More Cuts at ESPN

[Doc Holliday]

maybe it's because I worked from home for four years, but I still love Around the Horn and PTI, probably because 5 p.m. meant it was cocktail hour. there are panelists I dislike, but there are some I find genuinely entertaining.

Might as well be listening to talk radio. I absolutely hate those shows, never watch them.

 

[CD Boogie]

Might as well be listening to talk radio. I absolutely hate those shows, never watch them.

I can understand why. I can't watch anything Bayless or SAS are on.

 

[Vombatus]

I like PTI, Wilbon and Kornheiser, but that's because I watched them years ago on George Michaels' various NBC4 talk shows. Those were the days.

 

[da man]

Bring back Australian Rules Football!!!

Yes! I LOVE watching people kick behinds!

 

[CD Boogie]

Awful Announcing just reported that the cuts will ONLY be to on air talent. Kill me for saying this, but that's great news.

 

[cisforkoke]

That being the case, I return to my earlier post. Why not improve programming quality in the process of making these cuts?

I don't disagree that ESPN got caught up in cord-cutting, etc. If that is really beyond the network's control, why not stop throwing crap against the wall and start covering sports again?

 

[Steak Snabler]

Awful Announcing just reported that the cuts will ONLY be to on air talent. Kill me for saying this, but that's great news.

That's certainly where most of the big salaries are.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

That's certainly where most of the big salaries are.

The tell will be that when the cuts are announced, I won't know the names of more than half of them.

 

[MileHigh]

Jim Miller had a great interview on DP's show today. He could envision a day in the not-too-distant future of a pure a la carte not just for individual channels but individual events, much like iTunes. If you want Georgetown-St. John's in the first round of the Big East Tournament, you pay a certain price to get it. The Super Bowl, a different price.

It's going to be real interesting what ESPN -- and the networks -- do in a couple of years when the NFL contract comes up. Can/will ESPN justify paying more than $2 billion a year for the mediocre games that it's getting?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Jim Miller had a great interview on DP's show today. He could envision a day in the not-too-distant future of a pure a la carte not just for individual channels but individual events, much like iTunes. If you want Georgetown-St. John's in the first round of the Big East Tournament, you pay a certain price to get it. The Super Bowl, a different price.

It's going to be real interesting what ESPN -- and the networks -- do in a couple of years when the NFL contract comes up. Can/will ESPN justify paying more than $2 billion a year for the mediocre games that it's getting?

No choice. They don't pay, they don't get the highlights. Nor, should it get to real hardball, would ABC affiliates.

 

[playthrough]

Jim Miller had a great interview on DP's show today. He could envision a day in the not-too-distant future of a pure a la carte not just for individual channels but individual events, much like iTunes. If you want Georgetown-St. John's in the first round of the Big East Tournament, you pay a certain price to get it. The Super Bowl, a different price.

It's going to be real interesting what ESPN -- and the networks -- do in a couple of years when the NFL contract comes up. Can/will ESPN justify paying more than $2 billion a year for the mediocre games that it's getting?

The pricing is going to be interesting. A mediocre college basketball game in December is going to have be 99 cents. Max. Channels will make 95 percent of their revenue off 5 percent of their game inventory, namely most football and only the very best of the rest.

 

[justgladtobehere]

If they are going to trim so much talent, does it mean Sports Center repeats in the morning? Just wondering how ESPN keeps up its current daily schedule while losing a bunch of people.

 

[cisforkoke]

You don't need four people at a table to make their mark on every segment. ESPN is the only entity that fails to realize this.

 

[HanSenSE]

You don't need four people at a table to make their mark on every segment. ESPN is the only entity that fails to realize this.

Watched CNN lately? It's like a "Hollywood Squares" retrospective, without Paul Lynde to block.

Would the WWL go back to repeats of previous night's games? Anything to reduce the number of gabfests. It's like what we were talking about on the RIP Sports Reporters thread. When ATH and PTI were the only shows of their ilk on, well, OK. But I have no idea WTF LeBetard's show is about, or the name of the show before that. Is Michelle Beadle still there for eye candy? And daytime SportsCenter seems to be a waste. You can always break into programming in case of breaking news. And make it real breaking news, not the Sabres calling up Peter Puck from their developmental affiliate or LeBron clipping his nails.

 

[cisforkoke]

SportsNation with Beadle is before LeBatard's show. I am not sure what purpose SN serves.

Probably dangerous to say this, but I used to like LeBatard's show once they moved to the Clevelander and added Bomani Jones. (Maybe he was on there before the move, but I don't recall it.)

Now it's just way too obvious they are out of material. I persuaded someone else to watch it recently, and he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen.

 

[steveu]

All I'll say is you mess with Stan and Neil in LA, and I'll be pissed. Those two aren't everyone's cup of tea, but IMHO they're the closest thing the network's had since Dan and Keith.

 

[dirtybird]

The pricing is going to be interesting. A mediocre college basketball game in December is going to have be 99 cents. Max. Channels will make 95 percent of their revenue off 5 percent of their game inventory, namely most football and only the very best of the rest.

I'd bet it doesn't fall quite that a la carte. There';; still combo packages, more like ESPN3 or whatnot. I assume there would be many who like having the idea of lots of options at their fingertips. I like having Law and Order available most of the time, but I wouldn't pay per episode.

The thing that's amazing about Travis is he's kind of dancing around the core issue, but he's too much of a blowhard to not miss it and bloviate about liberal leanings or his personal economic might makes right idea (ignoring the fact that ESPN still holds most of the economic might). ESPN, much like newspapers, works from the top down. It has a massive audience to service, and has to have a wide enough appeal to capture large niches, plus has a range of infrastructure it can't quickly move past (sports shouting used to have wide appeal, but probably less now, though not as much less as the tone here would indicate). A place like Outkick or numerous other blogs can be content working smaller, more loyal audiences because they're working from the bottom up. There's also the odd dynamic that I'm sure all the written content and video content account for probably a very small portion of their web traffic, with scoreboards and stat widgets carrying most of the load.

 

[cisforkoke]

ESPN should have used its resources from the 538 to crunch what it should offer. But I guess when the braintrust is focused on things like "The 6," who needs numbers?

 

[Songbird]

I hope they keep Beadle, Jalen, and Chauncey. Those 3 have a tremendous rapport with each other, and it's an enjoyable hour of NBA chat.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Each of the four major professional sports has its own cable network with its own hosts. They have screamers (Michael Irvin, Deion), but they also present lots of information. Yes, much of that information is spoon fed pablum, but some isn't. So much ESPN programming is competing with the leagues to which it pays huge sums to broadcast their games. Let's take the NFL draft as an example. It was one of the events that put ESPN on the map as a national entity. And now, it competes with an NFL Network broadcast in which the latter naturally gets first dibs on "scoops."