Disney's Entertainment and Sports Programing Network, ESPN, is the largest and most influential sports media station in the world. If you want the latest news with what is going on in the world of sports, you most likely will tune to any of the popular ESPN channels. If you want college sports you can tune to ESPNU, or if you want what ESPN is known for, Sports Center, you can turn to the original ESPN channel. If what is airing on those two stations does not work out for you, you can turn to any of their 10 other sister channels (ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Films, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Plus, ESPN on ABC, ESPN America, or Longhorn Network). Many have questioned if Fox Sports 1 & 2, CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Network will ever be considered competitors again. Is ESPN turning into a monopoly or is it one already?.
ESPN considered a post-season college football monopoly, by Clay Travis in an article posted by Dead Spin, Exploring the ESPN Model (Hint: it Involves Swimming in Piles of Cash), controls 29 of the 34 bowl games played in college football. Travis goes on to explain how ESPN has such control over majority of the bowl games. Unlike traditional broadcasters ESPN does not have to rely on just their advertising revenue. Instead ESPN can count on their subscriber revenue. .
According to SNL Kagan, ESPN's monthly subscription for cable and satellite subscribers is the most in televisions at an average of $3.65/month. With 98 million subscribers ESPN is bringing in roughly $4.3billion a year on just subscribers alone. When comparing to competitors such as CBS who's market cap ($3.97 billion) is less then ESPN's subscription revenue ($4.3 billion). When you add ESPN's advertising revenue, none of ESPN's competitors would be able to able to compete with ESPN. With ESPN having the competitive market CBS is worried about losing the last hope they have, March Madness. At any moment ESPN can target the NCAA basketball tournament and place a number that no one would be able to turn down.