Yes, you're right that it's not all one way traffic - both parties have plenty to gain and lose from the relationship. But i just don't know where else as a matter of practicality PRT is going to get its content from if not C7 - C9 has Southern Cross through 2021, and CBS/10 has Win. C7 has the highest rating programming and, by dint of anti-siphoning laws, also has high-rating sports so i can't see Prime turning that down in favor of a cheaper content deal that's going to deliver them inferior viewers and ultimately far less advertising revenue - the economics doesn't work given Prime's fixed cost base. From a practical perspective as well, i don't see Prime as having the audience reach to make it worthwhile for some foreign-owned content giant to enter into negotiations with Prime (like CBS did with C10) - the foreign-owned content owners would presumably prefer to access the market via a metro network with much more scale and reach, and they can then distribute downstream to regional areas via affiliation agreements.
Whatever way one looks at it, Prime's post 2019 gross profit is very likely to be materially lower than it is today - either they suck up the higher cost C7 is going to push on them, or they break their 30+ year affiliation with C7 to chase a new partner who's probably going to deliver less ratings and less revenue.
PRT Price at posting:
28.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
