okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
SIAP - We all know cable TV revenues are driving this recent expansion. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I think some time in the next 20 years or so we will all look back on this day as one of the darkest days in the history of the conference. Cable TV is going to be toast in less than two decades. Comcast is now actually at a point where it is making bundled TV/Internet packages cheaper than stand alone internet because it is trying to maintain the relevance of a dying business model (Cutting Only Part Of The Cord Could End Up Costing You More (At First)). And we are throwing away roughly a century of tradition (I think PSU and Nebraska comported with the values of the B10) based on what will be short lived profits derived from that dying business model. In addition, close to half of the cost of cable is now going to sports (About half of cable-TV bills go to sports - Philly.com) and I suspect it is only a matter of time before either the government forces a change or an enterprising antitrust litigator wins a massive judgment that will change the way business is done in this industry. It is not 1985 anymore where your cable company blasts every channel to your home and keeps out HBO and Skinemax through a small tubular filter inside of a gray box in your back yard - these bundling arrangements that are currently driving massive revenues from scores of unwilling consumers are absolutely going to die off. Sure, things will likely wind up as pay per view or whatever, but Rutgers and Maryland have fan bases that are a fraction of the size of many B10 schools because people on the East Coast care far more about pro sports than collegiate sports and when that die off occurs, those additional teams will suck out far more revenue than they kick in.
Maybe I'm a nut, but look at this 1993 set of AT&T commercials of them making bold predictions about the future of technology (they got it wrong that AT&T would be providing these services), but we have surpassed many of these dreams. The future will bring accelerating technological change and I think the conference is looking at profits 5 years out and really destroying brand equity in what has long been my favorite sports franchise. It is no different than the shortsightedness government and multinational corporations show - kick the can to the next election or print nice results for the next quarter, let the next politician or CEO deal with the negative long term consequences from shortsighted decisions.
[video=youtube;5MnQ8EkwXJ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnQ8EkwXJ0[/video]
/rant
Maybe I'm a nut, but look at this 1993 set of AT&T commercials of them making bold predictions about the future of technology (they got it wrong that AT&T would be providing these services), but we have surpassed many of these dreams. The future will bring accelerating technological change and I think the conference is looking at profits 5 years out and really destroying brand equity in what has long been my favorite sports franchise. It is no different than the shortsightedness government and multinational corporations show - kick the can to the next election or print nice results for the next quarter, let the next politician or CEO deal with the negative long term consequences from shortsighted decisions.
[video=youtube;5MnQ8EkwXJ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnQ8EkwXJ0[/video]
/rant