A lesson learned can pay dividends decades down the line.

Case in point: Back in 1993, CBS failed to grasp the benefits to a network of broadcasting NFL games beyond just numbers on a balance sheet. That allowed Rupert Murdoch to step in. He understood what football could do for him. With a push from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Murdoch snatched NFC games for what the bean counters at CBS thought was an audacious sum—$1.6 billion over four years.

That contract helped fuel the rise of Murdoch’s Fox Network while CBS lost male viewers and network affiliates. CBS, part of Paramount Global, came running back to the NFL in 1998 when it agreed to pay $4 billion over eight years for AFC telecasts.

These days, linear television is getting hammered by cord-cutting and streaming sports is a money-losing proposition for the likes of ESPN + and Paramount. Still, the Big Ten conference announced Thursday record college media rights contracts with CBS, Fox and NBC that will total more than $7 billion over seven years, of which CBS will pay $350 million. And it was announced on Friday that CBS signed a new $1.5 billion, six-year media rights deal for the Champions League starting in the 2024-2025 season. That’s an increase of 150% over what CBS and Spanish language broadcaster TelevisaUnivision currently pay combined.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but Friday morning the stock market opened down sharply while shares of Paramount Global were up. As the old saying goes: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”