News Article: ESPN layoffs

[DzynKingRTR]

Jerry Punch? Geez. I always enjoyed him doing the college football broadcasts from the sideline, especially back in the 90s. "And now we go to Dr. Jerry Punch, who is an actual doctor, for update on the injury."

I remember a game in the 90s one time where Dr Jerry Punch gave this very detailed scientific analysis of an injury to a player and shot it back to the booth. the play by play guy said "Does that mean there is something wrong with his leg?"

 

[gtowntide]

Heather Dinich needs to be next.

If she survives this cut then we'll know there really is a conspiracy to drive me mad!

 

[LA4Bama]

Can't believe that you fire mark may and keep dinich. Is she the cousin once removed of some executive?

 

[GrayTide]

Can't believe that you fire mark may and keep dinich. Is she the cousin once removed of some executive?

Or someone has pictures of her with ESPN's CEO.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Jerry Punch? Geez. I always enjoyed him doing the college football broadcasts from the sideline, especially back in the 90s. "And now we go to Dr. Jerry Punch, who is an actual doctor, for update on the injury."

I think he'll be able to keep making some good bucks as a doctor. Maybe.

 

[deliveryman35]

Looks like Mark May is out too. :mad2: He was one of my favorite analysts.

This one really surprised me. Mark was always very easy to listen to and had a calmness about his style that always resonated with me. His is the first name mentioned that I'll really miss. Plus, being a former "hog" from the 1980s redskins teams, this guy knew what he was talking about and always struck me as more of a traditionalist of the game that appreciated good fundamentals ( running, blocking, tackling) more than most analysts.

 

[Padreruf]

This one really surprised me. Mark was always very easy to listen to and had a calmness about his style that always resonated with me. His is the first name mentioned that I'll really miss. Plus, being a former "hog" from the 1980s redskins teams, this guy knew what he was talking about and always struck me as more of a traditionalist of the game that appreciated good fundamentals ( running, blocking, tackling) more than most analysts.

I agree...he was a favorite of mine. Could be that they are cutting veterans, hiring rookies, and cutting payroll. Works in some industries...

 

[TideMan09]

I bet they will bring back Lou Holtz just to mess with Bama Fans..LOL

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I agree...he was a favorite of mine. Could be that they are cutting veterans, hiring rookies, and cutting payroll. Works in some industries...

I think you may be right. It wouldn't be the first time. Rece told me, probably 16-18 years ago now, that ESPN was reaching down into mid-sized markets for younger people they could pay a lot less. He was 39 when ESPN hired him out of Flint, MI. Very hard for me to believe he's now 60...

 

[TideMan09]

I think you may be right. It wouldn't be the first time. Rece told me, probably 16-18 years ago now, that ESPN was reaching down into mid-sized markets for younger people they could pay a lot less. He was 39 when ESPN hired him out of Flint, MI. Very hard for me to believe he's now 60...

Dang..He sure doesn't look his age that's for sure..

 

[cuda.1973]

Is ESPN in a death spiral?

Could be. If the numbers are correct, there is no way they can cut enough staff, to offset the purported loses.

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/04/29/espns-death-spiral-will-not-be-halted-by-mass-layoffs/

They are stuck with the bad contracts, for the NFL and NBA, for several more years.

John Skipper, who became ESPN’s president on January 1, 2012, when the cable network was at its zenith, utterly failed to anticipate the changing market conditions. ESPN grossly overpaid for its NFL and NBA contracts, each costing north of $1 billion and will not run out until the next decade. There is no new revenue stream that will enable ESPN to make up for the subscriber losses to pay for these contracts without bleeding more money.

And, of course......................(you knew I had to point this one out!)

So Skipper decided to make a move that was purely window dressing to placate parent company Disney’s antsy shareholders. He shed some of ESPN’s most valuable assets – journalists who actually do their jobs by reporting on sports, with the vast majority of them never wading into politics in any shape or form. This only serves to make a sports fan want to watch ESPN’s programming or visit its website even less.

 

[marcusroby]

He has aged well. I remember him on a local ABC affiliate in Columbus, Ga. during the '90s

 

[CrimsonProf]

What I find weird is fewer people watching and attending - is there less overall interest in sports?

I feel like Tony Soprano.


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[JDCrimson]

Is ESPN in a death spiral?

Could be. If the numbers are correct, there is no way they can cut enough staff, to offset the purported loses.

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/04/29/espns-death-spiral-will-not-be-halted-by-mass-layoffs/

They are stuck with the bad contracts, for the NFL and NBA, for several more years.



And, of course......................(you knew I had to point this one out!)

As much as the NFL and the NBA want their money they want their product broadcast worse. Whatever shape ESPN descends into the contracts will get revised to keep broadcasting going.

What really should be happening right now is the SEC needs to be doing some contingency planning to develop plans for severing their network from ESPN if the hemorrhaging continues.

It should have been done along time ago but if a channel cannot be profitable with the content aired on it then it shouldn't be aired. Simple as that.

People by and large want to watch ESPN. I would subscribe to it separately over the Internet sort of like Netflix. Give me access to live broadcasts of games some re-runs of classics and some documentaries and I'm good. I don't need or want Finebaum, PTI, or Cowherd and their ilk.

Simply, ESPN is suffering because cable providers have bundled it with a bunch of other worthless channels.

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[Redwood Forrest]

I seem to remember someone saying ESPN went on a spending spree to corner the market and now they are paying the price for it. I know they (and ABC) have ALL the bowl games except two. Maybe CBS, NBC, Fox and their cable siblings can get back in the bowl game picture in a couple of years.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

If she survives this cut then we'll know there really is a conspiracy to drive me mad!

Dinich and Brock Hurd (or .... as I call him) drive me crazy. Both their voices make me want to run thru the wall.

 

[cuda.1973]

What I find weird is fewer people watching and attending - is there less overall interest in sports?

I don't think there is a substantial loss in folks watching live sporting events. Yes, there is some. The bigger loss is attendance, at live events. The cost is simply too high, especially when you can watch it on a 70" plasma TV, and still have $$$ in your wallet.

But, loss of interest in actually attending a sport is the first step in losing total interest in it.

Haven't been to a stRangers game, going on 3 years. Cost, hassle of spending 2 hours to get there on a weekday, and other factors have led me no longer attend a game. This year, I haven't watched or listened to several games. I pay more attention to our woefully pathetic baseball team, than the local MLB team. I'll continue to hang onto our team, but it won't be long before I will care less about something I have been glued to, for over 60 years.

(OK, I will admit if I still lived in Alabama, I probably would not be at The Joe, as long a Coach Goof is there. I would return, when he departs. There is a difference between being a Bama fan, and an MLB fan. One sport vs an institution, with a broad spectrum of things to retain my support and loyalty.)

 

[cuda.1973]

I seem to remember someone saying ESPN went on a spending spree to corner the market and now they are paying the price for it. I know they (and ABC) have ALL the bowl games except two. Maybe CBS, NBC, Fox and their cable siblings can get back in the bowl game picture in a couple of years.

^^^THIS^^^

You can simply reduce my intense hatred of ESPN to this one point. EVERYTHING is now on ESPN. You don't have cable (ok, talking pre "cut the cord" days), you are screwed. Most of the bowl games are not worth the effort, so who cares what station they are on? But, when they have a corner, on the ones that you want to watch, and even block the CTSN from streaming the audio, for the ones that I probably can not see, then they can not go bankrupt soon enough.

Unless those networks put the bowl games on something other than "subscription", who cares? They are probably much equally insufferable, when if comes to their coverage. When it comes to one of our games, I want to hear our guys call the game. Not interested in fake non-partisan coverage. I get why that is necessary, for mass consumption. But when you rob fans of hearing their "homers", because you have a total monopoly, and want to force people to endure what you want folks to hear, then you are on my cretin list.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

As much as the NFL and the NBA want their money they want their product broadcast worse. Whatever shape ESPN descends into the contracts will get revised to keep broadcasting going.

Simply, ESPN is suffering because cable providers have bundled it with a bunch of other worthless channels.

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I agree on both accounts. I also know this is not totally ESPN's fault. A Cable system owner (retired now) told me that ESPN was always threating to pull their channels off his cable company if they didn't get this and that. For example they wanted to be first in the channel lineup. ESPN was channel 27, ESPN2 was 28, and so on and on. All the ESPN family came first and then the CBSSN, NBCSN and FS1. That was so that people flipping through the channels would stop on one the ESPNs first before getting to the others.

At contract time the cable company wants a raise and ESPN won't give in. So the war of words begins with both sides telling customers to call the other and complain. I reckon they mostly compromise on the amount of raise the cable company gets. This was ten years ago so it may have changed by now. I have no sympathy for either one. They both are greedy.

 

[cuda.1973]

Still there will be more! (From TrumpBart, of course.)

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/05/01/sports-broadcasting-giant-espn-forced-reinvent/

ESPN signed a 10-year contract for the rights to the National Football League’s Monday night games and several other events in 2011 for a whopping $15.2 billion.

And a new contract with the NBA professional basketball league took effect this season, valued at $12.6 billion over nine years.

But “changing consumption habits” means trimming costs won’t be enough to get the company through its rough patch, ESPN President John Skipper acknowledged.

Considering even Dish is feeling the crunch, this is not a bidnis I would want to be in, right now.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollyw...network-lost-143000-pay-tv-subscribers-in-1q/

According to one estimate from Leichtman Research, Dish lost over 1 million satellite customers while adding 645,000 subscribers to its Sling service in 2016.

Quarterly cash earnings for Dish were also down. The company brought in $376 million, a market decline from $400 million a year ago.