Posted on 04/26/2017 11:45:22 AM PDT by boycott
For a long time, ESPN was seen as the bulwark that kept people from cutting the cord, but eventually even they couldn’t stop it. The fact is that millennials don’t care about sports. Compounding the problem is that ESPN has spent a lot of money buying the television rights to a lot of sports, and with the revenues falling, there’s no way to recover that money, which is the major source of income to those sports. The next time those contracts come around, you’re going to see a lot less being bid, and a lot of guys who make millions a season are going to be making less.
Correct. Including being the exclusive host of the NFL Draft which is a major, major event. And then, gave half of it away to the NFL Network. They’re still a “Sports Monopoly” of sorts with a lot of value. Every teenage boy I know watches Sports Center whenever possible. They just need to re-tool and I think they will. These layoffs are an unexpected first step. And besides.... Trent Dilfer sucks.
Maybe. Maybe not. I have Cablevision and I know many people that have Comcast. Neither has de-bundled ESPN. I only know about what I wrote because I know someone in the industry.
The last 3 years, those people have been listed as BSPNs heroes. The show has fired anyone that is not an SJW. I would like my football without all the lefty politics please.
Good grief! You must be a brother from another mother. I thought I invented the term and use it to describe NFL football.
Running list of the cuts as they are announced.....
http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091
great writeup. new follower here.
Cable is going to die. Everything will be going On Demand/Streaming/Smart TV. There will be no Cable TV anymore. Everything will be over the Internet.
NFL games have already been broadcast on Yahoo and Twitter. There’s already Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Hulu, Netflix and on and on. That’s where we’re heading.
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.
Anyone remember when they shut down their programming all day to cover Obama’s inauguration? Or making a big production out of having Obama fill out his NCAA brackets each year? To be fair, they did invite Trump this year, but no one really expected him to accept.
Also:
Their two week pre-draft homage to Michael Sam
Jeez, Bruce Jenner, wtf?
Several specials on the University of Missouri’s bravery in standing up for social issues.
Their coverage on black athlete’s opinions of Ferguson (”Hands Up Don’t Shoot”) and Trayvon Martin
Firing Limbaugh and Schilling for going off the ESPN reservation.
Producing a show about Cuban baseball that was very pro-Castro.
The full-court press to make Colin Kapernick a hero.
Also running numerous interviews of only athletes against the Iraq War in 2003, while completely ignoring the Pat Tillman story.
And so many more smaller examples.
ESPN gets $6-7 for every DISH/DirecTV/Comcast subscriber there is. If cable/satellite companies ever went al a carte and allowed non-viewing people to drop the programming, ESPN would go bankrupt.
Never, because they can’t. 5 companies own the vast majority of the cable dial, and those companies LOVE bundles and won’t sell to the cable companies in anything but bundles. As long as the cable companies must buy in bundles they must sell that way too.
Cable’s not going to die. But it is going to shrink. The fact of the matter is the other options require more effort, and depending on how much you subscribe too can easily cost just as much as cable. Especially as the tech generation slides into middle age with kids and responsibilities and doesn’t feel like going through all the streaming effort, setting your DVR is just plain easier. For many the convenience will remain worth the cost, it’ll probably bottom out around 50% of peak.
I see a lot if white males being laid off/let go/canned.
Disparate impact = Bias= DoJ lawsuit =Consent Decree and Fed Judge monitoring.
ESPN is failing because it stopped covering sports.
Used to be that you could see things on ESPN that none of the other networks would cover (like drag boat racing, or River Jet Boat racing). They may not have been glamorous, but they were interesting and different.
Their model went to major sports and commentary on them. The latter part went full leftist, and everyone started tuning them out. The point of sports is escapism, not more full-throated leftist garbage.
From ESPN, of course. The most prominent SWJ aren't among those fired:
http://heavy.com/news/2017/04/espn-layoffs-firings-list-who-was-fired-ed-werder/
ESPN is failing because it stopped covering sports.
Used to be that you could see things on ESPN that none of the other networks would cover (like drag boat racing, or River Jet Boat racing). They may not have been glamorous, but they were interesting and different.
Their model went to major sports and commentary on them. The latter part went full leftist, and everyone started tuning them out. The point of sports is escapism, not more full-throated leftist garbage.
If I could do a la carte cable....ESPN would not be on the list.
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