In aggregate, billions. It would be impossible to calculate per-viewer. [0] The thing is, at present they are paid by every cable subscriber, not just the ones who actually watch the channel. So by switching to the model you suggest, there are two options, charge the user directly what they were currently charging the cable company and lose hundreds of millions in revenue because only a portion of your current viewers will pay you or more likely they will raise the price significantly.
The other thing is it would mean they would have to build a billing and customer service infrastructure. At present they only really have a handful of customers [1] - the cable companies - so it's really easy for them to deal with that side of things. When you have 300 million subscribers, one of the biggest problems will be billing and customer service, so prices would further increase because of that.
I would love to see sport leagues do this. But things need to change somewhat before there will be any major incentive for it to happen.
[0]: Every league, team, sport is different, probably with different contracts with every cable company. The average wouldn't be useful at all because you would have more extreme data points than you would average data points.
[1]: Sure, some networks have online streaming options, but the kind of customer who has no problem paying the extra few hundred dollars a year for access are not the ones that will require the major customer support.
The other thing is it would mean they would have to build a billing and customer service infrastructure. At present they only really have a handful of customers [1] - the cable companies - so it's really easy for them to deal with that side of things. When you have 300 million subscribers, one of the biggest problems will be billing and customer service, so prices would further increase because of that.
I would love to see sport leagues do this. But things need to change somewhat before there will be any major incentive for it to happen.
[0]: Every league, team, sport is different, probably with different contracts with every cable company. The average wouldn't be useful at all because you would have more extreme data points than you would average data points.
[1]: Sure, some networks have online streaming options, but the kind of customer who has no problem paying the extra few hundred dollars a year for access are not the ones that will require the major customer support.