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ESPN begins purging talent today

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M

mike6467

Member
Can they get rid of Britt Mchenry and do some actual good here? Please?

Maxim726X said:
Fuck, it's so hard to get around their blackout restrictions.

I have a spoof GPS app, a VPN program, and I've deleted cookies/app history and I still can't get that shit to work on a single one of my devices.
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Not sure if you've tried it, but I've had good luck with Tunnel Bear. That was awhile back though, so maybe the providers have gotten wise to a lot of this and put in more security.
 
D

DorkLord54

Member
Amory said:
I feel bad for people losing their jobs. But ESPN needs to get back to its roots and just show highlights.

They're really a terrible channel these days. If they didn't carry so many of the games themselves, I'd never turn them on.
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Except for CFB, ESPN doesn't carry any of the sports I watch, and even then they're losing half of their B1G coverage to FS (as well as the World Cup), so it gives me even less reasons to watch.
 
Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Member
As long as they hold on to SVP (they will) I don't think there really is anybody that I'd be upset seeing leave. I guess Shefty too, just because the man knows everything. Other then that, they've successfully made everyone seemingly expendable. ESPN has already fired or lost (RIP Stu) their most personable talent a long time ago.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
Luschient said:
As the cord-cutting trend continues it'll be interesting to see if each of the major sports just rolls out their own app (ala MLB Network) and you'll have to get that if you want to see any of the games, thus ending channels like ESPN, Fox Sports, etc.
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not until you can watch your local teams online, will this happen. MLB.TV is great... if you live outside the market of your favorite team, otherwise you have to be a die hard mlb fan to want to watch a bunch of teams that aren't your team.
 
F

Fail State

Banned
Pastry said:
My brother put on PTI as we were driving to the game last night and good fucking lord I can't believe I used to watch that regularly. Just constant non-stop obnoxious yelling.
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Same here. I used to love PTI but it's unbearable now. I don't know if they changed or if I did. I now listen to Lebatards podcasts instead when I workout.
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
Frozenprince said:
The league's are dreading the cable bubble bursting.

It's where most of the money they make comes from.

ESPN going under would scare them shitless because it's the beginning of the end for a lot of owners and teams. The model for all the leagues sans baseball are not bulearked against this coming apart.
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The funny thing is that cable cutting is a consequence of disposable income becoming a precious commodity for most people. Maybe one day the oligarchs will wake up and realize that if we can't buy their products their businesses are going to fail. TV and retail are the industries feeling the early effects of this, they won't be the last.
 
M

Maxim726X

Member
captive said:
not until you can watch your local teams online, will this happen. MLB.TV is great... if you live outside the market of your favorite team, otherwise you have to be a die hard mlb fan to want to watch a bunch of teams that aren't your team.
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Fuck, it's so hard to get around their blackout restrictions.

I have a spoof GPS app, a VPN program, and I've deleted cookies/app history and I still can't get that shit to work on a single one of my devices.
 
WoolyNinja

WoolyNinja

Member
Pastry said:
My brother put on PTI as we were driving to the game last night and good fucking lord I can't believe I used to watch that regularly. Just constant non-stop obnoxious yelling.
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You must've hit a bad episode as they're usually isn't a lot of yelling on PTI. Sometimes they do get legitimately heated about an argument but very rarely does it come to "obnoxious yelling".
 
L

Lkr

Member
H3xum said:
So yeah, I guess that is it for ESPN Hockey
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They still have Melrose lol

Any chance they cut the unabashed SEC water carrier, Pete Finebaum?

Only thing outside of actual live sports content I can tolerate nowadays on espn is HQ and DLS. ATH and PTI are still watchable but they aren't something I look forward to every day like when I was a kid
 
F

Fail State

Banned
LegendofJoe said:
The funny thing is that cable cutting is a consequence of disposable income becoming a precious commodity for most people. Maybe one day the oligarchs will wake up and realize that if we can't buy their products their businesses are going to fail. TV and retail are the industries feeling the early effects of this, they won't be the last.
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People still have disposable income. It just shifted from outrageously priced TV plans to outrageously priced phone plans.
 
M

Mikef2000

Member
I'm at fault, I guess. I went from watching ESPN religiously to only tuning in for PTI. No way they fire Tony Korneiser and Wilbon.
 
M

McBryBry

Member
Work at an ESPN affiliate and I know our station is doing great so I'm not really worried about us, but man... Seeing names of people we work with all the time is crazy. I mean hell, we just had Burnside on 2 days ago.
 
T

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Frozenprince said:
The league's are dreading the cable bubble bursting.

It's where most of the money they make comes from.

ESPN going under would scare them shitless because it's the beginning of the end for a lot of owners and teams. The model for all the leagues sans baseball are not bulearked against this coming apart.
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The cable bubble isn't going to burst and suddenly every cable co is in massive dire straits. These companies can easily move into a more modern approach ala SlingTV and Vue, but they don't need to just yet because people still need local sports channels.

Local sports affiliates and rights will never go away in the next 5-10 years and that alone will keep the traditional cable delivery humming along. The Dodgers got EIGHT BILLION for exclusive rights to broadcasting their games (http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-tv-20170213-story.html). The end result wasn't what they wanted, tons of fans can't get TWC, but if they were able to get 8BN for abysmal coverage you don't think they can command more in the next deal?
 
L

Lkr

Member
Tom Nook said:
Sad :(



who are the 6?
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Sportscenter 6 with Jemele Hill and Michael Smith. Just a rebranding of the 6PM sportscenter with new hosts. There was the obvious twitter backlash when it first started with a lot of complaints coming that espn only did it for "diversity and liberal political correctness" because to a large chunk of Americans, you still can't have a show hosted by two black people without thinking they don't deserve the role.
I have no idea how the show performed. Sportscenter stopped being about sports a while ago and the new show is trying to emphasize the fact it's not a sports highlight show. It's not for me but I used to enjoy Michael on ATH as a kid
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Their network is almost entirely made up of garbage tier programming. I rarely, if ever watch it anymore. Their talking head shows are the absolute worst.
 
J

Justin Bailey

------ ------
Yeah I have Sling, and whenever I watch ESPN most of the "commercial breaks" are literally a placeholder graphic and music saying "we'll be right back" - like how the fuck are they NOT selling commercial time on streaming services? No wonder they are running out of money.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Justified said:
Crazy they are laying people off when they were just trying to get Skip to stay for millions.
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Skip, as shitty as he is, draws viewers and money. Ed Werder doesn't.

The more people are cutting cords and looking to social media for up to the minute news and highlights, the more ESPN needs to invest in personalities that people want to watch. What good is running highlights or top plays when that shit is all over twitter and Instagram the second it happens? Expect more Hot Takes.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
I'm not a fan of what the did to the 6pm Sportscenter. Around the Horn and PTI effectively do what the 6pm Sportscenter is doing, and better.
 
V

ViciousDS

Banned
TarpitCarnivore said:
The cable bubble isn't going to burst and suddenly every cable co is in massive dire straits. These companies can easily move into a more modern approach ala SlingTV and Vue, but they don't need to just yet because people still need local sports channels.

Local sports affiliates and rights will never go away in the next 5-10 years and that alone will keep the traditional cable delivery humming along. The Dodgers got EIGHT BILLION for exclusive rights to broadcasting their games (http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-tv-20170213-story.html). The end result wasn't what they wanted, tons of fans can't get TWC, but if they were able to get 8BN for abysmal coverage you don't think they can command more in the next deal?
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can't go digital because comcast is holding my family hostage with data caps and it would cost as much if not more with that unlimited plann.


Cable cutting ain't going to happen because ISP's are soon probably going to charge you most likely in the future to have access to services like sling or vue......or data cap the shit out of people using those services.
 
AlteredForms

AlteredForms

Banned
I'm awaiting First Take's cancellation with anticipation. Stephen A Smith's ass-kissing of Michael Jordan and Shaq needs to stop lol.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
TarpitCarnivore said:
That's exactly the problem with ESPN though and why, for me, I value MLB & NHL network more.
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Yup. There's less and less room for an all purpose "sports" network. Same trend you see in all other kinds of media, really where everything's getting super specialized. If you want/like MLB, here's a whole network! NHL? Got you covered!
 
M

mightynine

Member
Ninja Scooter said:
Skip, as shitty as he is, draws viewers and money. Ed Werder doesn't.
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Undefeated gets slaughtered in the ratings, considering the amount of promotion that and all the "Embrace Debate" shows on FS1 get. All those shows get killed. Play-by-play is the only thing that moves the needle on FS1.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
ESPN dying wouldn't suddenly mean the NBA is streaming only.

NBA gets billions and billions each year from Turner for the TNT broadcasts and makes billions of all the local game broadcasts which are spread among 30 different markets on 30 different channels.
 
Tom Nook

Tom Nook

Member
Fail State said:
It's that horrendous show ESPN put at 6 o'clock that has the former hosts of His and Hers doing Sportscenter. It's not even so bad it's good. It's just unwatchable bad.
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Thanks.

The only ESPN related programs I'm watching now are the NFL games. (I used to watch NFL Prime Time religiously Sunday nights) and listening to First Take Podcasts. I will watch the NFL Draft on ESPN because of Mel Kiper.
 
J

Jacce

Banned
TarpitCarnivore said:
That's exactly the problem with ESPN though and why, for me, I value MLB & NHL network more.
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Why do people keep bringing up just the MLB and NHL network but not the NFL or NBA networks?

For example what do they do better than the NBA network? I mean NBA TV gets better ratings than either of them after all.
 
Amory

Amory

Member
outunderthestars said:
Their network is almost entirely made up of garbage tier programming. I rarely, if ever watch it anymore. Their talking head shows are the absolute worst.
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Their talking head shows were always terrible with a few exceptions, but there used to be so few of them that it didn't matter.

Shows like SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, NFL Live/Countdown, etc were great to just have on in the background, and it was the lion's share of ESPN's content. Now it's just a competition for who can have the hottest take.

That and a flood of fantasy sports shows that aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're shilling DraftKings and FanDuel.

Fuck ESPN. They have no idea what they're doing anymore.

Oh and their website blows too.
 
L

Lkr

Member
Jacce said:
ESPN dying wouldn't suddenly mean the NBA is streaming only.

NBA gets billions and billions each year from Turner for the TNT broadcasts and makes billions of all the local game broadcasts which are spread among 30 different markets on 30 different channels.
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ESPN really isn't dying and the NBA is nowhere close to death. There is a lot of hyperbole in these threads about the looming death of ESPN. ESPN can still monetize their streaming platform for example. They still have over 70 million cable subscribers. The only reason they are doing these cuts is because earnings are down and in our current economic order, that means the business is toxic and you need to sell all of your shares. In reality, ESPN is fine, they're just not bringing in the record shattering revenues they once were.
ESPN is going to be fine overall still because of how much live sports rights they still own. They have SEC and ACC sports locked up, the NBA, 3 of the 4 tennis majors, early round coverage of the masters, an MLB package, MNF. Their biggest loss is the World Cup but we'll all be wishing they still had it after Fox shits the bed and lets Alexei Lalas commentate.
 
O

outunderthestars

Banned
Amory said:
Their talking head shows were always terrible with a few exceptions, but there used to be so few of them that it didn't matter.

Shows like SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, NFL Live/Countdown, etc were great to just have on in the background, and it was the lion's share of ESPN's content. Now it's just a competition for who can have the hottest take.

That and a flood of fantasy sports shows that aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're shilling DraftKings and FanDuel.

Fuck ESPN. They have no idea what they're doing anymore.

Oh and their website blows too.
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I endorse all of this. And yes, their website is the fucking worst.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
mightynine said:
Undefeated gets slaughtered in the ratings, considering the amount of promotion that and all the "Embrace Debate" shows on FS1 get.
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He's still more valuable, as a personality, than some rando beat reporter. People aren't checking for ESPN for the top plays or cookie cutter news programming. You have to give them something they can't get elsewhere, hence you have "the six" which despite how much I dislike it (strong "how do you do fellow kids" vibes) is rebranding sportscenter around two personalities. The six doesn't work if Chris Batman and Linda Cohn are hosting it. It's not all that unlike the issues the video games press are running into. When people start getting their games impressions and reviews elsewhere, they started scrambling around personalities and expanding more into pop culture topics. Hence you get Sportscenter turning into "Drake Stans: The Show". It's been trending this way since PTI.
 
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