By Andrew Georgy
You run home after school to ensure you catch the game on time. Opening up your TV and setting your backpack next to you, an error message pops up.
“We all love football, but unfortunately we have to raise our monthly prices from $15 to $25. Please renew your subscription.”
As you close your TV in disappointment, you ponder: why have the prices increased by 40%? It’s not like the cost to operate increased overnight. Yet, this is the new reality users are facing in recent years.
What is monetization?
Monetization can apply to various situations. For example, in a sports-related sense, it usually refers to a club takeover by a wealthy businessman for profit. In the broadcasting industry, it means increasing prices gradually solely for profit.
An article published by S&P shows that licensing for sports rights (how much money a sports broadcaster spends to be able to showcase the games) in the US is predicted to reach $30 billion in 2024. Forecasters also speculate that a cost addition of about $5 billion will be made over the next three years. However, over-the-top television companies have reported an estimated figure of an increase of 73% in revenue in the next three years. So how is that possible?
Profit, money and … more profit?
Sports streaming service prices are affected by numerous factors. For example, Disney lost $19 million on Hulu and Disney+ despite price hikes for subscriptions. Yet, they were able to turn a profit through ESPN+.
As a result, multiple streaming services are increasing prices to cover their losses in other departments, forcing sports fans to cross the Rubicon. If you protest price hikes by canceling your service, you will save money but miss out on a favorable pastime. The much easier option is to pay a few extra dollars a month. Yet, it isn’t just becoming a few dollars a year; rather, it’s $552.
90% of streaming service subscribers have seen increased subscription prices. CNBC reported an increase of $6 for Disney and Peacock from 2023, $7 for Warner Bros. and $5 for Paramount. In total, viewers are forced to cough up an average of $46 per month or $552 a year only for sports subscriptions.
So what can we do? We desperately need our entertainment in this technology-based society, and we can’t just cancel our subscriptions, right? The real question is: who brought this into law?
People — YouTube is FREE! You can rewatch match recaps, free TV shows, movies and other forms of content. Furthermore, a small fee of $10 per month is much less than $46 for the multitude of subscriptions you’re enrolled in.
Now, the biggest question is: where do I watch sports if I’m a passionate enjoyer? Well, why don’t you go enjoy them live?
With $456, you can watch around three to four games of any sport you’d like to enjoy using SeatGeek or other sporting websites. The memories made at these stadiums are much more exciting than watching a game from home, even if you lose.
Boycotting these companies is effective. Not only can you receive promotional offers that can cut your net spending by 50%, but also it’d only take 150,000 people across the entire US to diminish a company’s sales and force them into lowering prices.
While this number may seem enormous, if we think about how much social media has untied us all, it’s easier than we think. It takes one person to create change, or in this case, one viewer, to save the gaping hole in our pockets.
