ESPN Is Pathetic

cornwalls@6

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Other than live games, in the last 10-15 years, I've gone from being a full-blown ESPN consumer, to a light grazer. PTI(for some reason I still find those 2 dopes amusing), the Saturday morning college football pre-game show , and a little bit of ESPN Boston. They could fire everyone else and fill their spots with Kardashians for all I care.


Edit: Should have added 30/30 docs to the list as well. But many of those are of such high quality, I forget they're even associated with the rest of the bleep fest.
 
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PedroKsBambino

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This is what is holding the dam together. When the bidding prices from networks start plummeting and the market for a la carte/streaming for live sports becomes more viable, the full implosion will occur. Same thing applies to cable news, although I think they have more of a shelf life than sports networks.
We're seeing the first moves on this, aren't we? NFL network self-televising games, Yahoo/Amazon streaming, MLB Extra Innings package are all ways to manage the above risk, I think.
 

InstaFace

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I read a book on the history of MTV about 10 years ago. The book referenced that by the late 80s they knew they had to change because they did not make one dime playing videos. When MTV began the shift with Remote Control and the Real World, it was like throwing spaghetti on a wall to see if something stuck before they shut off the lights.

That's not ESPN's problem. Their problem is that they've gone from printing money to losing subs. This all happened during a time when they have loaded up on massive guaranteed broadcasting contracts. ESPN has finally reached a point where it cannot pass all of those costs thru to tv providers/customers.

The interesting thing going forward is that we have never seen a decline in television contracts for major sports, but logic says that it should happen. I guess in theory, the leagues could tell their broadcast partners that they don't care that they are losing money on what they are selling them - just make sure their next bid is higher than the last.
The fixed cost for ESPN to bring sports programming to their airwaves is the cost of the contracts with the sports leagues. And the cost for a bare-bonus production staff. On-air talent, bloggers, beat writers, and all the other stuff surrounding the coverage trying to squeeze additional stickiness out of the (compelling) basic product of actual sports are all discretionary expenditures that are speculative in nature. If they're able to sell ads for $X against their NFL or MLB games, they can bid up to ($X - $2M) or so without actually losing money. If the on-air talent doesn't bring in more money than it costs them, they can and should jettison it. It doesn't mean their business model is being threatened, just that their margins are squeezed a little and their largesse to former athletes and professional yellers is under siege.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I read a book on the history of MTV about 10 years ago. The book referenced that by the late 80s they knew they had to change because they did not make one dime playing videos. When MTV began the shift with Remote Control and the Real World, it was like throwing spaghetti on a wall to see if something stuck before they shut off the lights.
"I Want My MTV". This was a terrific book, probably one of the best oral histories that I've read. If you watched MTV in the 80s or 90s, you should read this. Like right now. Go to Amazon through the SoSH link and order it.

They aren't even trying to pretend to care about hockey anymore
I've seen this a few times and I have to just shrug my shoulders. Who cares? ESPN barely gives a shit about baseball too. ESPN was on at the gym three weeks ago and instead of covering Opening Day, they literally spent 45 minutes on Tony Romo's retirement. All ESPN gives a crap about is football (college and pro) and hoops. That's it.

Get your hockey or baseball info elsewhere. It will be better AND you won't have people screaming at you.

The days of ESPN being a one-stop-shop for sports have been over for years.
 

ifmanis5

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"I Want My MTV". This was a terrific book, probably one of the best oral histories that I've read. If you watched MTV in the 80s or 90s, you should read this. Like right now. Go to Amazon through the SoSH link and order it.
Seconded. Fantastic book. I'm wanting a sequel called When The Viacom Suits Took Over And Killed The Party.

The most unsurprising thing about this latest ESPN Purge is that those in charge who signed the terrible rights deals that put them into their current predicament are not going. They are staying.
 

allstonite

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"I Want My MTV". This was a terrific book, probably one of the best oral histories that I've read. If you watched MTV in the 80s or 90s, you should read this. Like right now. Go to Amazon through the SoSH link and order it.



I've seen this a few times and I have to just shrug my shoulders. Who cares? ESPN barely gives a shit about baseball too. ESPN was on at the gym three weeks ago and instead of covering Opening Day, they literally spent 45 minutes on Tony Romo's retirement. All ESPN gives a crap about is football (college and pro) and hoops. That's it.

Get your hockey or baseball info elsewhere. It will be better AND you won't have people screaming at you.

The days of ESPN being a one-stop-shop for sports have been over for years.
I agree. I haven't gone to ESPN for anything other than live games for over a decade. It's just crazy that the largest sports network doesn't care at all about one of the 4 major sports.
 

Vinho Tinto

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"I Want My MTV".
Thanks for the call back.

I think Colin Cowherd, in describing his radio show, really summed up ESPN's coverage well. He said that he had two seasons that went all year long: Football and LeBron. I think LBJ can be swapped out for the biggest NBA player of the moment, but the comment still holds.

When I was an undergrad during the mid 90s, my housemates all played hockey and complained about ESPN's coverage. And this was when they still had NHL rights. With NHL and MLB networks, you don't need ESPN for sports they don't care about. Even NBC Sports non game programing that they have for the NHL is much better than anything ESPN would ever do.
 

Captaincoop

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I can't believe there are still people who watch ESPN's non-game programming. I do so in one situation: When I'm on a treadmill and have no control over the channel.

ESPN was such a groundbreaking product in the 80's. It is unmitigated trash now. These cuts are only going to make it worse.
 

kenneycb

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Seems like ESPN is writing these goodbye tweets. All very complimentary of the mother-ship.
It's probably not good business for most of the people to trash their employer on the way out if they want to get hired by somebody who probably once worked for ESPN back in the day. I have to imagine the industry is relatively small, all things considered.
 

Rusty13

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It's probably not good business for most of the people to trash their employer on the way out if they want to get hired by somebody who probably once worked for ESPN back in the day. I have to imagine the industry is relatively small, all things considered.
Agreed. Sean McAdam still doesn't have a full time gig yet.
 

B H Kim

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It's probably not good business for most of the people to trash their employer on the way out if they want to get hired by somebody who probably once worked for ESPN back in the day. I have to imagine the industry is relatively small, all things considered.
They are also presumably subject to non-disparagement obligations under their severance packages.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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They are also presumably subject to non-disparagement obligations under their severance packages.
So basically ESPN is writing the tweets. Trust me I get the dance they have to play on the way out the door. Wasn't looking for anything that would be negative, but some that just say, "I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life..." or something neutral.
 

kenneycb

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So basically ESPN is writing the tweets. Trust me I get the dance they have to play on the way out the door. Wasn't looking for anything that would be negative, but some that just say, "I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life..." or something neutral.
Maybe they somehow actually enjoyed working for ESPN or something.
 

Clears Cleaver

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Jim Miller saying that should be prepared for hits to journalism side of espn. I laughed at the premise then realized Jeremy Schaap and bob ley are probably whom he was referring.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Jim Miller saying that should be prepared for hits to journalism side of espn. I laughed at the premise then realized Jeremy Schaap and bob ley are probably whom he was referring.
While I don't agree with everything they produce, that would indeed be a loss---there's very few people at ESPN who are doing true journalism and reducing that to zero would, I think, not be good for the brand overall.
 

Rusty13

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Jim Miller saying that should be prepared for hits to journalism side of espn. I laughed at the premise then realized Jeremy Schaap and bob ley are probably whom he was referring.
Bob Ley getting canned via layoffs would be Earth shattering news. He is the longest tenured employee there. I doubt he goes out this way but maybe his role is further "reduced" like a few others.
 

Hoya81

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I wonder if Mike Reiss is in danger here. He's on a similar tier than a lot of these people being cut.
 

Snoop Soxy Dogg

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This is what is holding the dam together. When the bidding prices from networks start plummeting and the market for a la carte/streaming for live sports becomes more viable, the full implosion will occur. Same thing applies to cable news, although I think they have more of a shelf life than sports networks.
I'm actually surprised this type of implosion hasn't happened with more frequency. The whole subscriber fees---> ad revenue-->crazy sport rights fees---->huge player contracts model has been pretty wobbly for a while. With viewing habits changing, it's just falling apart. You look at what happened in LA between Direc TV and the Dodgers, and the entire model just looks rotten somewhere.

The question is if those sports rights fees (and player contracts) will continue to rise. Will Bryce Harper really get a $400m contract? (Not arguing whether he deserves the contract - but whether teams will continue to be able to fit contracts like that in a business model that makes any sort of sense).

I have no idea - and the fact that player contracts keep going up has really puzzled me. But that'll be fascinating to watch.
 

H78

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I wonder if Mike Reiss is in danger here. He's on a similar tier than a lot of these people being cut.
He seems like a guy that can fit into multiple roles, so I'd imagine the Patriots would find a role for him pretty quick - assuming he'd be willing to take a pay cut.
 

shaggydog2000

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I'm not surprised that so many of the writers are being let go. ESPN was a safe, well paid harbor that sheltered these guys while every newspaper was gutting their departments. I'd have to imagine they were better paid and a lot more secure than their peers. Now ESPN is just getting around to the same actions as the rest of the industry. It's a shame, but it's also a reality unfortunately.
 

soxhop411

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This will be the future of reporting. ROBOTS instead of humans.

The Associated Press on Thursday announced that it is now covering Minor League Baseball games nationally using artificial intelligence and software from Automated Insights, and data from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the official statistics provider for Minor League Baseball.

Automatically generated stories cover games that AP Sports’ human writers weren’t reporting on or traveling to anyway, including: Triple-A, Double-A and Class A games, across 142 MLB-affiliated teams and 13 leagues.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2016/07/03/ap-sports-is-using-robot-reporters-to-cover-minor-league-baseball/amp/
 

nattysez

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Dumb question: what does having one's role "significantly reduced" mean? Assuming these anchors are salaried, rather than being paid per show, how is there a cost savings to "reducing their roles?" Or is this code for "fired and re-hired with a new, cheaper contract and less responsibility?"
 

shaggydog2000

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E5 Yaz

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Werder would be a good pickup for FOX, considering his ties to the Cowboys and FOX having the NFC package