THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Sports and streaming coming soon to your television

Sooner or later.

In fact, I’d bet on sooner.

One time frame or another, you’re going to wake up one morning and discover that all live sports are on premium streaming services — and watching will be more

expensive.

It’s already happening with the NFL on Amazon Prime, soccer’s Premier League shown going to Peacock, and now some major league baseball on Apple TV.

The new world is coming … fast.

And by the way, it could have a major impact on what the loveable Pac-2 — Washington State and Oregon State — choose as their jointly approved path forward.

This train hurtling toward an all-streaming universe also shows what dimwits the Pac-12 presidents turned out to be, sneering at a deal with massive Apple (net worth: $3 trillion), and running off to hop in bed with conferences propped up by Fox and ESPN.

Consider: There is currently a battle going on between Disney (ESPN’s parent company) and Charter Communications, which owns cable provider Spectrum.

Charter is upset that Disney continues to put programming on ESPN+ (its premium channel), and essentially wants the full Disney package, including the pay programming, in exchange for its $2 billion yearly bill.

YOU CAN see huge stakes here.

Here’s the assessment from Yahoo’s reporting …

“The stalemate has left those 15 million households — which represent about 20 percent of all U.S. cable subscribers — without ESPN since last Thursday.

“If an agreement isn’t reached this week, those 15 million households won’t be able to watch No. 4 Alabama vs. No. 11 Texas on Saturday night, or Aaron Rodgers’ debut with the Jets vs. Buffalo on Monday Night Football.”

Disney does NOT want to go backward, since it’s losing more than $2 billion per year on ESPN.

Yes, that’s why the sports network is for sale.

The buyer will definitely be a streaming service, most likely Amazon or Apple.

At that point, we’re on a swift toboggan ride toward all-premium live sports —which will be more expensive and more complicated.

Fox’s sports programming surely will be gobbled up by one of the streaming giants, because for better or worse, that’s how it works with capitalism.

At that point, all those universities that went sprinting into the arms of Fox and/or ESPN — despite massive travel costs and disruption to athletes and fans —could discover that their winning lottery tickets were only good for a set of household furniture.

They’ll have to negotiate all over again.

Meantime, what about the Pac-2 and THEIR future partners?

It’s been written all over creation that Wazzu and OSU had better hustle into the Mountain West Conference, just so they have the safety of a secure home.

The two orphan programs, though, have different and aggressive ideas.

Once they know what amount of money is still flowing into the Pac-12 (which is really just them), they could decide to offer a merger of sorts to the Mountain West or, as eye-popping as it seems, they may play two seasons as just the Pac-2.

NCAA bylaws allow conferences two years to rebuild without penalty.

It takes a unanimous vote of the 10 conferences (Power 5 and Group of 5) to change that, and the official, two-team entity that is the Pac-12 could happily vote no.

IN OTHER words, the Pac-2 would plan to “expand” to become the Pac-12 all over again, however they have to do it.

Inviting the entire Mountain West into the house would work, since that conference’s media rights deal expires in two years, also.

Those schools would be free to negotiate — and no matter who winds up in the new Pac-12, feel free to speculate that Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez will be in charge of it.

She’s super-savvy, worked for more than a decade in the Pac-12 office, then became commissioner of the West Coast Conference before taking her current job.

If money is available in the Pac-12 coffers (along with NCAA basketball units, College Football Playoff cash and a deal with the Rose Bowl that’s still in effect), the Cougs and Beavers could easily play two seasons as “de facto independents,” and then invite the schools they choose into the Pac-12 for the 2026-27 season.

You’d imagine they would take all or most of the Mountain West, plus poaching a few teams from the American (Navy, Tulane, Memphis) and perhaps even Army, which is an independent.

REMEMBER, we will be well down the road to premium sports streaming by then, so number of households won’t mean as much as committed fans who are ready to buy subscriptions.

For what it’s worth, if you take a five-year average, Navy and Washington State have the highest number of TV viewers among the schools we’ve discussed (by some distance), with Oregon State and Army next in line.

Some of the Mountain West schools have respectable TV followings, but a few (San Jose State, Hawaii and New Mexico) lag far behind.

Still, would Washington State and Oregon State, having been rudely shut out of a major conference this time around, do the same thing to some Mountain West schools if it could be avoided?

I’m thinking they would not, but simply absorb the whole conference.

Then, sit down with Apple or Amazon to plan the future.

This is TRULY not as far-fetched as you think.

Trust me.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”