Endless Purple
Full Member
You missed the point of the little things add up comment.Big 10 Network was already on most of not all NY metro cable networks as part of their sports package BEFORE Rutgers joined. That's exactly where it is placed now so no change.
Cable companies pay carriage fees to the cable channels (ie. Big 10 network). Before Rutgers was invited to join, the NY market was considered out-of-market as the Big 10 did not have a team in that viewing area. The cable companies paid about .10 - .15 for each subscriber that had the channel to the network. (very close estimate as I don't remember the exact number).
Once Rutgers joins the Big 10, NY media is now considered an in-market area. Now every cable company had to pay about .75-.95 per subscriber and the channel could be on lower level tiers thus more people.
A change like that can go from $10 million a year to $10 million a month in revenue.
Similar for the DC market with Maryland. Now Los Angeles.
No one actually has to watch Rutgers or Maryland as the carriage fees went up regardless.
Edit to add: Those were numbers back when Rutgers joined. Do not know how much they may have gone up by now.