ESPN Acquiring FOX was Huge for the ACC

MountainBuzzMan

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One of the things that seem to be happening as ESPN continues sweeping up every football conference on earth is that they have run out of competent announcers and analysts. Some of them I have heard are sophomoric. Juvenile, even. Then of course there are the sideline "reporters" who do something or other.

I think Roddy has a good opportunity to grow through the ranks fairly quickly. You know, in the land of the blind, the one eyed guy is king. In Jone's case he has both eyes. Just needs more experience.
 

GTFLETCH

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ESPN will be acquiring a massive amount of new content, as Fox Sports’ 22 regional sports networks control the local cable rights to the following professional teams:

NBA (17): Suns, Hornets, Pistons, Magic, Pacers, Pelicans, Timberwolves, Cavaliers, Thunder, Hawks, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Spurs, Heat, Clippers, Bucks, Nets.

MLB (15): Diamondbacks, Tigers, Rays, Royals, Cardinals, Twins, Reds, Padres, Braves, Rangers, Marlins, Angels, Brewers, Indians, Yankees.

NHL (12): Coyotes, Hurricanes, Red Wings, Panthers, Blues, Wild, Blue Jackets, Predators, Stars, Lightning, Kings, Ducks.



That doesn’t even include college football and basketball, plus Major League Soccer and the WNBA. This purchase of the RSN's is really more about pro sports, although there will be a lot more college sports offered on the Disney family of channels with this purchase of the Fox RSN's.
 

GTFLETCH

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This from Disney Chairman Bob Iger regarding the purchase of the Fox RSN's:

"There will be a sharing of product so that we can infuse ESPN national with some more local content. And infuse the local regional sports networks with more national content. The result is both will be better for the consumer than they are today."

The RSNs are also expected to feed content to the new ESPN+ streaming service, which president John Skipper touted as one of the company' most important initiatives Wednesday.


Fox has an agreement with MLB to take some of their regional broadcasts and televise them nationally:

https://www.multichannel.com/news/fs1-boosts-mlb-schedule-side-side-rsn-telecasts-356044

It wouldn't be hard to imagine Disney cutting a similar deals with the MLB and the NHL. Fox RSN's broadcast more NHL games than any other network. It would be easy to see ESPN coming in as a secondary to NBC for the NHL. It is more money for the NHL.

Having the ability to put MLB/NBA/NHL games on ESPN/2/U/News is significant, though. That's actually really bad for college sports, now that I'm processing the news.

If ESPN can fill time slots with pro sports, it doesn't need college sports as much. Thank goodness the College broadcasting model has changed to Conf Networks and that the ACC Network is with ESPN!
 

Techster

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A certain subtext here. The NFL has diluted its broadcasting rights to spread across several broadcasters, where ESPN use to hold "favorite child" status, the relationship has changed quite a bit. ESPN use to be a de facto NFL channel, but since the NFL awarded rights to games to additional broadcasters, I would look for ESPN to tone down the emphasis on the NFL and focus a lot more on developing content they own...and it looks like buying Fox "inventory" is part of the process.

Personally, I'm OK with the NFL getting their comeuppance. The NFL might just have over played their hand.
 

Cam

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A lot more money in our pockets, but the same for all other ACC schools. However, considering we're a Have Not in our league, it will benefit us more than most everyone else.
 

a5ehren

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AFAIK, this still has a long way to go with government approvals, etc. They're aiming at a Q3 2019 closing.
 

GTFLETCH

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AFAIK, this still has a long way to go with government approvals, etc. They're aiming at a Q3 2019 closing.
21st Century FOX's President held a "town hall meeting" with FOX employees to update them on the Disney deal, and said the deal would likely be completed by spring-summer of 2019, which is consistent with estimates when it was announced.

He also indicated that the FOX name would be retained, that the remaining FOX companies, including the FOX Broadcasting Company, FOX News, FS1/FS2, and FOX local stations (but not the FX network, which goes to Disney), would be under an umbrella called "FOX".

No indication that the deal has suffered any road-blocks:

Link
http://deadline.com/2018/04/disney-...mmer-2019-fbc-diet-fox-peter-rice-1202363025/
 

jgtengineer

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A lot more money in our pockets, but the same for all other ACC schools. However, considering we're a Have Not in our league, it will benefit us more than most everyone else.

we have fewer sports to spread it too it will help our individual sports more.
 
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