TV networks including Disney’s ESPN, Fox Sports and Time Warner’s TNT and TBS will spend a combined $12.5 billion in the next year for rights to carry professional football, basketball and baseball games and the Summer Olympics, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Those long-term contracts are based on industry assumptions that may prove too optimistic amid evidence of shrinking demand for cable TV.
Source: Live Sports No Longer TV’s Holy Grail in U.S. as Ratings Peak – Bloomberg Business