<i>Without knowledge of NBC&#x2F;CBS&#x2F;Fox&#x27;s internal balance sheets, this seems unlikely.</i><p>I&#x27;ll concede that I don&#x27;t know them any better than anyone else speculating on the matter, but I know for sure that all three networks get a per subscriber fee from cable companies like any other channel on cable.<p>The NFL has 15-16 games per week. Of those, 4 or 5 are on the local broadcast (three or four on CBS and FOX, one on NBC in the evening). If you want to access the other 11 games, you&#x27;re reliant on cable-based access.<p>And the NFL is a unique animal here. MLB, NBA, and NHL are all completely reliant on cable-based delivery methods.<p><i>The sports networks these companies have launched are all fledgling and receive a miniscule subscriber fee relative to ESPN.</i><p>Fox Sports is not fledgling. They&#x27;ve been number 2 to ESPN for most of their history, and a huge number of NBA and MLB games are broadcast on Fox Sports.<p>Sports as an industry clearly needs cable subscriptions to support its current business model. And those cable subscriptions are reliant on people that don&#x27;t watch sports paying for them anyway.<p>Eventually the sports industry is going to be forced, one way or another, to deliver a better user experience, and it&#x27;s highly questionable whether or not they&#x27;ll be able to generate the same revenue without the support of non fans that cable brings.