What happened to Noon to Midnight HD non-stop coverage?

Last year they stopped carrying it in HD over my cable provider. And then they started to stop coverage at 11:30 PM. Then 10:30 PM.

Now this year they won't even START coverage until 3:00 PM. And they still knock off early (11:30 PM). And it's STILL not in HD. And now they're showing commercials too!

WTF ESPN?

This is the PRIMARY thing keeping me subscribed to cable. Clearly they don't want my money.

Not only that, but on their college sports extra channels, they only have a handful of games today. At noon eastern, their only game was Notre Dame College vs Sheppard.

(09-02-2017 02:51 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  Not only that, but on their college sports extra channels, they only have a handful of games today. At noon eastern, their only game was Notre Dame College vs Sheppard.

Notre Dame, Ohio Vs. Sheppard which is a D2 matchup.

(09-02-2017 02:34 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Last year they stopped carrying it in HD over my cable provider.

That's your cable provider's fubar, not ESPN's. It's in HD on U-Verse.

The fundamental problem with Goal Line is that it can't duplicate what the NFL does with Red Zone, which is what we want. It can't do that because of the patchwork nature of television rights. ESPN can't just flip over to an exciting moment in a game that FOX or NBC or CBS is televising.

For that reason, I almost never watch it, it's almost always better to just flip between the two or three games I care about at any given time.

(09-03-2017 10:48 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  The fundamental problem with Goal Line is that it can't duplicate what the NFL does with Red Zone, which is what we want. It can't do that because of the patchwork nature of television rights. ESPN can't just flip over to an exciting moment in a game that FOX or NBC or CBS is televising.

The problem isn't having multiple TV providers; the NFL also has that. What the NFL does to enable RedZone is to include the right to use cut-ins to network telecasts in their Fox and CBS contracts. Goal Line is an ESPN production, and ESPN doesn't have agreements to use cut-ins to Fox or CBS or NBC-televised games. I suppose ESPN could buy cut-in rights, but there's no reason to buy that unless cable/satellite providers were willing to pay as much for Goal Line as they do for RedZone.

(09-03-2017 11:09 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 10:48 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  The fundamental problem with Goal Line is that it can't duplicate what the NFL does with Red Zone, which is what we want. It can't do that because of the patchwork nature of television rights. ESPN can't just flip over to an exciting moment in a game that FOX or NBC or CBS is televising.

The problem isn't having multiple TV providers; the NFL also has that. What the NFL does to enable RedZone is to include the right to use cut-ins to network telecasts in their Fox and CBS contracts. Goal Line is an ESPN production, and ESPN doesn't have agreements to use cut-ins to Fox or CBS or NBC-televised games. I suppose ESPN could buy cut-in rights, but there's no reason to buy that unless cable/satellite providers were willing to pay as much for Goal Line as they do for RedZone.

I know that the NFL has multiple TV providers, we all know that. But obviously, the contracts give the NFL Red Zone program the right to cut-in to broadcasts from FOX, CBS, NBC, whoever. But ESPN doesn't have that same right with Goal Line. That was my point, so you didn't add anything here other than explaining the mechanics of it, which was pretty obvious to begin with, LOL.

I guess the key difference is that even though the NFL has multiple networks, they all have contracts with the same entity, the NFL. In contrast, in college football, you not only have different networks, they have contracts with different entities - the SEC, the ACC, the PAC, the B1G, etc. If it was 1980 and they all had contracts with the same entity, the NCAA, then maybe the NCAA could coordinate a Red Zone-like show among them.

ESPN could negotiate with each conference for the right to air on Goal Line "live look-ins" for games they don't "own", just as they have negotiated with MLB for the right to air them for regular-season baseball telecasts on ESPN studio shows.

If ESPN had the right to look in to any CFB game and had Goal Line on the WatchESPN app, I would definitely use that on my phone. But us consumers don't pay extra for WatchESPN or Goal Line, so I don't see the incentive for ESPN to pay for look-in rights on non-ESPN telecasts.

(09-03-2017 02:34 PM)Wedge Wrote:  ESPN could negotiate with each conference for the right to air on Goal Line "live look-ins" for games they don't "own", just as they have negotiated with MLB for the right to air them for regular-season baseball telecasts on ESPN studio shows.

If ESPN had the right to look in to any CFB game and had Goal Line on the WatchESPN app, I would definitely use that on my phone. But us consumers don't pay extra for WatchESPN or Goal Line, so I don't see the incentive for ESPN to pay for look-in rights on non-ESPN telecasts.

Yep, to pay for whatever they'd have to give the other networks, it would have to be a pay-extra channel.

Plus, I don't think the other networks would do it anyway. The NFL is different, every game is watched by a substantial amount of people even if the teams suck. Fans follow their teams first, of course, but when their team's game ends, they keep watching the next game. They watch "The NFL", not just their team. So if FOX is broadcasting Cowboys-Raiders, they know they aren't going to lose many viewers to Red Zone.

College is different, people watch specific games either because their team is involved or its a huge game nationally. FOX has a contract with the Big 12 because it wants to reap the big rewards of showing Texas-Oklahoma, and they hype the "Red River Shootout" or whatever it's called for two weeks before the game. But because other than for OU and TX fans the connection to the game is tenuous, they have good reason to fear if the real-time scores were available on Goal Line, that lots of casual national fans wouldn't tune in for their game but just watch Goal Line instead. So ESPN really couldn't pay FOX enough to let them look-in on a game like that.

On a given Sunday, RedZone has about 8-10 games to track.
ESPN can have 4X that.

Red Zone will show clips of 6-8 games a fan cannot watch without Sunday Ticket
Anyone with a subscription to Goal Line has a package that will permit them to watch nearly all of those games. Normally only thing I cannot watch is games on Pac-12 Network and those tend to not be games that have interest outside the fan bases.

If you are an Eagles fan, Red Zone is keeping you posted on games that involve divisional opponents, other conference teams and the other half may be of less interest.

Looks at Kentucky-Southern Miss aren't of much interest to the people wanting a look at Arkansas State-Nebraska and vice versa.

College football is just too regional in interest and the games of national impact for the Top 25 and CFP are generally available to watch to anyone with access to Goal Line.

It just wasn't a great idea.

Send me to Bristol. I'd kill Goal Line and have people cutting tight little made for social media updates that would be on the website and WatchESPN directing people ESPN.com and ESPN channels and WatchESPN. Twice an hour for each P5 conference and once an hour for G5.
Something like this:
Top of the hour: ACC
:04 BIG
:08 AAC
:12 B12
:16 P12
:20 CUSA
:24 SEC
:26 MAC
:30 ACC
:34 B1G
:38 MWC
:42 B12
:46 P12
:50 Sun Belt
:54 SEC
Repeat at the top of the hour

I blame Net neutrality.

(09-03-2017 08:05 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  College football is just too regional in interest and the games of national impact for the Top 25 and CFP are generally available to watch to anyone with access to Goal Line.

It just wasn't a great idea.

It would be a good idea and an entertaining watch, if they had the right to show live look-ins on every CFB game and they focused it properly.

In the hypothetical world in which they can show part of any CFB game on Goal Line, you pick the 6 to 8 games in each broadcast window that have the most interest. No more than that. Trying to catch parts of 20 games at once, or trying to be all things to all people, is not the way to go. You have producers watching each of those 6-8 games and switching back and forth to capture as many interesting moments as possible -- like RedZone, which also has only about 6-8 games in each window to deal with.

(09-04-2017 01:00 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(09-03-2017 08:05 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  College football is just too regional in interest and the games of national impact for the Top 25 and CFP are generally available to watch to anyone with access to Goal Line.

It just wasn't a great idea.

It would be a good idea and an entertaining watch, if they had the right to show live look-ins on every CFB game and they focused it properly.

In the hypothetical world in which they can show part of any CFB game on Goal Line, you pick the 6 to 8 games in each broadcast window that have the most interest. No more than that. Trying to catch parts of 20 games at once, or trying to be all things to all people, is not the way to go. You have producers watching each of those 6-8 games and switching back and forth to capture as many interesting moments as possible -- like RedZone, which also has only about 6-8 games in each window to deal with.

Thing is, they have the entire ABC/ESPN/2/U/News/3/SECN/LHN stable PLUS AAC and MAC content on CBS Sports and have the rights to some of the stuff that has been subbed out to regional sports nets.

That's obviously not the entire universe and there would be times they would be missing out.

I don't think ESPN has the leadership to pull it off even if they had universal access.

ESPN is no longer a growth company, they are a mature company in a mature market and rapidly becoming more like a utility stock than a fresh off IPO hot tech stock. The suits are going to be telling the editors we want X minutes of this and that based on their market studies and ratings.

You need people willing to do something unexpected like cut-in to an obscure Division III game over an Alabama possession against an FCS or show a run by Bethune-Cookman's Tupac Isme just because the kid has a cool name.

ESPN isn't that company anymore.