What's hurting ESPN is cordcutters who rarely or never watched ESPN but were giving ESPN money every month in their subscription package. Nothing to do with politics. Everything to do with economics.
News Article: ESPN layoffs
- Thread starter ALA2262
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I'm due for an upgrade so I'm actually going to add cable.
I do think most of this was the result of really bad business decisions but the political stuff was part of the mix. Maybe just a small part but any decent cook knows that just a 1/4 teaspoon of spice can change everything.
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I do think most of this was the result of really bad business decisions but the political stuff was part of the mix. Maybe just a small part but any decent cook knows that just a 1/4 teaspoon of spice can change everything.
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Been saying that for years but I'm not self-promoting or anything.
I look at MLB and most games the stands seem to be barely occupied. Yet their players have contracts in the hundreds of millions. Money must be coming from corporate side. Ticket prices for both NFL and CFB have gotten to the point where the average Joe can't afford to go.
Speaking of bubbles, I shake my head at the real estate every time I drive through Tuscaloosa.
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I've been on that rant before too. It is ridiculous. The real estate money is just deprecating each other with new development. There are only a small handful of great locations. The rest want to be the newest and nicest. Eventually Tuscaloosa will be nothing but open air malls, restaurants, and large apartment/condo complexes. Most of the restaurants will be a year from going under. Most of the malls will be half full. Most of the apt/condos will be unused.
Agreed! I may not like DK's opinions, but that tweet about his family really hit home. I know how scary it can be when you have to look for a new job. I wish them all the best.
Ultimately, this is a pressure that forced ESPN to reassess what they are as a sports network. Remember when ESPN was a bunch of BASS fishing, bowling, etc during the day and late night? They'd have one Sportscenter late night that was reaired the next morning. A primetime sports game would come on and that was about it for live content on a daily basis. During the early to mid-2000s they started diversifying into more live content: more Sportscenter, more original shows, more documentaries. They were growing year over year and had so much money to spend on more internal content creation.
The money started drying up a few years ago when people realized they could get away with a very limited cable package w/ no sports channels (or no cable package at all) and streaming services such as Netflix. I truly believe ESPN's decline is because of people that left cable who rarely if ever watched an ESPN channel yet were getting the "sports package" tax on their cable bill. People who watch ESPN, like us, for live sports have been the only thing keeping them afloat.
What I will say about ESPN's increasing political voice is that it is likely a sign of their decline in progress rather than the impetus of the decline. Their executive level people told the showrunners to go down the political direction because CNN and other have frankly copied ESPN's "dudes yelling at each other over news topics" model to more massive success than ESPN could've imagined. ESPN saw the decline happening and decided to play the click/eyeball bait game by being politically divisive. It was their last stand to be more politically vocal. Nothing more, nothing less.
The money started drying up a few years ago when people realized they could get away with a very limited cable package w/ no sports channels (or no cable package at all) and streaming services such as Netflix. I truly believe ESPN's decline is because of people that left cable who rarely if ever watched an ESPN channel yet were getting the "sports package" tax on their cable bill. People who watch ESPN, like us, for live sports have been the only thing keeping them afloat.
What I will say about ESPN's increasing political voice is that it is likely a sign of their decline in progress rather than the impetus of the decline. Their executive level people told the showrunners to go down the political direction because CNN and other have frankly copied ESPN's "dudes yelling at each other over news topics" model to more massive success than ESPN could've imagined. ESPN saw the decline happening and decided to play the click/eyeball bait game by being politically divisive. It was their last stand to be more politically vocal. Nothing more, nothing less.
According to this thread I am doing it all wrong..lol. We have Charter cable, plus I pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime. :biggrin:
I am not sure I could ever cut the cable out though. (We have a lot of shows we watch) My Charter bill is half the internet and half the cable. So, it wouldn't save me that much.
I am not sure I could ever cut the cable out though. (We have a lot of shows we watch) My Charter bill is half the internet and half the cable. So, it wouldn't save me that much.
Ravich was on there for years, plus he sounded (to me) like John Saunders which was always a bit comforting (big Saunders fan)
Please don't promote any ideas of making the college game shorter. They'll just add more commercials to take up the time. It's already happened once when they changed the rules a few years ago.
DFW says hello! It's ridiculous out here right now!
Not true, at least with Mom & Pop stores. The first thing local businessmen do is tell their cashiers not to discuss Religion, Politics or Sports with the customers. In fact I know mini-mart that went out of business because the cashier/owner brow beat all her customers with her political views. They were distant relatives of mine. I was one of the first to quit them and also one of the first to cut the cable cord. I don't need a finger in my face when I watch sports.
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Wonder if they will go back to broadcasting racquetball & Australian Rules Football to fill the airspace
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Yeah i don't even watch espn channel unless a game is on. The talking heads don't provide much substance anymore
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So glad DK is gone. I know they've had bias folks before but I don't remember any as biased as DK. He lost me with his constant defense, even to this day, of the rapist Winston.
It will be really interesting to watch the next round of TV contracts. This will eventually hurt pro sports as the money drying up trickles down to them. ESPN did this to themselves by continuing to sign huge TV contracts even when the writing has been in the wall for years.
We cut the cord almost 4 years ago and haven't looked back. It had nothing to do with politics either but everything to do with dropping the $130/month DirecTV bill. For years we just used my parents login to watch the streaming apps like WatchESPN. We tried all the new streaming services and now have DirecTV Now, $35 for 100 channels. It's great. We also enjoyed PS Vue but hated SlingTV.
It will be really interesting to watch the next round of TV contracts. This will eventually hurt pro sports as the money drying up trickles down to them. ESPN did this to themselves by continuing to sign huge TV contracts even when the writing has been in the wall for years.
We cut the cord almost 4 years ago and haven't looked back. It had nothing to do with politics either but everything to do with dropping the $130/month DirecTV bill. For years we just used my parents login to watch the streaming apps like WatchESPN. We tried all the new streaming services and now have DirecTV Now, $35 for 100 channels. It's great. We also enjoyed PS Vue but hated SlingTV.
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