For Media Companies, Sports Sure Ain’t Cheap | InvestorPlace

Just look at the price consumers must pay for ESPN, the leader in sports programming. It charges the most on a per-subscriber basis of any channel, which makes the baseball deal worrisome for some operators.

As Matthew Polka, president of the American Cable Association — a trade group representing small and mid-sized companies — recently put it in a press release:

“The plain truth is that these MLB deals will send monthly pay-TV bills streaking skyward. They will make life hard for families whose incomes, hammered by the recession, can’t keep pace with the greed of broadcasters, cable networks and sports leagues.”

It could only be a matter of time before they make life hard for the media companies — and their investors — as well. The good news, of course, is that most of the are diversified, so they can survive the spikes for now. But as there seems to be no limit to the amount of money media companies are prepared to spend, prices look set to continue to rise until the costs don’t justify the benefits.

via For Media Companies, Sports Sure Ain’t Cheap | InvestorPlace.