming market is suffering from poor economies of scale. By the time you spend $35 for a basic streaming package from someone like Hulu or YouTubeTV and add in some specialty subscriptions like NetFlix (that announced price increases today), ESPN+, EPL on NBCSN Gold, and this shit show they're trying to sell us, you're right back where you started with a low to mid-range priced cable package, because the price of good data package goes up from what it was in your bundled plan. I just quite haven't found where this makes a ton of sense for me beyond taking the piss out of the cable company, which don't get me wrong, 100% deserves it, but then I need to go out and recreate and support a seamless experience for my non-tech savvy wife and kids.
Looking at the schedule and where Flosports games are, it may be even more difficult for them to make money. If you are ST, you could get by with 3-4 months of Flo as away Flo games are clustered together. The rest of us, you would need a 7-month subscription. So, let's assume you have people subscribing for 7 months at $8.99 per month for simplicity. It would be $63 per subscriber and with the deal at $3.25M per season, that would be around 51K per season to break even. That's a lot of subscribers. I guess there could be some advertising revenue, but with this platform's limited reach, not sure how much that will help.
Yeah, that's the part I don't get either. I understand Flo wanting to get their foot in the MLS door. OK, that's worth something. But is it worth $11 million? I'm sure Flo's research team understands that they're not going to get 51,000 subscribers. They should be absolutely delighted if they get 1/10 of that. The numbers just don't add up.
Hey, it's VC money. Flo is burning through OPM right now 'cause that's what start ups do. Looks like they've raised $32MM in VC money so this is a huge move for them. I agree that it's awfully risky. I hope it pays off because that means MLS/DCU are doing well.
Some of this $13 million is not money Flo is paying to DCU but rather forgone expenses that the team had to spend itself to produce TV coverage under its Sinclair contract. Presumably Flo is paying for all of this now. No clue how much DCU was spending previously on production costs, so no clue how much Flo is actually paying DCU for these rights.
To me the costs are about the same. I’ll spend this per month: 01. $40 DircTVNow 02. $15 Netflix 03. $05 ESPN+ 04. $150 Xfinity internet (one of the high data rates $80 plus unlimited data plan $50 + box rental and other fees) With cable, I paid: 01. $150 for DirecTV 02. $40 Xfinity cable 03. $ 8 Netflix Except for the natural inflation of the Netflix pricing, I was pauing about the same for “TV” and “internet “ As the kids started watching more content on the internet and the popularity of Netflix and watching TV on the phone grew. I needed more streaming bandwidth than TV channels. So Honestly, if I really want to watch something, I’ll just acquire the streaming service for the time frame I plan on watching something. Same goes for that new Disney streaming service. Disney bought out the Fox movie studios for all that content for this reason. Add those Marvel and Star Wars movies and TV shows and Disney will compete with Netflix rather nicely. I’ll end up paying for service for both at some point.
That kindda validates what I was thinking, which was that it was going to be mostly a wash from a cost standpoint. Biggest hurdle I've got is the wife's trashy BravoTV she watches which is apparently not released in the most timely fashion according to her on the various streaming services. So what are you using to pull it all together? Roku? Tivo?
I have Roku but for some reason it didn’t understand having two different ESPN accounts in order to watch regular ESPN channels via its app (using Directvnow login) and having a separate ESPN+ account (paid through my IPhone billing thingy). So the solution to watching DC United soccer games required getting a 12.9” IPad from AT&T cellular.
It would seem that the FloSports subscription will be available month-to-month, per the front office ticket folk. No word yet on an app for Android.
I wonder if they would consider a season pass. It may make some sense for them. If this board is an indicator, some subscriptions will be getting canceled after a bad United game.
More likely that bad service from Flo would be the catalyst for cancellations. Their BBB complaints aren't exactly leaving me optimistic, but I'll prolly shell out for ESPN+ and watch the away games a day later if I even give a damn about seeing it. Guessing my 9 yo will watch them a day later.
More Flo "news" Just an FYI: the Concacaf Nations League is a new men's national team competition that'll run in non-WC/WCQ years. Starts in earnest in September, final in March 2020.It effectively replaces NT friendlies with competitive matches, like the UEFA Nations League. https://t.co/MHoJTY0eEK— Ian Thomas (@byIanThomas) January 28, 2019
Considering that Flo gave DCU a third of their VC $ for what, 10 - 12 away games a year, because the target audience has to be mostly STMs I'd think who would shell out for this. They must have promised the rest to the USSF who are tone deaf and brain dead as the DCU front office.