Sport is the most endorphin-filled sector for media companies today, because it is so lucrative.
TV networks have two ways of making money: advertising and the fees that cable
operators pay to carry their channels. Sports channels get heavyweight fees:
ESPN makes around $5.54 for each cable subscription, according to SNL Kagan, a
research firm, and will probably earn more than $7.31 billion in fees in 2014.
Moreover, sport is one of the only things people still watch live on TV, so
advertising rates are also high. Last year Nielsen, a research firm, reckoned
that people spent 20% of their TV viewing hours watching live sports
programming. That share will probably continue to rise.
