ESPN Is Pathetic

Pablo's TB Lover

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I feel old. I rememberl seeing him on Manhattan public access cable like 30-35 years ago. "Max On Boxing" or something like that....
Fun fact and I didn't think of it until looking at his wiki, but Max was a contributor to Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show 2005-2008. In those days I think I dismissed Carlson as an Alex P. Keaton conservative type, rather than a racist and fascist who gives voice to the ultra-right. Yikes.
 

Marciano490

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Wow, his delivery is like a Brooklyn Eminem. And 1994 was when Em's underground career was really starting up. So did Max bite Eminem, or did Eminem bite Max?
In a different universe, Max is Slim Shady and Marshall is waxing on about Kronk’s as he oversees the ruination of HBO’s proud boxing legacy.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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I was surprised to see High school football, live, on ESPN last night. From Alabama, I think. Fans didn’t appear to be distanced, I didn’t watch long enough to see if there were masks or not on the sidelines and stands . Just didn’t seem like a good idea to play or to present this to the country
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I was surprised to see High school football, live, on ESPN last night. From Alabama, I think. Fans didn’t appear to be distanced, I didn’t watch long enough to see if there were masks or not on the sidelines and stands . Just didn’t seem like a good idea to play or to present this to the country
I'm not surprised in the least that Alabama is playing high school football, nor surprised that there were fans at all and there was no distancing.

I'm only mildly surprised that ESPN would air it though. They're somewhat desperate for fresh live content, as is every network that carries sports, and it's not as though they haven't been exploiting airing high school sports more often in the last few years.
 

geoduck no quahog

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Am I the only one that finds Doris Burke insufferable during these playoffs? I mean, it's not going to ruin any game for me, but (a) she never shuts up and (b) there's an enormous amount of, "Do you know there's a game going on?" running through my brain while watching. Things like...wouldn't it be nice to know who that foul was called on...or, could we have a little less talking about who had what for lunch and a little more serious analysis?

I know a lot of the problem is ESPN's habit (in all sports) of thinking they're making the game more interesting by talking about non-game crap and/or minimizing the screen and what's happening on the court to show a half-screen of stuff that could be shown at halftime (specifically interviews). There must be a substantial amount of fans that can't stand this stuff.
 

Kliq

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I like Doris Burke as a color commentator but she is far from perfect. There is definitely some obnoxious fanboyism of her work on social media, which balances out the obvious cheap shots that she endures by simply being a woman in a male-dominated industry. I'd love it if Mark Jones/Burke or Dave Pasch/Burke were the ESPN No. 1 team and not the clown show they trot out for the biggest games.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Am I the only one that finds Doris Burke insufferable during these playoffs? I mean, it's not going to ruin any game for me, but (a) she never shuts up and (b) there's an enormous amount of, "Do you know there's a game going on?" running through my brain while watching. Things like...wouldn't it be nice to know who that foul was called on...or, could we have a little less talking about who had what for lunch and a little more serious analysis?

I know a lot of the problem is ESPN's habit (in all sports) of thinking they're making the game more interesting by talking about non-game crap and/or minimizing the screen and what's happening on the court to show a half-screen of stuff that could be shown at halftime (specifically interviews). There must be a substantial amount of fans that can't stand this stuff.
I think you will find your are in the minority here. She's a great listen.
 

Euclis20

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Am I the only one that finds Doris Burke insufferable during these playoffs? I mean, it's not going to ruin any game for me, but (a) she never shuts up and (b) there's an enormous amount of, "Do you know there's a game going on?" running through my brain while watching. Things like...wouldn't it be nice to know who that foul was called on...or, could we have a little less talking about who had what for lunch and a little more serious analysis?

I know a lot of the problem is ESPN's habit (in all sports) of thinking they're making the game more interesting by talking about non-game crap and/or minimizing the screen and what's happening on the court to show a half-screen of stuff that could be shown at halftime (specifically interviews). There must be a substantial amount of fans that can't stand this stuff.
I haven't really noticed this with Doris, but I can't miss it every time SVG does a game. It seems like he's always 1-2 possessions behind and I'm listening to the game on a delay. It's very frustrating.
 

Marciano490

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I mentioned it in the game thread, but yesterday during an in game segment on Chadwick Boseman’s death, Doris whitesplained his impact on the white community in a way I found daily awkward and off putting. Basically discussed how white kids wanted to be Black Panther and so forth.
 

soxhop411

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ESPN is going to move pretty much everything behind a paywall according to the NYP.
ESPN plans to move much of its high-profile, feature-type writing and analysis content to ESPN+, The Post has learned.

The change is being made to further boost the direct-to-consumer ESPN+ service. The initiative is in line with Disney’s recent announcement to shift its main focus to direct-to-consumer products.

Sources said that breaking news and investigative pieces will remain outside the paywall on ESPN.com, but writers who focus on insight and analysis will now primarily be available only to ESPN+ subscribers.

For example, if baseball insider Jeff Passan has a feature, it would be on ESPN+, but if he were to break a big signing, it would remain outside the paywall.
https://nypost.com/2020/10/21/espn-paywalling-features-analysis-behind-espn/
I wish them luck in trying to become the next athletic. They will need it as I don’t think many people will pay for this.
 

Phil Plantier

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I think they have a good shot to make it work (disclaimer: I already subscribe to ESPN+). Disney is really pushing the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, so it's an even lower price for people who already are on the other platforms.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Yes I already have ESPN+ due to my love of having college basketball available in-season basically 24/7 with how many games they carry. But I stopped reading espn.com a long time ago, back when Keith Law was doing condescending monologues and Bill Simmons was dropping his thousandth 90210 reference. This probably won't move the needle a lot on new subscribers. Honestly even for tracking scores on stuff I can't stream, the respective mlb.com, nba.com etc pages do such a better job than ESPN.
 

johnmd20

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Yes I already have ESPN+ due to my love of having college basketball available in-season basically 24/7 with how many games they carry. But I stopped reading espn.com a long time ago, back when Keith Law was doing condescending monologues and Bill Simmons was dropping his thousandth 90210 reference. This probably won't move the needle a lot on new subscribers. Honestly even for tracking scores on stuff I can't stream, the respective mlb.com, nba.com etc pages do such a better job than ESPN.
You figure the money they would make on converted subscribers is far more than what they currently make on the regular ESPN website. From a strategy standpoint, this makes sense. Streaming is working for ESPN, even ESPN+ has almost 8 million subs.

That's not bad for a service that is moderately niche.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Part of the new Disney reorganization is doubling down on getting ESPN to go 100% direct-to-consumer in the foreseeable. Negotiations with the big cable MVPDs and DMVPs for continued ESPN carriage at the license fees ESPN is accustomed to pulling in is getting harder and harder. Still, difficult to see how ESPN can afford to retain any national sports rights without a national cable footprint.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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You figure the money they would make on converted subscribers is far more than what they currently make on the regular ESPN website. From a strategy standpoint, this makes sense. Streaming is working for ESPN, even ESPN+ has almost 8 million subs.

That's not bad for a service that is moderately niche.
Good point, overcoming the dwindling ad revenue their website must be taking in shouldn't take doubling their subscriber base or anything. In the 2000s heyday ad income must have been fantastic.
 

Average Reds

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They have to find the money to overpay Greenberg somehow
I accidentally listened to Greenberg's radio show in the car the other day. (Was surfing Sirius XM and came across his show. Didn't even know he still had one and listened for a few minutes.)

Words cannot adequately describe how awful he is as a solo radio host. It is inexplicable that he is someone they value.
 

Awesome Fossum

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View: https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1333848617480843266


(It's a video of Bill Walton barking, for anyone who can't see tweets.)

I've tried to put on a few of the Maui Invitational games and listen while I work. It's pointless, because they don't call the game, it's just Bill Walton doing his comedy routines. What really kills me is that every so often, Walton WILL make an observation about the game, but the PBP guy will ignore it and keep egging him on about whatever nonsense they were talking about. The lowest point was when Walton's audio feed cut out, so the PBP guy had a few minutes solo. And rather than just call the game, he spent it talking about Walton!

It reminded me a little bit of ESPN's KBO work, where it's almost a combination of a radio talk show and a sports broadcast. But at least baseball has the space in between action to sort of pull that off. I think if you just listened to the basketball broadcast, you'd have no idea which team was winning.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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View: https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1333848617480843266


(It's a video of Bill Walton barking, for anyone who can't see tweets.)

I've tried to put on a few of the Maui Invitational games and listen while I work. It's pointless, because they don't call the game, it's just Bill Walton doing his comedy routines. What really kills me is that every so often, Walton WILL make an observation about the game, but the PBP guy will ignore it and keep egging him on about whatever nonsense they were talking about. The lowest point was when Walton's audio feed cut out, so the PBP guy had a few minutes solo. And rather than just call the game, he spent it talking about Walton!

It reminded me a little bit of ESPN's KBO work, where it's almost a combination of a radio talk show and a sports broadcast. But at least baseball has the space in between action to sort of pull that off. I think if you just listened to the basketball broadcast, you'd have no idea which team was winning.
Seems like some announcers really struggle with the remote broadcast thing. I kinda get it. You're in your house (or in a studio booth), all alone, it doesn't always feel like real work. Hard to get into the right frame of mind. It'd be nice if they approached it the same way broadcasters who regularly call sports remotely do (like @Conigliaro's Potential) and at least try to make it seem like they're on site. I watched KBO fairly regularly all summer and I can't say I learned a whole lot about the league or the players. It was almost like the announcers were using the game the same way I was...background noise while I do other things. Doesn't really work for people that might care about the game itself.
 

Ale Xander

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View: https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1333848617480843266


(It's a video of Bill Walton barking, for anyone who can't see tweets.)

I've tried to put on a few of the Maui Invitational games and listen while I work. It's pointless, because they don't call the game, it's just Bill Walton doing his comedy routines. What really kills me is that every so often, Walton WILL make an observation about the game, but the PBP guy will ignore it and keep egging him on about whatever nonsense they were talking about. The lowest point was when Walton's audio feed cut out, so the PBP guy had a few minutes solo. And rather than just call the game, he spent it talking about Walton!

It reminded me a little bit of ESPN's KBO work, where it's almost a combination of a radio talk show and a sports broadcast. But at least baseball has the space in between action to sort of pull that off. I think if you just listened to the basketball broadcast, you'd have no idea which team was winning.
College basketball has been so destroyed by one and dones that Walton is more entertaining than the game now for me this season. I maybe in the minority but I love Walton
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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College basketball has been so destroyed by one and dones that Walton is more entertaining than the game now for me this season. I maybe in the minority but I love Walton
It is kind of weird, there are characters in the media throughout where they get supersaturated, and then eventually like 10-20 years after they jump the shark I and apparently you enjoy them. Dick Vitale, Bill Walton, Chris Berman, Guy Fieri getting to that point...
 

Ale Xander

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It is kind of weird, there are characters in the media throughout where they get supersaturated, and then eventually like 10-20 years after they jump the shark I and apparently you enjoy them. Dick Vitale, Bill Walton, Chris Berman, Guy Fieri getting to that point...
I detest the other 3 guys in your list. Well 1 meh (Fieri), other 2 DE-TEST.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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I'll admit "enjoy" is doing a lot of work in my sentence. Probably more like I'm in on their schtick, and would rather have that than generic sports announcer guy. But anyways I won't speak for you I guess!
 

BillWarDamnEagleJay

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Not really an ESPN is Pathetic observation, more of a FML observation: my son's high school football team is the team that was the comeback victim in SVP's 1 Big Thing tonight. During the 3 hour drive back I was hoping it had gone under the national radar. No such luck....
 

BillWarDamnEagleJay

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State championship game in Alabama's biggest division. Underdog Auburn High School leading defending champion Thompson by 9 points with about 25 seconds left. Punting from near midfield. Thompson is out of timeouts. Punt is blocked and run in for a touchdown. PAT is good. Onside kick is successful, 16 seconds left. 2 defensive pass interference penalties later and the stage is set for the game winning 35 yard FG as time runs out. Absolutely crushing loss.