Ostensibly Hoops

[eCat]

from Clay Travis ( I type that like I know who is he, but apparently some people pay attention to him)

The people being fired at ESPN today aren't being fired because they are bad at their jobs, they're being fired because ESPN's business is collapsing. That collapse has been aided by ESPN's absurd decision to turn into MSESPN, a left wing sports network, but that's more a symptom of the collapse than it is a cause of the collapse. ESPN's business is collapsing and the network is desperately trying to find a way to stay above water. You know how a drowning person flails in the water before slipping under? ESPN's left wing shift is that flailing. They think going left wing will save them. The reality is the opposite, ESPN going left wing was like giving a drowning person a big rock to hold and thinking it would keep them from drowning. Instead, it just made them sink even faster.

That's why ratings are down 16% this year compared to last year and viewers are abandoning the network in droves.

Middle America wants to pop a beer and listen to sports talk, they don't want to be lectured about why Caitlyn Jenner is a hero, Michael Sam is the new Jackie Robinson of sports, and Colin Kaepernick is the Rosa Parks of football. ESPN made the mistake of trying to make liberal social media losers happy and as a result lost millions of viewers.......

As I've written before, if the current subscriber loss trajectory keeps up ESPN will begin losing money by 2021. And if the subscriber losses accelerate it will happen even sooner than that.

The collapse of the cable bundle is a huge story that will impact every cable channel, but ESPN stands to lose more by itself than 100 other cable channels combined. That's because ESPN standing alone costs more than 100 channels on many cable and satellite packages. ESPN by itself costs nearly five times the second most expensive channel on cable. ESPN's in infinitely worse shape than any other cable network out there too because it makes more than any other channel off the current business model and because those channels don't have the billions in fixed costs that ESPN does. If CNN makes less money on subscriber revenue, they can spend less on news gathering. If AMC makes less money in subscriber fees, they'll pay for fewer shows, but ESPN's entire business is predicated on the billions they owe for sports rights every year into the foreseeable future.

[Professor Tiger]

Middle America wants to pop a beer and listen to sports talk, they don't want to be lectured about why Caitlyn Jenner is a hero, Michael Sam is the new Jackie Robinson of sports, and Colin Kaepernick is the Rosa Parks of football. ESPN made the mistake of trying to make liberal social media losers happy and as a result lost millions of viewers.......

AMEN.

[sardis]

I believe ESPN does lean too much to the left in politics, but that's not what's causing the collapse. They were THE behemoth in the cable world and now media technology is changing rapidly; and when you are large, like them, it is hard to adapt fast enough. They would have experienced the same thing if they were politically neutral.

[Cletus]

These cuts at ESPN probably pay for an hour of NFL rights fees.

[Saint]

Glad Dilfer got the axe. Kanell, too.

Most of the folks listed I'd never heard of. Dana O'Neill wasn't that great either.

ESPN is like Hardee's in the '80s. Grew too big and the quality took a nosedive, esp. when they thought serving Roy Rogers fried chicken was the right thing to do. Now Hardee's is terrible and owned by a guy (the Carl's jr. guy) who wants to automate everything. he might as well because the drive-thru window here is the slowest of any fast food place in town and the food is rotten. Then again, it's hard to eat any fast food burger except Cook Out these days.

[Saint]

If people don't watch sports because they didn't like a feature on Bruce Jenner, they weren't really sports fans. That's a terrible analogy by Travis. Retarded even.

[aTm]

It's not really politics, IMO. It is a fundamental change in content that I think is not satisfying to the typical sports fan. People get ESPN now mainly because they know their team is going to be on it at some point, but ESPN became the most expensive channel, most important in the package because people wanted to watch shows that were on ESPN. The highlight shows, etc. I remember actually watching Baseball Tonight (BTW MLB Network filled that void nicely now) and watching highlights for every single game every night. Now, its talk radio on television. It's the lowest common denominator just like the news media everywhere else. They just pay a bunch of assholes to talk talk shit and say controversial things and yell at each other and fill every single moment that they dont have to show a game with that garbage, rather than actually producing real content that sports fans want to watch. The political stuff has just jumped to the forefront because once your talent is giving out their opinion on everything else, might as well run with their opinions on politics in sports and everything else too. It gives another meaningless thing to talk about and fill a few hours where they dont have to actually produce anything except just stick a camera in some guys face and let him talk.

[Saint]

ESPN has sucked for at least 15 years.

[eCat]

Glad Dilfer got the axe. Kanell, too.

Most of the folks listed I'd never heard of. Dana O'Neill wasn't that great either.

ESPN is like Hardee's in the '80s. Grew too big and the quality took a nosedive, esp. when they thought serving Roy Rogers fried chicken was the right thing to do. Now Hardee's is terrible and owned by a guy (the Carl's jr. guy) who wants to automate everything. he might as well because the drive-thru window here is the slowest of any fast food place in town and the food is rotten. Then again, it's hard to eat any fast food burger except Cook Out these days.

[10ac]

I blame the sorry ass college football announcers.

[Professor Tiger]

If people don't watch sports because they didn't like a feature on Bruce Jenner, they weren't really sports fans. That's a terrible analogy by Travis. Retarded even.

Travis is dead on. I don't watch sports TV to be propagandized. If I want liberal politics, I'll turn on MSNBC or CNN.

But Cook Out is pretty good. It has the only vinegar-based BBQ I can stand.

[Saint]

I didn't realize ESPN was putting out so much political programming. Oh wait, you're talking about the few times a year they throw something out there that Billy Joe and Bobby Sue get riled up about. Yep, that'll tear down their ratings, all right.

How about sticking with "ESPN just sucks" because they started hiring anchors who all wanted to be the next Berman or Stu Scott and develop a schtick instead of just giving us ssssssportssssss?

[Saint]

As an aside, the first Cook Out opened in Greensboro when I was in college there in the late '80s. I thought it was OK. Had no idea it would turn into the juggernaut it's become. They should look at Hardee's as a cautionary tale and keep those $5 trays and the Cheerwine floats coming.

[Bklyn]

Convenient to throw in a political excuse for the ESPN fall whIle stating IN THE SAME POST (I won't elevate it to the status of article) that the real reason for the layoffs is the antiquated business model.

ESPN has a controversial 6pm show, a few segments on sexuality in sports and BLM talk and "middle America" calls the whole network a propaganda machine. Feels like the shooting of a dead body and claiming it in your body count. It's a convenient ploy but doesn't minimize its falsehood.

[eCat]

Convenient to throw in a political excuse for the ESPN fall whIle stating IN THE SAME POST (I won't elevate it to the status of article) that the real reason for the layoffs is the antiquated business model.

ESPN has a controversial 6pm show, a few segments on sexuality in sports and BLM talk and "middle America" calls the whole network a propaganda machine. Feels like the shooting of a dead body and claiming it in your body count. It's a convenient ploy but doesn't minimize its falsehood.

you're coming in late to the game with your viewpoints.

this isn't something that has been talked about overnight.

The first misstep with ESPN is similar to the downfall of MTV. 6 - 8 hours of editorial shows on sports instead of just focusing on delivering sports highlights and well...sports.

Then the next step is these editorial shows deciding its time to inject their opinions on sports - and selectively choosing which sports "news" to deliver. The talking heads decided they had the platform and an obligation to discuss the social aspects of sports. Take the show Around the Horn. Its a game show of sorts where sports reporters talk about current topics in sports and the prize? A segment on the air to discuss any topic they want. The Sports Reporters is the same format. Even with PTI, which is the only thing I watch on ESPN other than live sports, Wilbon is very predictable with his takes when it comes to the social aspects of the sports discussion.

It has nothing to do with the 6pm SC . While I have never watched it, there is no shortage of people dogging the show, not because the anchors are black but because they suck. But that just happened a few weeks ago. This discussion on ESPN editorializing sports has been going on for years. And lets not forget that ESPN protects their sports favorites. They fired fan favorite Bill Simmons because he continually dogged Goodell, they pimp sports programs and teams they support (UK has been a benefactor of this recently) and they refuse to touch some sports topics until they become mainstream - so its clear they have an agenda that isn't about face value reporting.

Its a big part of why people have stopped watching ESPN for anything other than live sports - and as Travis points out, other than Monday NFL, people are finding ESPN doesn't offer enough must see sports programming to drive subscriptions. People don't want to watch hours of sports news with a Fox News/MSNBC approach to it.

[Professor Tiger]

I didn't realize ESPN was putting out so much political programming. Oh wait, you're talking about the few times a year they throw something out there that Billy Joe and Bobby Sue get riled up about. Yep, that'll tear down their ratings, all right.

If ESPN started doing specials lionizing Steve Bannon as "stunning and brave," and frequently talking about how we need to build a wall, or abortion is murder, you don't think that would affect their viewership in blue state America?

[eCat]

ESPN probably needs to evaluate just who their core audience is going to be 10 years from now as well

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Young people are turning off sport on the box -- something that will strike fear into television executives who hoped live matches would be immune from the diversions of Netflix and video games.

European broadcasters like Sky Plc and Telefonica SA pay billions for sports rights and rely on the games' allure to attract people to their more expensive broadband and television bundles. Walt Disney Co., the owner of ESPN, and broadcasters including NBC also use sport to build audiences and sell advertising.

But there are signs it doesn't hold the same spell over young people as their parents. Viewers between the ages of 18 and 24 were the least interested in sport as a genre, according to a survey across 10 countries carried out by research firm Ampere Analysis.

Declines in TV ratings for the NFL have been more pronounced for 18-34 year olds since 2011 compared with the overall population


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[Professor Tiger]

Declines in TV ratings for the NFL have been more pronounced for 18-34 year olds since 2011 compared with the overall population

It is probably affected by all the demographic changes you mentioned, to some extent. But, if that was the primary cause, you would think the decline in viewership would be slow and steady. In the case of the NFL, the decline viewership was sudden and dramatic.

Monday Night Football is down 24% from this time a year ago, Sunday Night Football is down 19% and Thursday night is down 18%.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/10/25/tv-ra ... time-games#

What caused this sudden ratings plunge in one year? I suspect Colin Kaepernick had a lot to do with it.

[eCat]

he definitely played a part

and by and large ESPN was supportive of his actions, so they got some blowback as well.

Trent Dilfer fired yesterday btw, one of the few on ESPN who said Kaepernick should "know his place"

Just read they let Andy Katz go. That is surprising to me. Katz always had insider information

[hedge]

"Then again, it's hard to eat any fast food burger except Cook Out these days."

And yet somehow you manage to shovel burgers into your maw at an alarming rate on a daily basis...