ESPN, The Most Valuable Channel (Period)
The MVC
By William Sellers
Although they have been competing with, and sometimes losing to, sister company Disney Channel, ESPN has recently been valued by the Cable Operators at almost twice the price. According to an article by multichannel news, ESPN is worth $1.08 a month where as Disney is only worth $0.56 a month. Their reasons for ranking the channel so high include it's ability to sell services (i.e. VOD, and HDTV equipment). Let's be honest, if you care about sports, you're going to want to buy that wide screen HDTV so that the next time you watch game day, you can see the trademark symbol on Digger's highlighter. Since most people don't have the $500.00 to shell out to pay for a Playstation 3, the major motivation to buy an HDTV is to watch regular cable programming, and the biggest difference is noticeable on ESPN, where it is finally possible to see what you once thought was an imaginary object they were trying to get you to believe to be a hockey puck.
Although ESPN does always have the top rated cable spot, though it usually does when it comes to a major sporting event, they are invaluable when it comes to product loyalty and consumer demand. This wasn't the first time that the cable giant was valued in the top spot, but rather the 8th consecutive year. Another reason for their unparalleled success, is that they were not even close to being affected by the WGA strike, at least in a negative way. Even though there is a mass convergence of media on the Internet, ESPN will always have a demand on cable TV. The quality of on-line video has a significant amount of ground to cross before users will start to use their computer for their sole source of sports, hence the need for ESPN for many years to come without even a consideration of a slow down.