What world do you live in? The most watched programs of all time are sports events.
Just for arguments sake, I'd love to see the viewership numbers if you pulled the Superbowl out of the statistics....
DISH has 14.5M customers. It's a safe assumption somewhere in the neighborhood of ~12.0M of them based on DISH's past statements COULDN'T CARE LESS about whether or not you get to watch Monday Night Football, MLB, and British Soccer Finals in high def from 20 different angles. Those same viewers also don't care to pay for the privilege. Someone posted "well just charge more and throw in some niche channels". That is BAD business logic. You don't charge 10M customers to cater to 1.5 or less. The money doesn't justify it.
And yes, pricing has a lot to do with it. The sports fanboys don't seem to understanding that it's smart for Charlie to avoid sports; those channels, which only interest the minority of subscribers cost upwards of 3-15x (ranging from RSN to major channels/packages) more than your average premium channel. Why buy HBO and then buy Center Ice or some other pack that costs 3-15 HBO's worth of cashflow? Sure, it makes the sports nuts happy, but again, bad business.
Assume HBO costs $1.00 per DISH's sub base (just to keep the numbers neat, I'm sure it's cents on the dollar)
Now assume Favorite Sports Crap costs $3.00
12.5M customers are supporting the $1 programming
~1.5M customers are supporting the $3 programming
The problem is, there are fewer customers supporting the triple-costed $3 package across a MUCH smaller demand base. In business terms, it's an obscene indiscretion in operating leverage. Couple this with the fact that sports channels often demand penetration into that $1 sub base who has no interest in their product and those 1.5M customers are now increasing the prices not just for themselves, but overall for a 14M customer sub base.
It's simple money; sports networks are greedy and sports fanatics don't care. Even at 30%, it's bad business due to cost. To justify the package prices sports networks charge, you need a 2-3x return on investment, which your 2M (or 30% or whoever would actually buy it) might support; but the majority of your customer base can't and won't. You do it anyways, their bills increase, your retention costs increase and your calls increase. For those 2M customers, you just pissed off ~12M and increased your churn.
Sports is great business if you happen to be pushing sports product (all the major leagues, stadiums, merchandising, etc). For everyone else, it sucks.
But I am sure with DISH they would find away to up the dvr fee to make up for the lack of additional receiver fees .
