Speculation is that Disney is close to cutting ESPN loose. Disney is shifting to a streaming only platform. ESPN has 20 million fewer subscribers than it did 10 years ago, thus are 240 million dollars per year less profitable. No room to grow that again. ESPN cannot go stand alone streaming and expect $20 month subscriptions. They also overpaid for exclusive contracts such as that with the SEC. We shall see.
ESPN
- Thread starter steinek11
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They are a hack of a network. Hope they go under. I cut them and will never go back. I watch all my games on YouTube now.I watched them when they first began, and saw a lot of bizarre sports. Saw Mike Tyson come up on Friday Night Fights. Now they are just a wing of the Liberal agenda.
What blows me away about ESPN is all the people with multi-million $$ "Bo Pelini" contracts. Relatively young people who had never really accomplished anything that were hired to do opinion stuff that wasn't even sports related half the time.
Many have been let go but many remain. Literally everyone in management there should be fired. Remember the B1G was the first to start their own sports network, and the reason was ESPN was really chintzy in contract negotiations.
Many have been let go but many remain. Literally everyone in management there should be fired. Remember the B1G was the first to start their own sports network, and the reason was ESPN was really chintzy in contract negotiations.
I wouldn't lose any sleep over espn and disney falling on their face, but that may be a little too much to hope for.
I only watch ESPN if there is an interesting game on. I wouldn’t waste a second listening to sports reporters go on and on. Hell, they even ruined Soortscenter. I winder how much money they lost on the Longhorn Network deal.
So consider this, your entire model of a network is blown up due to the internet and social media. We used to watch the network for games and of course for sportscenter to see outcomes and highlights. Now we see real-time highlights and scores. They can’t fill their entire schedule with live sports and simple recap/highlight shows are a bust now. They’ve tried everything to fill up the schedule. Sure. Many on here will still consume sports chat 24/7 but to expand their audience, they have to expand their content. And expanding content alienates their core audience. Quite the conundrum.
If you have the solution, you should be making 7 figures and contact them.
If you have the solution, you should be making 7 figures and contact them.
You outlined the exact problem. Outside of live events, their programming is no longer needed.
There's really no solution. Except less ESPN.
Kind of like how it's tough to find a Sears anywhere today. The landscape changed and they no longer filled a need.
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Same content.. smaller salaries. No more 7 figure jobs to talk about sports for an hour. Now get people to talk about sports for $90 k per year. Problem solved.
I wonder if a new online only network could rise up. ESPN is too dependent on cable subscribers for revenue, so they can't dilute their price point for non cable subscribers who would buy online only access. This is where most Americans want to eventually get. Let me chose 10 networks ala carte and I'll pay $30 or $40 a month. Cut out the filler.
I agree and disagree with you here. Their sports highlight shows are struggling. Some of it is due to twitter and the like. But a lot of it is due to Sportscenter sucking. They only play certain highlights. They only show the major teams and at best skim the rest. If they would show 3-5 minutes of highlights of every NFL game or the majority of college games, I think they’d do a lot better.
How many times have you tried to watch their highlight shows and only seem Ohio State, Bama and Clemson on repeat? If they would show clips of every P5 game and at least some of the G5 games, they’d have a lot less time to fill and a lot more viewers.
As a lowly Lions fan, I usually get maybe get 2-3 highlights of the three wins they get a year. They just skim over them. One big pass. Maybe a turnover and then the last play that won the game. And move on to the Patriots or Packers.
I am also surprised they don’t do a film break down by experts. The coaches round table for the National Championship game is awesome. Why don’t they do that with game replays or highlights. They could have ex-players or coaches go over games or drives and talk about the strategy and the play calls. What players and coaches saw. Etc. I would watch the hell out of that.
It seems like they’ve gotten lazy and tried to put personalities on for multiple hours and said good enough.
Only watch live games and 30 for 30s. None of their talk shows or Sports Center anymore. If they were to go under, live sports will lose their main vehicle with 5 channels no longer offering games. The impact on college sports would be huge.
ESPN was falling off long before the pandemic. Their big purge where they fired so many on air talent was way back in 2017.
Despite ESPN’s bias against Nebraska dating back to the early 90’s especially on shows like ‘the sports reporters’ on Sunday morning, I still watched because they showed everything. Sports Center was fantastic, the hosts were enjoyable, and you got a recap of everything that happened that you missed in the world of sports.
But, there’s only so much one can take, and I stopped watching all ESPN programming (that wasn’t a live football game) once they decided to proclaim Tim Tebow was a living God and incessantly talked about him 24/7.
Now, seeing people talk about Herbstreit crying and then seeing pictures and gifs of it, only reaffirmed that I made the right choice.
But, there’s only so much one can take, and I stopped watching all ESPN programming (that wasn’t a live football game) once they decided to proclaim Tim Tebow was a living God and incessantly talked about him 24/7.
Now, seeing people talk about Herbstreit crying and then seeing pictures and gifs of it, only reaffirmed that I made the right choice.
I don't even remember the last time I watched Sports Center. I guess it must still be on. They just got too big and bloated thinking it would continue forever and in this day and age, the markets seem to turn on a dime.
I agree with those who mentioned all the analyst. Their political correctness showed up in everything and it was obvious it was more about that than the quality of the broadcast hoping to snag people from all different areas when in fact, it probably went the other way.
I agree with those who mentioned all the analyst. Their political correctness showed up in everything and it was obvious it was more about that than the quality of the broadcast hoping to snag people from all different areas when in fact, it probably went the other way.
In a race to be the most woke channel on the dial, they went full blown Thelma and Louise right over the cliff.
The Disney/ESPN marriage was always and odd combination in my opinion. Two really polar opposites in the content and audience. Now I get you want to expand and grab market share, but ESPN is a dying network.
Every professional sport has its own network now and they far and away outpace ESPN in on air talent and content. Then you add in all of the college conferences having their own networks and you there isn't much if anything left for ESPN to be the king of.
I am hardly viewing ESPN anymore, now the politics of things are an issue, but "journalists" are going to be "journalists". Very few if any now offer little more than opinions that are based on their view of things, and rarely are these views based on any type of facts. This is true across most all "news/sports news" networks. ESPN use to be really good with MLB, but man now it is just bad.
When I made the choice to cut cable I wanted to make sure my replacement had MLB and Golf Channel. I watch these networks a ton as they are so good a focusing that particular sport. Having to fill so much time across all their networks ESPN has done a terrible job of finding and developing talent causing it to be brutal to watch.
Every professional sport has its own network now and they far and away outpace ESPN in on air talent and content. Then you add in all of the college conferences having their own networks and you there isn't much if anything left for ESPN to be the king of.
I am hardly viewing ESPN anymore, now the politics of things are an issue, but "journalists" are going to be "journalists". Very few if any now offer little more than opinions that are based on their view of things, and rarely are these views based on any type of facts. This is true across most all "news/sports news" networks. ESPN use to be really good with MLB, but man now it is just bad.
When I made the choice to cut cable I wanted to make sure my replacement had MLB and Golf Channel. I watch these networks a ton as they are so good a focusing that particular sport. Having to fill so much time across all their networks ESPN has done a terrible job of finding and developing talent causing it to be brutal to watch.
Agree with this. There are a lot of factors leading to ESPN going into decline. I am not cheering on their demise, although I generally don't like their opinions on broader cultural topics. They may have accelerated some of it, but other things are entirely outside of their control and thus inevitable. Other companies are competing for their audience and having success taking it. There will be a place for them. It's just going to be smaller in light of changing preferences and economic realities.
Agreed, used to watch Get Up every morning before work, until I realized it is the same 3 stories repeated 4 times every 30 minutes. They'd rather repeat themselves than cover more stories.
And then First Take comes on and different people cover the same 3 stories.
And then First Take comes on and different people cover the same 3 stories.
While the political commentary sealed the deal for me, in that I will no longer watch espn unless it is for (SOME) live sports, the problems began when a lot of these shows turned into the style of daily talk shows catered toward women. (I’m not saying theres anything wrong with these shows, or women, nor am I saying they discussed topics centered toward women....I mean the style and substance, gimmicks, personalities, forced drama, etc). That doesnt always work well for sports.
ESPN continues to miss the mark when it comes to Xs and Os. Ron Jaworski should have had his own show with Xs and Os. His primetime and monday night feature with that awesome espn NFL music in the background was much watch tv. There just wasnt enough of it.
They tried doing something like this with gruden in the qb film room segments, but it just turned in to gruden fawning over the qb without any real xs and os substace. Highlight shows like baseball tonight and nfl live are great, but they need backed by detailed game strategy in a different show. At a certain point, talking about deals just gets old and I can simply read about who signed what deal in a tweet or in the paper. Top it off with political jargon or team drama and it just falls flat.
Some of the 30 for 30s are great, others are horrible. The forced ones are horrible, and they get political in one sided ways. OJ Simpson Made in America was political but had to be and showed BOTH SIDES of the politics well. That is one of the greatest docs Ive ever seen. MJ and the Bulls was great as well.
Its almost too glitzy, too.
Thats just one mans opinion. Thats why I dont watch, whereas I used to watch a ton. Espn is also hurt by the NBA and their crap. For many americans, start talking NBA and the channel is automatically turned. Sure, theres some people who love it, but not enough anymore to sustain five networks.
ESPN continues to miss the mark when it comes to Xs and Os. Ron Jaworski should have had his own show with Xs and Os. His primetime and monday night feature with that awesome espn NFL music in the background was much watch tv. There just wasnt enough of it.
They tried doing something like this with gruden in the qb film room segments, but it just turned in to gruden fawning over the qb without any real xs and os substace. Highlight shows like baseball tonight and nfl live are great, but they need backed by detailed game strategy in a different show. At a certain point, talking about deals just gets old and I can simply read about who signed what deal in a tweet or in the paper. Top it off with political jargon or team drama and it just falls flat.
Some of the 30 for 30s are great, others are horrible. The forced ones are horrible, and they get political in one sided ways. OJ Simpson Made in America was political but had to be and showed BOTH SIDES of the politics well. That is one of the greatest docs Ive ever seen. MJ and the Bulls was great as well.
Its almost too glitzy, too.
Thats just one mans opinion. Thats why I dont watch, whereas I used to watch a ton. Espn is also hurt by the NBA and their crap. For many americans, start talking NBA and the channel is automatically turned. Sure, theres some people who love it, but not enough anymore to sustain five networks.
Was trying to watch NFL countdown this morning and on comes a BLM message. Barf. Channel turned. Problem solved. But I'm a sadist apoarently, because next Sunday I will probably repeat this behavior, so shame on me.
I remember a time when the only thing you could watch on ESPN was maybe some hockey, but more likely some bass fishing, bowling, or darts. Very fortunate to have experienced the golden years of ESPN. Sportscenter was a big upgrade from George Michael's Sports Machine. I want to say things started going downhill in 2005, but I can't really remember. Haven't watched in over a decade.
Disney owns ABC which owned ESPN.
Disney owns 80% of ESPN the other 20% is owned by Hearst.
Their model is flawed. The biggest games are on the network channels which are free over the air, but they want to charge a premium for carrying generally lesser games.
I don't see them giving it up to just stream content like Netflix.
I see them starting up a Netflix type service in addition to their daily broadcasts.
Disney owns 80% of ESPN the other 20% is owned by Hearst.
Their model is flawed. The biggest games are on the network channels which are free over the air, but they want to charge a premium for carrying generally lesser games.
I don't see them giving it up to just stream content like Netflix.
I see them starting up a Netflix type service in addition to their daily broadcasts.
No, espn lacks creativity. New AI technology allows us to upscale old footage into high def footage today. They have a couple dozen announcers sitting and doing nothing most of the time. They could easily have an ESPN History channel and redo and upscale old historical content...with new commentary or refinished old commentary. They could sell the games for 4.99 or broadcast them on primetime on the channel. They could then sell the rights to the big 10, big 12, pac 12 networks. It is amazingly easy to control pirating because youtube has such a massive share of the digital market. ESPN has been a shortsighted profits first company for the last 10 years. Cutting talent, cutting programming to make quick easy profits in the short term.
I stumbled across CBS HQ YouTube channel yesterday. Got to pick the highlights of every college game I wanted. Each one was exactly 3 minutes long, so they didn't hype some and give you none of others like ESPN is famous for. Watched just the ones that I wanted to see and only about 15 seconds of commercials per clip. That's only about 20 minutes of total viewing time for me with no politics or long commercials. What the thing of beauty.
I haven’t watched sportcenter in 8 years. When I was younger I worked overnights, and would watch it every morning 3 or 4 straight hours of the same show repeating itself. It drove my wife crazy!