| The smaller ISP's don't pay more overall Yes, they pay more per subscriber, but a large ISP also has to pay per subscriber. So the large ISP is paying more money per month overall to ESPN than the smaller ISP would be.
This is how most things work in bulk. If I start a company making cell phones and I need 4 inch LCD screens, but I only plan to make 1000 phones per month, I'm going to be paying a lot more per LCD screen than someone making 100000 phones a month.
This is the same reason why companies like TWC are fighting price increases by ESPN, because ESPN wants a fee per subscriber, and wants ESPN to be on the basic service tier. So that they get money for every subscriber and not just the ones that watch the channel.
I'm sure small cable companies also pay a lot more per subscriber to carry ESPN than TWC, DirecTV, or Comcast.
It's how buying in bulk works. |
