Station retransmission Fees Up, But ESPN Still King

While broadcasters’ retransmission fees are expected to rise, over-the-air TV will likely never get the size of fees paid to ESPN, which, at the top of the heap, gets more than five times what broadcasters do.

“The audience for ESPN is probably the most passionate out there, and if all of a sudden a carrier drops ESPN, that audience will leave,” Robert Folliard, a Dow Lohnes associate who works with affiliates, said. “With broadcast, people will leave but you don’t have that passion.” Currently, broadcasters get about $1 per month for each subscriber from the television service providers that carry their stations. ESPN gets $5.54, according to SNL Kagan Associate Director Robin Flynn. Broadcasters may, however, be moving toward parity with other cable channels, which individually earn more in retransmission fees than broadcasters do but not as much as ESPN, they say.