(04-26-2017 02:43 PM)RUScarlets Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 01:24 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Much like what happened to MTV a long while back, ESPN got too far away from the core of what made them popular in the first place and degenerated into just another “lifestyle” channel.

I don't know, I don't think you can do sports 24/7. We have mobile devices now to get up to date with scores and highlights. We don't need a play by play or savvy one liners from the Stuart Scotts and the rest of that ilk. People just stream the highlights with the live broadcast calls and off we go. The stats are all there. What good is it paying some people to read and spell it out to you when the info is all there on the go?

You need analysis but frankly there is only so much analysis that can go into a 162 game season, or regular season NBA. It's all but irrelevant to most fans. And you can't analyze a football game five days a week even during the season. 12 games and 16 games for your school or NFL team in the year and that's all she wrote.

American interest in sports is just waning. Nobody has time for regular games with absolutely no stakes. People are working longer hours and there are other distractions with the advent of television and internet streaming and the plethora of content. How many guys (even casual fans) honestly watch more than a handful of regular season MLB or NBA games? Not many...

The solution is to deliver more original content like fictional sports TV shows or biographies like 30 for 30 and other sports related content documenting this athlete or that team/fanbase. Not easy to consistently produce quality though.

I disagree. Live sports are the very last bastion of programs where a lot of people will watch the same event at the same time and will sit through commercials. American interest in sports actually isn't waning at all - it's higher than ever. More importantly, the *relative* interest in sports compared to other forms entertainment is definitely higher than ever.

For instance, Sunday Night Football is now the #1 show on television every single week and nothing else is within close to striking distance. In contrast, the old Monday Night Football package on ABC was ranked around #15 to #20 during the 1980s. Consumption of other forms of entertainment is down AND it's often time-shifted (with DVRs) or on-demand (with Netflix and other streaming sites) when that consumption even occurs.

So, the absolute wrong way to go is to focus on fictional stories and documentaries. I certainly don't mind either of those (as I love "30 for 30" in general), but those aren't really any different than the other 99.9% of entertainment that can be consumed at any time at any place. The inherent advantage that sports will always have is that it's live and it's exclusive. There's no other type of programming that combines those two attributes. (News programming is live, but hardly exclusive.)

Dr. Jerry Punch out from not just IndyCar coverage but college football as well.
https://twitter.com/DocPunchESPN/status/...7075122181

(04-26-2017 04:20 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:43 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:29 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:18 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Over paid for the NBA and lost money on the Longhorn Network.

They did not over pay for the NBA. This argument is so stupid. NBA is the #2 sports league behind the NFL with a very diverse and young demographic.

They tripled their fee to 1.4 billion per year from $485 million. Yes they overpaid. The NBA also is in ratings decline. https://lynx.media/2017/03/15/nba-rating...-business/

The NBA playoff ratings have reversed the regular season trend, though (similar to the NFL this past year). The people that generally believe that the NBA isn't worth it tend to be with audiences and platforms that skew older and whiter (which of course may very well describe this message board). In contrast, any smart business person that has any idea about the economics of sports and its future wants to invest HEAVILY in the NBA. There's a reason why the freaking Clippers (not the Lakers) were bought for $2 billion.

Believe me - the NBA has the most desirable demographics by FAR of any of the top tier sports. Its audience is younger, more diverse, has higher level of activity with social media and web platforms, and more heavily concentrated in the age 18-49 demo that receive the highest ad premiums compared to the other major pro sports leagues and college sports. Note that the network that is able to charge the second-highest cable subscriber rate (TNT) is the other NBA rights-holder. That's not a coincidence. The NBA already has the demographics today that every other league hopes to have in 20 years.

Also, once again, I don't think it's possible that ESPN can really "overpay" for the top tier sports leagues. The entire reason why they have been able to charge such high subscription rates in the first place is BECAUSE they hold those sports rights. Otherwise, they're just, well, FS1 or NBCSN. Studio shows and analysts are a dime a dozen with little barriers to entry and no exclusivity. In contrast, sports rights are still the killer app with both exclusivity and programming that people still watch live (AKA people actually see the commercials).

Still doesn't mean that they didn't overspend for content. I understand that FS1 was nipping at their heals. But that's a lot of money for two months worth of valued content. The constant decline of monthly subscribers has got to hurting ESPN. Those are some thin margins they are having to play with if cutting talent is the way they are solving the issues.

Thoughts on what impact, if any, this may have on the American's next TV deal?

(04-26-2017 04:51 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Thoughts on what impact, if any, this may have on the American's next TV deal?

I think Keri Russell has about two more seasons left in her.

(04-26-2017 03:29 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:18 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Over paid for the NBA and lost money on the Longhorn Network.

They did not over pay for the NBA. This argument is so stupid. NBA is the #2 sports league behind the NFL with a very diverse and young demographic.

Honestly I would rather have NBA tickets than NFL tickets. I think people just make up in their mind they wont like it before actually watching it.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-spo...spartanntp

In case not posted elsewhere here. Brett McMurphy was a surprise to me.

(04-26-2017 04:57 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:29 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:18 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Over paid for the NBA and lost money on the Longhorn Network.

They did not over pay for the NBA. This argument is so stupid. NBA is the #2 sports league behind the NFL with a very diverse and young demographic.

Honestly I would rather have NBA tickets than NFL tickets. I think people just make up in their mind they wont like it before actually watching it.

I also think you have to compare the NBA to basically any non-NFL sport. The NFL is on an entirely different level compared to all other US sports out there in terms of viewership and the incredible level of rights fees that the NFL receives reflects that fact. Meanwhile, NBA rights fees are more than MLB at a national level while MLB teams make more at the local RSN rights level, which is a pretty accurate reflection of the state of non-NFL viewership today. (It takes a marquee team like the Cubs for the World Series to beat the NBA Finals in the national ratings these days, but local MLB viewership is still high.) The latest NBA contract is right in line with its current place in the national sports scene. If anything, P5 football is actually still underpaid compared to the NBA and MLB considering the national ratings that they bring in week-to-week.

Jade McCarthy

https://twitter.com/JadeMcCarthy/status/...7534269440

(04-26-2017 05:16 PM)Transic_nyc Wrote:  Jade McCarthy

https://twitter.com/JadeMcCarthy/status/...7534269440

She was doing NFL insiders today.

Charles Arbuckle got pink slipped.

https://mobile.twitter.com/charlesarbuck...9706516485

(04-26-2017 04:41 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Dr. Jerry Punch out from not just IndyCar coverage but college football as well.
https://twitter.com/DocPunchESPN/status/...7075122181

Oh s@@@

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530AZ using CSNbbs mobile app

Charlotte, NC ESPN office lost a few people.http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article146919714.html

"When you watch a college football halftime show on ESPNU, the studio you’re seeing will no longer be in Charlotte."

"... sports network is moving its ESPNU studio operation from Charlotte to Bristol, Conn., where ESPN is based... A few ESPNU positions will remain in Charlotte, primarily the people responsible for producing the large number of events that air on the channel.

"In total, fewer than 10 people in Charlotte are being laid off. The SEC network operations, as well as an events division, will remain in Charlotte. ESPN employs about 200 people locally."

Tweet of the day.

Quote:Medium Happy
@jdubs88

The fact that u are learning who was laid off at ESPN via Twitter goes to roots of y such layoffs are now so commonplace

4:39 PM - 26 Apr 2017

It was mentioned during tonight's Yankees-Red Sox borefest that Doug Glanville is gone as well. Dallas Braden and Raul Ibanez are also gone.

And the worst part of all this news, they may not be done yet.

muh bread and circus... oh nooooooo....

Sent from my SM-J700T using CSNbbs mobile app

(04-26-2017 04:57 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:29 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 03:18 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Over paid for the NBA and lost money on the Longhorn Network.

They did not over pay for the NBA. This argument is so stupid. NBA is the #2 sports league behind the NFL with a very diverse and young demographic.

Honestly I would rather have NBA tickets than NFL tickets. I think people just make up in their mind they wont like it before actually watching it.

I watch it, but I do so knowing the regular season is virtually meaningless. And the NBA has the most predictable postseason in sports.

Andy Katz gone too.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/26/the-...-massacre/

ESPN cut the meat, not the fat.
4 points from the article:
"1) ESPN Overpaid for Broadcast Rights...
2) Cable Cord-Cutting
3) Declining ESPN Ratings
4) Politics..."

Author thinks the politics on ESPN were a conscious effort to get expand their base, getting people interested in politics in addition to sports junkies. However, they appear to have alienated half their base while doing liberal political media much worse than places like MSNBC.

Sports is an escape and ESPN seems to have forgotten that. Same way the strikes severely wounded major league baseball. Fans don't turn in to baseball to hear about multi-millionaires complaining about how they are treated by other multi-millionaires. There's no sympathy for either side.

(04-27-2017 07:50 AM)bullet Wrote:  http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/26/the-...-massacre/

ESPN cut the meat, not the fat.
4 points from the article:
"1) ESPN Overpaid for Broadcast Rights...
2) Cable Cord-Cutting
3) Declining ESPN Ratings
4) Politics..."

Author thinks the politics on ESPN were a conscious effort to get expand their base, getting people interested in politics in addition to sports junkies. However, they appear to have alienated half their base while doing liberal political media much worse than places like MSNBC.

Sports is an escape and ESPN seems to have forgotten that. Same way the strikes severely wounded major league baseball. Fans don't turn in to baseball to hear about multi-millionaires complaining about how they are treated by other multi-millionaires. There's no sympathy for either side.

This passage sums up why I have turned off ESPN permanently. I got sick and tired of trying to watch my sports with a political twist attached to it.

"You want to watch the Lakers game? Okay, but first you’re going to hear about Caitlyn Jenner. Want some NFL highlights? We’ll get to those eventually, but coming up next will be a discussion about how North Carolina is run by racist, homophobic bigots. You want to see the box scores of today’s baseball games? You can watch those at the bottom of the hour, but right now some D-list network talent would like to lecture you about gun control. After that we’ll have a panel discussion about how much courage it takes to turn your back on the American flag."