EFL Championship & Cup on ESPN Networks

I think they picked a big game for the next round....

 

Sorry about Saturday. Oh my...

 

3 points for your lot!

 

I'm glad ESPN+ is broadcasting the league cup, but I 'm curious to know A) how ESPN's broadcast rights work and B) why it's not showing more matches.

I tried to watch the Wolves-Sheffield Wednesday match online via WolvesTV, which is free internationally, but it never came through (though I was able to listen to live commentary). I assume that's because ESPN has the league cup rights here.

If it was due to ESPN's rights in the U.S., I don't understand why it wouldn't broadcast the match on ESPN+. It's a fully produced broadcast that ESPN presumably has rights to here, so why not stream it? You'd think ESPN would want to broadcast all the competition's matches featuring Premier League teams. It'd be one more feather in the cap of ESPN+ and a nice little opportunity to undercut NBC Sports (or help it, depending on your perspective).

 

The thing is I've been streaming ESPN content on 3/Watch/+ for a decade and almost all of the live sporting events that are streaming-only are not produced by ESPN in any way. Whether you tune into an international competition or a regional college sporting event, ESPN is just streaming a locally produced feed that it had nothing to do with. If I tune into a stream of Grand Canyon vs. South Dakota State basketball on ESPN+, all ESPN has done is tap into the feed from AntelopeSports TV (or whatever). I've seen some incredibly low-budget productions streaming via ESPN in my day, but I understand if the FA wants to control the matches available for international broadcast.

So can ESPN only show X number of matches per matchday/round? Is it choosing to do so because it has to pay extra for one thing or another if it wants to show four matches instead of three? Does it think the interest isn't there, so it doesn't want to oversaturate? Just thinking out loud here.

 

Can’t wait until leagues just sell the rights direct to consumers and cut out the middleman dealers...

 

For better or worse, that's not going to happen. Broadcast rights for major sports leagues/competitions cost billions of dollars in the U.S., and even then these leagues charge individual fans hundreds of dollars for a season pass subscription.

In order for these leagues to make anywhere near the amount of money they do now solely through an a la carte subscription service, they'd have to charge a rate so high few would/could pay for it. They'd lose money, they'd lose viewers... Long story short, the current system works very well for sports leagues.

 

That's too bad. It likely is an FA/EFL thing considering ESPN is showing so much Nation's League and Serie A. I'll keep my fingers crossed that ESPN+ is able to show more FA Cup.

You'd think the powers that be in England might want to let those with broadcast rights show as many of their least popular competition as possible. Wild idea, I know. What if people outside of England realized the league cup...exists?!

 

I'm guessing that the cost-benefit analysis comes into play at some point. I'm sure that if the FA thought they can make more money by producing for tv 30 league cup games instead of only 5 or whatever the number is for this round, they would have done it.

 

To copy the current deal the EPL pays with a direct to consumer model to only the UK would be just under 28 pounds per month for 5M subscribers. I’d assume this could be lowered to below 20 pounds with the help of selling ad space and cobranded material. Doesn’t seem out of whack or preposterous.

 

That's the thing, they don't have to produce all the matches, they just need to let the teams do it if they have the infrastructure. All the EFL has to do is allow rights holders like ESPN to tap into and broadcast the feed from WolvesTV and the like.

 

Okay, so in the UK if you just want access to Premier League games and nothing else, you can get it for ~£28 ($36) per month over the course of the year (under the current system and broadcasting rights deals). The Premier League is getting £1.5 billion for its UK rights this season. Divide that number by 5 million viewers, divide again by 12 months... The number makes sense and I stand corrected regarding the potential direct-to-consumer cost per league.

That said, I live in the U.S. and want access the big soccer leagues and competitions as well as the NBA, NFL, MLB, college basketball and college football. The NFL alone is currently getting $7 billion per year for its TV rights in the U.S. On average, 15 million watch each game. That shakes out to $40/mo. just for the NFL. I'm currently paying ~$50/mo. total for YouTube TV, ESPN+ and NBC Sports Gold, which gives me access to all the sports content listed above save for La Liga, Ligue 1, the Portuguese Primeira Liga, and certain qualifiers, etc.

While it would be nice to have the option to go directly to each league to access its games, it'd be prohibitively expensive to do so for all the live sports I want if the respective leagues are trying to recoup money at the current rate at which their rights are being sold. More options for gaining access would be great, but it could be a disaster if we were all going straight to each league for content.

 

Do you think any lower level leagues make more than 5% of the TV money that the top league in their country makes?

 

ESPN choosing QPR Millwall over the Famous team and Wednesday is quite laughable.

 

ESPN missing out on the big game this weekend! Wednesday against Preston??