Have Cable or Dish? You Pay $100 'Sports Tax'

The NFL's hefty new contract with TV networks—as in $27 billion over nine years—prompts the New York Times to look into the booming business of sports on TV. The takeaway stat: Anyone with cable or satellite is paying what amounts to an annual "sports tax" of $100 per year, write Brian Stelter and Amy Chozick. Which, of course, includes those who never watch sports.

The leagues charge a ton of money to networks such as ESPN to carry games, those channels in turn charge the cable and satellite companies a ton of money, and the monthly bill just keeps on rising. "If you look at the whole media food chain, the last guy on it is the consumer,” says one industry analyst. Read the full piece here. (More sports stories.)