and networks won't be able to pay the insane fees they owe various sports leagues. It's important to remember that sports leagues aren't signing record TV contracts because of soaring popularity. They were able to sign these deals because their relative value in the TV world has blown up due to the demise of all other TV programming. It's like what happens to guys on missions. Girls you would not have been attracted to before your mission become very attractive. Sports are keeping the current state of cable/satellite TV afloat. I think it isn't sustainable, however. Cable/satellite providers will continue raising their rates for the last remaining suckers (sports fans) who stick with them. Eventually, it'll be too much and they'll even start to lose sports fans who will decide they value their gobs of money more than watching occasional sporting events.