I have previously blogged about the interplay between broadcast, cable, emerging content models, and the important place that sports fits in all this. See here, here, and here, for example.
Post-acquisition of NBC Universal, Comcast is seeing an arbitrage opportunity moving sports from its recently acquired broadcast network (NBC) (where the model is an advertising model, with certain sports being possibly a loss leader) to the more lucrative cable sports networks (with huge subscription fees bundled into packages even where customers don’t like sports pay in addition to the advertising revenues). If successful, this means further inflationary pressure on MVPD subscription fees; I wonder where the breaking point for customers is in all of this.