But people that stream are no longer cable customers, you are just replacing one media form for another. I really doubt you are really gaining many new subs to view the content.First Michigan is overrated and Penn State isn't far behind. Second, There is Alabama then the rest of the SEC. Let's not act as if every team in the SEC is god.
As for the $80 million, it wasn't random. The B1G went from $33 million (2016) to the current $54 million and will the current TV deal at $65 million per team on the most recent deal. That money was from network broadcast and nothing from streaming. Former B1G commish Delany had the foresight to see streaming as the next step in making money, and that's why he did a short deal. The B1G is not held hostage to one network when negotiating a new media deal. This is why some pundits think the upper 70s to $80 million is realistic if you are looking at cable and streaming together. They will likely set another scenario for expansion around the new deal to add value and increase each team's payout. The SEC will get their huge payout, too, and in the end, it will be the SEC and B1G standing tall over everyone else. I just think there will be no super conference.
The genius of the system was not the person that is paying to stream the content, it was forcing those that did not watch it to pay. We know that if a state was within the footprint that BTN was roughly $1.00 a month, and if outside the footprint it was $.10 a month. What we do not know is what BTN is charging for its streaming service other the BTN+ is $80 dollars a year or $10 dollars of month.
But only fans interested of the content is going to pay that charge, and that is not where the huge money is at. The Hulu + live sports package is $44.99 a month, but that would include all basic programing and all the sports, NFL, NBA, MLB, and the NHL along with college sports, so they are getting less money from streaming from the cord cutters as they were from cable, when it was on the basic package.