Mike Tirico headed to NBC per the Twitters**
- Thread starter dawgstudent
- Start date
Sadly probably true. If ESPN does not introduce a working online model by the end of the year, they're hosed.
I imagine he's lining himself up to take Al Michaels place when he retires. He's getting up there in age.
I like Tirico. He's no Keith Jackson, but there never has been many of those around. But I think he's one of the best out there at the moment, Al Michaels probably being a little more pleasing. Gotta wonder who his replacement on MNF will be. Probably a woman ....
Tirico says, most people assume he is black. But he’s seen pictures of his father, his father’s mother and his father’s sister – all of whom are white, Tirico says. ”The only contact I had growing up was with my mom’s side of the family. And they are all as white as the refrigerator I’m standing in front of right now,”
He was born in Whitestone, Queens, New York. That speaks for his Caucasian ethnicity... that and naming his children Marv Albert and Bob Costas.
SlingTV is a stop-gap at best. Like Blockbuster's "Pay one monthly fee but still use the store." They have to engage the viewers directly. And have a tiered pricing structure to accommodate that. Say $9.99/mo gets you ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, and the ability to stream any event up to 48 hours after start time. You'll have to watch commercials live (and they'll tailor the commercials to the individual viewer based on big data). Prices go up from there and get you more networks, camera feeds, longer back catalog, etc. Maybe if you pay $19.99 or above you get Insider included. They have to do something drastic and soon. Given how long ESPN's deals are with the major sports leagues they'll be hemorrhaging cash for the next decade and the other networks will snatch up the TV deals at half the cost when the deals expire.