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ESPN begins purging talent today

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S

Sandfox

Member
Hobbestetrician said:
I did for awhile, too, but I reached a breaking point late last year. Everything from Wilbon's mouth was a tirade against millennials and/or analytics (when he isn't carrying water for his famous friends) and Kornheiser is pretty much in bed by the time the show finishes airing.
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Didn't Wilbon put out an article saying that analytics are a ploy to keep black people from coaching positions or something?
 
B

Brinbe

Member
Basileus777 said:
Uh, a lot of these shows are entirely personality driven, First Take was down significantly year over year without Skip before ESPN moved it to the main ESPN channel. PTI without Kornheiser/Wilbon would drop in ratings too, these are actually the type of people that are not as expendable to ESPN unlike most of their reporters.
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I really disagree. It wouldn't because the ESPN brand is always bigger than their stars, whether that be Olbermann, Patrick, Beadle, Erin Andrews, Bill Simmons, etc and that's been proven many, many times over already. There are plenty of other cantankerous sports columnists out there to pick up the slack. People are there for opinions and debate, regardless of who it's coming from. And ESPN gets that unique position compared to other channels because it's everywhere and it's the defacto 1st choice for any sports fan. People wouldn't have sat through a billion re-runs of the exact same SC if it mattered. And when Tony/Mike are out during the summer and guys like Bob Hill fill in, do ratings drop precipitously? I really don't think so. If personalities mattered, ask yourself, how's Skip, Cowherd, Whitlock and whoever else doing over @ FS1?

That being said, I do think that ESPN will hold onto them and guys like Mike&Mike because they're big names and good for the brand. And arguably a lot more important than their analysts/writers
 
dickroach

dickroach

Member
Basileus777 said:
Uh, a lot of these shows are entirely personality driven, First Take was down significantly year over year without Skip before ESPN moved it to the main ESPN channel. PTI without Kornheiser/Wilbon would drop in ratings too, these are actually the type of people that are not as expendable to ESPN unlike most of their reporters.
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"PTI without Kornheiser/Wilbon" is a pretty good summary of every single show that ESPN's debuted in the past 10 years
 
T

The Jackdog

Member
Brinbe said:
I really disagree. It wouldn't because the brand is bigger than their stars and that's been proven many, many times over already. There are plenty of other cantankerous sports columnists out there to pick up the slack. People are there for opinions and debate, regardless of who it's coming from. If personalities mattered, ask yourself, how's Skip, Cowherd, Whitlock and whoever else doing over @ FS1?
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People keep saying this. I have no idea why.

Ever since backing off of hard hitting analysis and switching to debate central formats (which fox sports 1 basically made their whole channel) ratings dropped.

People do NOT want two personalities yelling at eachother. They dont want THIS:
https://twitter.com/bustedcoverage/...ingbroad.com/2017/04/espn-layoff-tracker.html
 
C

cilonen

Member
LOLDSFAN said:
It used to be good.

Then they did the thing where they dumb down the UI for smartphones and tablets even though I'm on a fully capable PC.
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The gripe I have - and it really annoyed the shit out of me even though I appreciate it's iinsignificant for Americans - is that five, six years ago ESPN's website was my go to place to catch up on Baseball and Football news, then when they redesigned it hey implemented geolocation, so It would load up some shitty new EU portal with Premier League and European Soccer, Tennis and Golf as the only sports categories you could easily navigate to. If I wanted that I could go to four or five other websites that do it a hell of a lot better.

Trying to get back to what I actually visited the site for was tortuous and completely non-obvious. They tweaked it a bit recently to make it slightly easier but it completely defeated the point of the site for me.
 
T

The Jackdog

Member
@Kyle_Feldscher

The Public: ESPN, what we want is more sports news and less people yelling at each other on TV.

ESPN: OK, we're firing the news people
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another decent quote from crossing broad:
It seems now that they are focusing heavily on writers and keeping most on-air talent. It’s no longer about “writing”– it’s about audio and video and having a skillset that is more than writing good sentences. That’s how people consume, and more importantly it’s what can be monetized. But, that doesn’t excuse why dipshits like Stephen A. Smith still have a job. He makes ESPN money, sure, but I think they’d be surprised to learn that a sane, intelligent human could be just as interesting on TV.
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A

Avon Barksdale

Member
Phoenix RISING said:
Pretty sure I watched Cold Pizza from day one and I have NO IDEA who that black woman is.

Kit Hoover was basically a Michelle Beadle prototype, but she had more spunk than sports knowledge, more beauty than humor.
LOL she was on ROAD RULES?
LOL!!!!
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Leslie Maxie. Track and field athlete turned journalist. She left ESPN in 2004.
 
B

Brinbe

Member
And my heart goes out to all those affected by today's cuts. It's a fucking rough industry out there, even for vets, hope they're all able to land other gigs.
 
T

The Jackdog

Member
Really like this take

This all makes sense. The days of guys in expensive suits telling you about sports are over. People see right through the contrived BS and faux debates. But the problem with being personality driven, for a big company like ESPN, is that there will inherently be lines – big, thick lines – that hosts are not allowed to cross and likely wouldn’t even think about crossing. There are too many conflicts of interests in ESPN’s business model for the casual exchange they want to foster to feel natural.

Of course, none of this mentions the fact that viewers are cutting the cord and ESPN is losing the $7 carriage fees it gets from every cable subscriber. It’s those fees that pay for ESPN’s broadcast rights deals. It’s the broadcast rights deals that justify the fees. You see the problem? The best personalities in the world won’t be able to command $7 from every cable subscriber in a America, and they certainly won’t be able to generate enough to pay BILLIONS to sports league, like the NFL and NBA, when ESPN’s contracts are up with them in a few years.

The other networks have this problem, too. But the broadcast networks use sports to promote their other revenue generating content, and streaming outlets like Netflix and Amazon – particularly Amazon – have other ways to monetize their audience than with ads and forced cable fees. Amazon likely wouldn’t care if it lost money on a sports rights deal, because they could use it to promote the hell out of their products, and it’s not that far-fethced to imagine a scenario where a viewer could order a player’s jersey while watching the game and have it delivered to them before the game ends. ESPN simply can’t compete with that sort of model.
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J

jwhit28

Member
Stephen A became what he is because it worked. He has been around ESPN for a long time but nothing else has stuck besides his First Take gimmick. Would you rather play a character or embarrassingly follow Brett Favre around?
 
T

The Jackdog

Member
Basileus777 said:
We're still a ways away from major sports leagues being willing to cut their audience down enough to justify putting their live sports solely on a streaming service.
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Solely? For SURE.

But twitter and amazon now have football games. How many years, honestly, are we away from one of these services streaming a full season?

Its still in the NFL's best interest, along with the NBA and others, for ESPN to make as much money as humanly possible. So they can charge them insane fees for broadcast rights.

So if ESPN says nah screw it we cant afford it, its not like these services are going to say okokokok we'll cut the fees. They are going to go elsewhere to try to get them for as close to that number as possible.
 
H

hitme

Member
Jaymee Sire (SportsCenter AM) gone as well.

Hoping the best for her (and selflessly wanting her back covering SF Bay Area sports again).
 
B

Basileus777

Member
The Jackdog said:
Solely? For SURE.

But twitter and amazon now have football games. How many years, honestly, are we away from one of these services streaming a full season?

Its still in the NFL's best interest, along with the NBA and others, for ESPN to make as much money as humanly possible. So they can charge them insane fees for broadcast rights.

So if ESPN says nah screw it we cant afford it, its not like these services are going to say okokokok we'll cut the fees. They are going to go elsewhere to try to get them for as close to that number as possible.
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If ESPN can't afford it (and I don't buy that that's where this is heading yet), someone else will still pay for those exclusive rights. There are still other networks that would love the status of broadcasting NFL or major sports games. Giving a streaming service a full season means that the TV deal is less valuable to whatever network buys it and hence they would pay less.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Basileus777 said:
We're still a ways away from major sports leagues being willing to cut their audience down enough to justify putting their live sports solely on a streaming service.
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I think about 5-6 years when NFL contract is up and it goes to Amazon Prime. ESPN won't be able to pay what Amazon can.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Mrbob said:
I think about 5-6 years when NFL contract is up and it goes to Amazon Prime. ESPN won't be able to pay what Amazon can.
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The NFL doesn't want its product locked behind someone's else's subscription service, especially one with far less reach than television broadcasts. NFL TV rights are such a huge prestige thing for a network that someone on TV will pay or it even if it's not a wise business decision.
 
I

Izayoi

Banned
Basileus777 said:
The NFL doesn't want its product locked behind someone's else's subscription service, especially one with far less reach than television broadcasts.
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Isn't it technically locked behind a cable subscription right now?

Let ESPN burn, and cable die off forever. The dominoes are set to tumble.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Basileus777 said:
The NFL doesn't want its product locked behind someone's else's subscription service, especially one with far less reach than television broadcasts. NFL TV rights are such a huge prestige thing for a network that someone on TV will pay or it even if it's not a wise business decision.
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If Amazon wants it they will get it, even if they pay a billion more than ESPN/Disney. It is only Monday night football.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Izayoi said:
Isn't it technically locked behind a cable subscription right now?

Let ESPN burn, and cable die off forever. The dominoes are set to tumble.
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Cable still has a vastly larger reach than Amazon Prime in the US and will for a long time yet. Those dominoes aren't falling that fast.
 
I

Into the Light

Banned
HarryDemeanor said:
Can they remove the Keyshawn morning show here in LA? I need LeBatard in my life again.
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Its the worst show I have ever heard, next to Marcelus, jesus when Max Kellerman left LA, our radio has gone to shit. Shit morning show, shit drive home show. Anytime Wiley opens his fkn mouth I want to throw up.

With his Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh. Stopped listening a long time ago. Terrible shit. How does Keyshawn and Marcelus still have a job, and survived this purge is beyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyond me.
 
R

RBH

Member
jbug617 said:
Dilfer gone
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0095_amen.gif
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
Basileus777 said:
Cable still has a vastly larger reach than Amazon Prime in the US and will for a long time yet. Those dominoes aren't falling that fast.
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Not really picking a side but just putting some info into this conversation.

Amazon Prime is estimated to have approximately 54 million customers in the US (source). The top 5 pay-TV companies in the US collectively have 55.2 million subscribers (source)
 
P

platocplx

Member
They cant be personality driven anymore, They have to move away from any content that has to deal with In the moment (like highlights) since literally you can see that massive dunk as soon as it happens. I see ESPN relying more on cultural aspects of sports and have more content like 30 for 30 and probably move towards less instant news and more about sports journalism(ironically) and interest stories that cant be easily reported or replicated. It seems to me this is the best way for them to move forward and show value that you cant get elsewhere is a troubled cable market overall.
 
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