More Cuts at ESPN

[steveu]

Oh, I know you're right... lol. But the need for the NFL to hog the whole calendar year lends some truth to the conspiracy theories.

 

[MileHigh]

Other than live games or PTI, my TV isn't on any of the mothership channels. And anytime I am, it's the same drivel and spiel at any other time.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Seconded, with college football as a close second. If they were to lose the daily shows on the NFL and CFB, would anyone miss them? Or Wednesday night MAC or CUSA games, or Friday nights with the Mountain West? And live coverage of minicamps, OTAs and, in the case of CFB, spring games (which, by the purest of coincidences, became a thing after the formation of the SEC Network)?

To echo Playthrough's post, no, poker may not come back to the levels it was at. But one sport it did lose that will hurt is soccer, namely, USMNT, USWMT and World Cup rights.

I am reading a book "Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction". The author, Derek Thompson discusses ESPN programming strategy. He says that ESPN consciously moved to a strategy of concentrating on fewer sports and emphasizing a few stories. The rationale is that the typical viewer only watches for a short time each day. That viewer not want a vast selection of things to watch. He wants to see a story about what interests him the most or a game in his favorite sport.

So ESPN started editorially emphasizing a couple of stories a day because they thought a new audience would rotate through during the day to view that story. Since football is the sport Americans most like to watch ESPN emphasized that and dumped soccer, poker, NASCAR, et. al.

 

[cisforkoke]

So ESPN started editorially emphasizing a couple of stories a day because they thought a new audience would rotate through during the day to view that story.

And then they chose to do it with 6 different shows, back to back, consisting of multiple panelists commenting on the same 8 highlight segments. A phenomenal plan.

 

[steveu]

And that's why NBA TV, MLB Network, NHL Network and NFL Network now exist.

 

[Joe Williams]

Other than live games or PTI, my TV isn't on any of the mothership channels. And anytime I am, it's the same drivel and spiel at any other time.

This covers my ESPN time too, the latter part out of habit. And since I DVR PTI (I'm working when it's on live), I've developed a little game of hitting "Delete" after TK/MW's final comments but before the opening chords of the intro for the new "6 p.m. [ET] SportsCenter" come on. The political agenda of ESPN is right there with the inanity in making it largely unwatchable for me.

 

[Songbird]

Other than live games or PTI, my TV isn't on any of the mothership channels. And anytime I am, it's the same drivel and spiel at any other time.

I give ESPN an hour or two after work these days for Jemele and Mike then gloss over a college or NBA hoops game till drowning out.

But with the tourist season starting here soon and staying open later, my sparse TV time at night will be devoted to MLB Network, and ESPN only for Sunday night games.

 

[HanSenSE]

And that's why NBA TV, MLB Network, NHL Network and NFL Network now exist.

And thank goodness for that, since under the strategy outlined in Howard's post, ESPN's coverage seems to be limited to the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs and Dodgers in MLB. the NFC East in football, Cavaliers, Warriors and Spurs in NBA and who knows in hockey. Now, I'm not saying I need a report on, say, the Rangers' middle relief or the Blackhawks' third line every show, but how about some variety?

 

[Mr. Mediocre]

Can anyone provide examples of an ESPN political agenda (beyond giving Caitlyn Jenner an ESPY)? I'm genuinely curious, as I don't watch the network outside of game coverage and have only ever heard or read references to said agenda in vague platitudes.

 

[clintrichardson]

Can anyone provide examples of an ESPN political agenda (beyond giving Caitlyn Jenner an ESPY)? I'm genuinely curious, as I don't watch the network outside of game coverage and have only ever heard or read references to said agenda in vague platitudes.

i'm not an expert on this but I would guess that there is a strong Venn diagram overlay between People Who Hate ESPN Because of Their Political Agenda and People Who Love Curt Schilling

 

[TexasVet]

Can anyone provide examples of an ESPN political agenda (beyond giving Caitlyn Jenner an ESPY)? I'm genuinely curious, as I don't watch the network outside of game coverage and have only ever heard or read references to said agenda in vague platitudes.

Jenner was the feather in the cap, but these are also part of that movement:


• Curt Schilling fired last year after tweeting out support for North Carolina bathroom law

• Network endorsement of BLM at the ESPYs

• Kevin Blackstone, an African-American sportswriter who appears on ESPN talk programs, once referred to the Star Spangled Banner as a “war anthem” … still employed

• Tennis commentator Doug Adler fired after saying the “guerrilla effect” of Venus Williams — referring to her moving closer to the net on second serves

• Screamin A Smith clearly draws the line in racial divide ... Wilbon throwing out his bias almost daily ... Both still employed


These are only a few that immediately come to mind

 

[Mr. Mediocre]

• Curt Schilling fired last year after tweeting out support for North Carolina bathroom law

I'm unfamiliar with the others and can't really comment on them, but this is sentence is staggeringly disingenuous. "Support for North Carolina bathroom law" makes it seems as if he was punished for offering innocuous or even substantive approval. What he actually did was spread around a meme implying transgender women were going into public restrooms to rape "your daughter."

Plus, considering he'd been reprimanded and warned previously for comparing an entire religion to the Nazis, it's not as if his dismissal came out of the blue. Curt Schilling's online behavior would get most anyone fired from their job -- assuming they had a job. Not a lot of people under investigation for defrauding a state out of millions of dollars would have high-profile gigs to lose for getting into pitiful Twitter slap-fights.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Curt Schilling was a Hall of Fame quality pitcher whose teams were always kind of relieved when they traded him or he moved on. Gotta be a reason for that.

 

[justgladtobehere]

A horse every fifth day, a horse's ass for the other four.

 

[CD Boogie]

Jenner was the feather in the cap, but these are also part of that movement:


• Curt Schilling fired last year after tweeting out support for North Carolina bathroom law

• Network endorsement of BLM at the ESPYs

• Kevin Blackstone, an African-American sportswriter who appears on ESPN talk programs, once referred to the Star Spangled Banner as a “war anthem” … still employed

• Tennis commentator Doug Adler fired after saying the “guerrilla effect” of Venus Williams — referring to her moving closer to the net on second serves

• Screamin A Smith clearly draws the line in racial divide ... Wilbon throwing out his bias almost daily ... Both still employed


These are only a few that immediately come to mind

Ya can probably lay a lot of that at the doorstep of Rob King. Still, isn't the Star Spangled Banner actually a war anthem? That doesn't seem like an incendiary or even inaccurate thing to say. Francis Scott Key wrote it while the British were bombing the **** out of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

 

[dirtybird]

God damn does Jason Whitlock want ESPN's failures to be the leftist agenda.

Makes me even more confident it's not.

 

[HanSenSE]

I'm unfamiliar with the others and can't really comment on them, but this is sentence is staggeringly disingenuous. "Support for North Carolina bathroom law" makes it seems as if he was punished for offering innocuous or even substantive approval. What he actually did was spread around a meme implying transgender women were going into public restrooms to rape "your daughter."

Plus, considering he'd been reprimanded and warned previously for comparing an entire religion to the Nazis, it's not as if his dismissal came out of the blue. Curt Schilling's online behavior would get most anyone fired from their job -- assuming they had a job. Not a lot of people under investigation for defrauding a state out of millions of dollars would have high-profile gigs to lose for getting into pitiful Twitter slap-fights.

The error refuted here is enough to make me think folks are looking for reasons to think the WWL skews left. Or do we need to bring up the whole "what about freedom of speech" question again?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Holy ****, this was a comical list.

Jenner was the feather in the cap, but these are also part of that movement:


• Curt Schilling fired last year after tweeting out support for North Carolina bathroom law

Schilling, after being told over and over (along with the rest of the ESPN workforce) to lay off the political stuff on social media, posted the most offensive meme about the bathroom bill he could find. He worked damn hard to earn that firing.

• Network endorsement of BLM at the ESPYs

Network endorsement? WTF?

• Kevin Blackstone, an African-American sportswriter who appears on ESPN talk programs, once referred to the Star Spangled Banner as a “war anthem” … still employed

You familiar with the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner? Google them. It's a war anthem. I'm not even saying it's a good or bad thing, but that's what it is.

• Tennis commentator Doug Adler fired after saying the “guerrilla effect” of Venus Williams — referring to her moving closer to the net on second serves

You know, "don't call black people 'gorillas'" isn't a leftist agenda, unless your argument is that being a racist **** is a necessary part of being conservative. And maybe he really meant "guerrilla," but it's worth noting that (a) guerrilla makes no sense in that context, and (b) anyone dumb enough to use "gorilla/guerrilla" on TV to describe a black woman shouldn't be doing TV.

• Screamin A Smith clearly draws the line in racial divide ... Wilbon throwing out his bias almost daily ... Both still employed

Funny, neither guy is political. They both have something else in common, though... as does Kevin Blackistone and Serena Williams. It's almost like there's something else about them that bothers you.

Wonder what that might be?

 

[JC]

I assume FS1's ratings must be through the roof with all the righty's running away from ESPN.

 

[dixiehack]

The thing that makes me put some stock in the "no political agenda" talking point is that the ratings for FS1's bro-talk shows remain undetectable with a micron telescope.