Research firm SNL Kagan has discouraging news for sports networks, pay TV distributors, and subscribers who don’t watch sports, in a new deep-dive study of the market. Sports programming costs consumed 24.1% of the revenue distributors typically collected from each subscriber last year, up nearly a percentage point…

What a difference two months make. In late January, SNL Kagan forecaster Tony Lenoir made what he deemed an “aggressive” prediction when he said that the number of homes subscribing to broadband — but not pay TV — could grow 83% from the end of 2016 to 28.0 million in 2021. Now he says the prediction “could end on the…

The forecasters at SNL Kagan have good news this morning for TV broadcasters, but not for pay TV distributors and subscribers. The research firm projects that cable, satellite and telco payments to retransmit TV stations’ programming will increase nearly 51% to $11.6 billion in 2022. That’s up from $7.7 billion this…

UPDATED: Mediacom’s  CEO Rocco Commisso couldn’t have picked a better day to petition the FCC  to rein in broadcasters’ retransmission consent price hike demands — as he also blasted Chairman Tom Wheeler for “refusing to get involved at the very time when consumers most need your help.” As fate would have it, Mediacom…

Looks like retransmission consent is going to become an even bigger contributor to TV station and network revenues than most of us expected. SNL Kagan – the research firm that analysts and policymakers frequently cite for industry forecasts – says today that it expects retrans fees to hit $9.3B in 2020 and $8.78B in…

Charlottesville, VA (August 5, 2013) –SNL Kagan announced today it has acquired Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG), a leading media and technology research firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. SNL Kagan will expand its US and global coverage through this partnership, adding proprietary research, forecasts and…

Warner Bros’ latest visit to Middle Earth should generate $1.26B in revenues from all major sources — 3.59 times its expected costs — putting it on track to become the most profitable movie released in December, SNL Kagan says today. The research company builds a financial model for films by using early box office…

Cable and satellite companies have a well-deserved reputation for being terrible marketers. (How many other industries would describe consumer products with terms such as “DOCSIS 3.0” and “EBIF-Enabled”?) Still, I thought the industry would do better with TV Everywhere. Execs sure talk enough about how quickly they…

Only four of last month’s 12 major movie releases are clearly destined to be profitable according to the latest monthly tally from SNL Kagan. The research firm says that DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted should lead the pack with projected total revenues (at $783.3M) coming in 2.31 times higher…

The mostly dreary new analysis from SNL Kagan reflects the continuing decline last year in domestic home video sales and rentals — and helps to explain why studios are so determined to expand overseas. The research firm says that the average film only recouped 46% of the release costs (negative costs plus domestic…

It was a close contest but sci-fi/fantasy films came in second in the research firm’s analysis of different films’ financial performance in the decade from 2002 through 2011. Since analysts can’t tell how much studios spend for things like negatives, marketing, and DVD reproduction, SNL Kagan figures a film is clearly…

The per-household subscription fees ESPN charges cable systems amounts to “a tax on every American household,” Liberty Media Corp. CEO Greg Maffei said Monday at an investor conference sponsored by UBS AG in New York City. ESPN charges are the highest of any cable channel, according to SNL Kagan, which estimates those…