Christmas Football + ~ Got Ya//

Companies like Netflix, ESPN, Amazon are taking advantage of their access to people through media. This behavior is spilling over into every aspect of media, but sports is clearly a prime target as it has the potential to earn a lot of money though many channels. It is important to pay attention to this today and understand what the impact is and what you’ll see in this evolving machine. This also lightly addresses college sports which is increasingly becoming more expensive. Colleges are quickly learning, they can rake in the dough. At some point, they may just leave education behind. Who knows!

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Years ago, I thought it made sense for us to have an opportunity to choose the channels we want to watch. I didn’t imagine the on-demand world in this way but more of a channel choice. I built a raspberry pi device and created my own on demand media system. It allowed me to pick the locals and a few others and just pay for those.

Look at how far we have come! We can pay for a bunch of channels, individual channels, and on-demand content.

What I didn’t expect is the equivalent of a-la-carte expensive content that has advertisements. I also didn’t expect 24 hours sports driven by a hungry gambling industry. The insanity of money invested into sports media and players and the ability to create and generate content for consumption and production within hours.

What we are seeing in media today especially in sports is a literal fleecing of people worldwide.

What I witnessed on Christmas day football on Netflix was a literal money grab mostly from people who should be spending their money on essentials. Netflix on top of everything else showed advertising and turned the football game into a full out Superbowl like spectacle. We are in a situation now that is not sustainable.

Digital Dominance and Platform Preferences

People have overwhelmingly embraced digital platforms for media consumption. In 2024, 86% of U.S. adults get news from digital devices, with 58% preferring digital platforms over traditional media. The breakdown of news platform preferences reveals a stark transition:

Platform	Preference in 2024
Digital Devices	58%
Television	32%
Radio	6%
Print	4%

The Rise of Hybrid Streaming Models

The media industry has evolved beyond simple channel selection into what can be described as a fragmented, multi-model consumption landscape. Streaming platforms now offer:

• Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD)
• Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD)
• Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD)

These hybrid models provide flexibility but also complexity, often resulting in what feels like “a-la-carte expensive content with advertisements”.

Sports Media: A Prime Example of Monetization Pressure

The sports media market exemplifies this trend. By 2024, sports media rights are projected to be worth $60.9 billion, with a particularly interesting shift towards highlights and short-form content. Notably, the value of short form highlights rights is expected to grow by a staggering 70%.

The Advertising and Personalization Dimension

To combat subscription fatigue, platforms are leveraging:

• AI-powered personalization
• Advanced recommendation algorithms
• Targeted advertising strategies

College Sports Revenue Generation Strategies

Colleges are leveraging multiple innovative strategies to maximize revenue from their sports programs:

Media Rights and Broadcasting

Colleges are capitalizing on lucrative media rights deals that are transforming their financial landscape:

• The Power 4 conferences are set to receive over $20 billion in media rights deals over the next five to ten years
• Media rights contracts can be extremely valuable, with the Big 12 securing a $380 million annual deal with ESPN and Fox Sports

Multimedia Rights (MMR) Revenue

Athletic departments are generating significant income through multimedia rights:

• More than $500 million annually is allocated to Division I athletic departments
• Power 5 conference teams receive over $7 million yearly from these agreements
• Approximately 40% of multimedia rights value comes from football-related exposure

Innovative Revenue Streams

Colleges are exploring creative ways to generate additional income:

• Naming Rights: The Big 12 is considering selling its conference name to Allstate for $30-$50 million annually
• Private Equity Investments: Exploring partnerships like a potential $800 million to $1 billion investment from CVC Coastal Partners

Content and Engagement Strategies

Universities are developing sophisticated content creation approaches:

• Employing specialized staff to produce recruit-targeted content
• Utilizing social media platforms to create fan engagement
• Implementing real-time content strategies using advanced technologies like AI

Additional Revenue Sources

Colleges are diversifying their income through:

• Sponsorships and advertising
• Merchandise sales
• Ticket sales
• Fundraising and donations
• Corporate facility sponsorships

Emerging Opportunities

The landscape is rapidly evolving, with new revenue possibilities emerging:

• Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for athletes
• Expanded digital content platforms
• Direct-to-consumer content streaming

From where I sit, this is stealing in plain sight. While I am not against colleges making money for students, and having programs for sports, I think we are very close to having people near local schools not able to watch, enjoy or even attend games because they are too expensive. All this bs about how sports are meant to inspire, they should be affordable. If the professional sports industry wants to turn every event into a Broadway show, that’s up to them but the colleges? This is a whole other level of thievery.

While I’ll continue to argue this goes well beyond sports, we can show with ease that sports is the easiest target for vulnerable people and it is cause for concern because they’ve made it easy to siphon money from everyone with high levels of accessibility and a low return to the masses.

News You Can Use

Here is what you may consider. You can still today get live television over the air in High Definition with an OTA or over the air antenna. https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/tv-antenna-recommendation. If you live close enough to your local team, you can pick up the sports on the local channels.

If you can’t get them over the air, there are a number of ways to watch or stream local channels. https://localnow.com/ is an example.

The bottom line is that if you let them these subscription-based providers will take every penny you have for something that was historically no cost. So, for Christmas, most viewers paid to watch a game that was locally available over the air and historically available through local media.

This will be the way ahead because they continue to have record viewership. Don’t be duped into spending all your money on these services. Put up a local antenna and see what you get.

You may be surprised!

Sources:

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/

https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/negotiating-college-sports-multimedia-rights-deals/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2024/06/17/college-sports-conference-are-looking-at-new-ways-to-grow-revenue/
https://www.greenfly.com/blog/how-to/real-time-content-college-sports/ https://journals.law.harvard.edu/jsel/2024/06/breaking-the-broadcast-huddle-how-college-football-conferences-bundling-of-broadcast-rights-could-harm-student-athletes/
https://www.marygrovemustangs.com/the-financial-side-of-college-sports-a-closer-look.html
https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/the-constantly-changing-world-of-media-content-in-college-athletics/
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/tmt/library/sports-outlook-north-america.html
https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/sports/boost-college-athletics-revenue-effective-strategies
https://studentathletescholars.org/2023/11/14/beyond-the-field-the-social-media-symphony-of-college-athletes/
https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/next-round-sports-media-rights-deals/

https://wsc-sports.com/blog/industry-insights/how-changing-consumption-habits-are-fueling-the-rise-in-value-of-sports-highlights/

Your Opinion &

Sometimes people ask me what I think about something. I used to freely give my opinion and perspective on specific topics if asked. It is true that I blog and post my opinion about things here as well. Most of the stuff I post is therapeutic and I had the perspective that maybe I was helping someone. At work, I definitely lean in heavily like a laser on certain things. I have morals and values assigned from the 1980’s NY American for whatever that means. I guess they are Judeo-Christian (like) values. What does this mean? Why do you care? Yeah, I get it, really. Stacey and I were raised to help people. We also have this dynamic installed in us where we sort of want to be left alone. Help but be left alone. That is strange, I think. It got me thinking about how I feel about other people’s opinions. We are certainly impacted by opinions. Nothing new here to discover but something to talk about. We are living in history repeating itself over and over again. People feel the need to influence and control each other. We don’t truly have rights, we have privileges. We live in a republic, but a very small percentage of people understand what that means. OK, we live in a Democratic Republic, and we are told that we have individual freedoms enshrined in the constitution and bill of rights. I am not challenging the existence of this doctrine. In fact, I took an oath on multiple occasions to protect these written rights. The key to everything here is the idea of balance. We are supposed to live in a fair society where the government represents the common good of the people in such a way that the common good doesn’t bleed over to individual rights. I guess that is where I am struggling these days. It feels like smoke is blown in my face no matter where I go. People are pushing their opinions and their personal agenda to the limits. I am struggling with the idea of imbalance. I am not just talking about political imbalance. I am talking about imbalance in the world. I think the people who were raised to help others are going the way of the dinosaurs. Helpers were silent, quiet and a bit hidden. They didn’t go out and seek praise, they were caught doing something good. It was act of kindness based on a perspective of service. A personal belief, and opinion. Now, I don’t care much to hear opinions I don’t ask for. I don’t actually care to share my opinion anymore either. I have debated and deliberated ending my blog. I’ve been writing for years now but Sundays are getting harder to keep clean so to speak. I’d rather follow my sisters lead and help without anyone knowing. Keep the light alive and the fire going until whenever. Not sure yet what I will do. For now, I have some thinking and studying to do.

Drones in the Air

I must admit that I wasn’t looking up. I didn’t pay much attention to the happenings in the sky. Going about my business and assuming nothing. Airplanes, helicopters and blinky lights are known to fly by in the area. I got a text from a neighbor asking me if I was looking out the window and seeing all the drones. I got up and went outside and looked around and there they were, a fleet of these things floating in the air lit up with white, red, green and blue lights. At first, I didn’t think much of it. Could be a lot of things and there shouldn’t be anything to be concerned about. I messaged him back and told him what I thought it “could be.” The next few days, I observed patterns of these machines flying around. I pulled some information from a few data points on drone technical and operational “observable behavior.” Over the past week, I traveled through the area going places I would normally go. There are drones everywhere. They are large, the size of a refrigerator to the size of a small car. I have not seen them move quickly. They seem to move in patterns that support surveillance or monitoring. They are operating from a few thousand feet high up to much higher elevation. The stay in one place for long periods of time or seemingly float in a very small radius. I haven’t been overly concerned about it until I watched the government talk about it. If I were standing in a random place on the flight path of an aircraft and I used a laser to point it at the craft, they would track me down, come to my home and arrest me. There are swarms of these aircraft floating around the sky and they “don’t know.” If you do any homework on this technology, you quickly realize that your “right to bear arms” is being violated. Let me explain here. The second amendment could not have accounted for electronic weapons but the premise that someone or something is invading a place and space must be accounted for. I know what is flying over my home and frightening my family. I know and can see with my own eyes what is disrupting life in my area. Cars pulling over, people are frightened. The government answer is “nothing to see here, move along.” The current law on counter measures is very clear, there is literally nothing a citizen can do legally to defend themselves against a threat. It makes me wonder now, if we were invaded by a foreign country and they used drones, how would one legally defend themselves? I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter if this is a government program or a commercial contractor or other. What does matter is that we the people have no right to defend ourselves from a threat of this nature. Warfighting has changed and the days of firing handheld guns are shifting. If we constructed weapons which produced electromagnetic pulses, lasers, jamming or other, we would be arrested. These are exactly the types of weapons required to fight the new world threats. The government can see if I have a pen laser, they would show up at my house and arrest me but they wouldn’t worry if I have a 45 because? We have work to do.. and based on what I am seeing here in real life, I don’t know what kind of time we have as the future of warfighting and the threat upon us is here and now.