Interesting read from Deadspin today that echoes what I've said before here on the boards regarding TV money:
http://deadspin.com/5899105/joey-vottos-new-contract-is-like-a-mortgage+backed-security
Some highlights:
We're now learning that that cable providers are tired of RSNs' bullcrap and perfectly willing to yank telecasts. Non-fans—against their will—subsidize telecasts for fans. Consider the MSG-Time Warner standoff in winter (and what's going on in San Diego now) According to reports (because none of this is transparent), Madison Square Garden wanted Time Warner customers to pay a 53 percent increase on its $4.65-a-month fee. That's $7.11 a month—or $85.32 a year, from every Time Warner subscriber in New York—for the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils. Time Warner naturally balked, and might have held out longer if not for Jeremy Lin. In San Diego, Fox Sports San Diego is reportedly seeking a 400 percent fee increase from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner wisely has said no.
[SNIP]
But the cable-riches scheme needs those unfettered giant fee increases, just like Wall Street relied on ever-increasing housing prices. Once the blips start, the whole scheme's doomed to collapse. And then this apparently good story, of the homegrown Votto getting a deserved payday from a beloved, old small-market franchise, will become the darker and more familiar one, of middle America making a financial promise it couldn't afford.
I really hope the FCC gets involved puts an end to this "bending the cable consumer over the barrel" nonsense.
All the more reason to stick it to Angelos. If he thinks he needs a fee increase to pay the Nats market value, that's his problem. I wonder if the recent boom in RSN money could start a chain of events that gives the Nats freedom from MASN.
