ESPN pay cuts?

[Azrael]

Looks like it.

 

[The Big Ragu]

ESPN's execs took 20 to 30 percent pay cuts a few weeks back, depending on whether they were @ VP, Sr. VP or Executive VP level.

 

[Azrael]

oof

Gonna be a tough year at/for the Worldwide Leader.

 

[DanOregon]

Bob Iger dumped out of Disney at the perfect time - theme parks, cruises, Broadway shows, ice shows, hotels, sports, movies - ouch.

 

[Double Down]

Bob Iger dumped out of Disney at the perfect time - theme parks, cruises, Broadway shows, ice shows, hotels, sports, movies - ouch.

Except that he didn't.

Bob Iger Thought He Was Leaving on Top. Now, He’s Fighting for Disney’s Life.

 

[playthrough]

During the recession a dozen years ago, espn.com had a bloodletting of a small army of regular freelancers. I was one of them, and I remember my editor telling me it was in no small part because attendance had crashed at the theme parks and that trickled down all over the company. But shoot, the parks weren't closed. Can't imagine how bad it could get now, especially if the sports drought lasts into football season.

 

[Azrael]

Sounds like Dan Rafael is out.

Dan Rafael Is No Longer With ESPN, Contract Is Not Renewed - NY FIGHTS

 

[TigerVols]

Except that he didn't.

Bob Iger Thought He Was Leaving on Top. Now, He’s Fighting for Disney’s Life.

FWIW, Bob Iger is probably the 21st Century business executive I admire the most. This latest (un)move by him just shows how much integrity, grit, skill and leadership ability he has.

My one complaint about him is that he didn't run for the Democratic nomination.

 

[DanOregon]

Didn't realize ESPN had become a drag on Disney's stock.

Jim Cramer Calls On Disney CEO Bob Iger to Ditch ESPN Because It’s Too Costly: ‘I Like the Idea’

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Maybe Elon Musk can buy it?

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Maybe Elon Musk can buy it?

Why do you hate ESPN's employees?

 

[Sports Barf]

Didn't realize ESPN had become a drag on Disney's stock.

Jim Cramer Calls On Disney CEO Bob Iger to Ditch ESPN Because It’s Too Costly: ‘I Like the Idea’

Also Jim Cramer in April 2021: “We like Coinbase to $475.”

 

[sgreenwell]

Didn't realize ESPN had become a drag on Disney's stock.

Jim Cramer Calls On Disney CEO Bob Iger to Ditch ESPN Because It’s Too Costly: ‘I Like the Idea’

ESPN will face a reckoning at some point because most of its revenue is from cable carriage fees. As of now, it's managed to protect its status as the biggest earner because it has spent aggressively on live sports, but at a certain point the bubble is probably going to burst on that. (i.e. Things get too expensive, and ESPN can't afford enough inventory of major sports, or cable viewership dips so low that their revenue dips into the negative.) All that being said, I still think they're going to be the dominant force in sports journalism / entertainment - whatever you want to call it - but maybe they just make hundreds of millions a year, instead of billions a year.

 

[wicked]

At some point people are gonna be like, WTF? Why am I paying for 20 streaming services and a small fortune on high speed that may or may not actually work? I might as well just get a cable bundle.

 

[Readallover]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/22/nfl-sunday-ticket-youtube-tv.html

 

[wicked]

Ourand from SBJ has been saying for more than a year that it was going to Apple.

He also said ESPN wasn't getting spun off, as WF predicts.

Possibly two very big whiffs.

 

[LanceyHoward]

At some point people are gonna be like, WTF? Why am I paying for 20 streaming services and a small fortune on high speed that may or may not actually work? I might as well just get a cable bundle.

Cable is dead. Cable became popular in the 80's and satellite television in the 90's. When internet came along in the 90's the the technology did not exist to provide sufficient band width to carry live action films and television shows. Hence the need for cable wiring or a satellite dish in your home. Now the technology exists to stream over the internet. The cable wiring or satellite dish is now redundant. It is why I pay about $75 for my Fubo streaming service than the $150 I paid DirectTV.

The challenge ABC and ESPN is to move off the cable carriers, which are disappearing, into the streaming environment. Changing a business model in this fashion can be very hard. I hope it goes better for the television and cable networks than it did for the newspaper industry.

 

[wicked]

Hot take: Streaming sucks.

For starters, I gotta go into the back end of my Comcast setup, figure out which app is showing a game, click on that app, wait for the app to load, wait for the option to pull up that game to load, pull up the game, wait for the feed to load, and then sit through what might or might not be a buggy stream for two hours.

Or I could just watch it on ESPN, where I can press the three-digit channel number and get there in two seconds.

Sure, $75 for streaming + $50 for high speed (and that's on the lower end of high speed nowadays, I think) saves you $25 a month. And then if you're a Premier League fan you're paying for Peacock if you don't have high speed and TV through Comcast. And if you like whatever show is on HBO, you're paying for HBO Go. Or if you want Champions League you're paying for Paramount+. Or if you like Ivy League football you're getting ESPN+. And the kids want whatever streaming service that shows the hot new show. It's only going to get worse as viewership becomes more fragmented.

I spend ~$180 on my bundle. I get pretty much everything I want. Ladyfriend spends about $15 on Disney bundle, which means I can watch random Division III hoops on a Tuesday night. For the most part what I want to see is on cable TV. I know that's going to change, eventually, but for now I'm fine with it. I hope when it does change that they find a more efficient way to channel-find, never mind channel-hop.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

At some point people are gonna be like, WTF? Why am I paying for 20 streaming services and a small fortune on high speed that may or may not actually work? I might as well just get a cable bundle.

Ha I was just saying this on the NFL Week 16 thread. As you noted later on, it will likely change at some point, probably when today's kids are the bill payers and have zero experience with cable. But we'll all be on the moon by then.

 

[Readallover]

https://www.nexttv.com/news/sinclair-stock-drops-7-on-regional-sports-network-report