You're right, ESPN has gone cheap for "on-air" talent recently. Here's why:
"ESPN is struggling with a declining subscriber base. ESPN has lost 42 million subscribes in the past few years.
Yet ESPN has to pay increasing fees to sports leagues for broadcast rights to televise live sports events.
ESPN pays yearly to the following for television and radio broadcast rights -
NBA - $1.5 Billion
NFL - $1.9 Billion
MLB - $700 Million
NCAA conferences and College football playoffs over $1 billion."
Like most businesses, ESPN cannot control operating costs, but they can control salaries.
In order to try to control costs, ESPN in April 2016, terminated the employment of several hundred of their employees. Lots of our favorite on air personalities were terminated, or their contracts were not renewed.
This is why we have been seeing new faces on ESPN shows the past 18 or so months. On air and behind the scenes talent at a much lower wage who are elated to be working at the World Wide Web.
Most of them were stuck in a low paying job in small to medium mid-west /eastern/southern parts of the country in local television markets in anonymity. They were brought in for much less $$$ than their predecessors, but at least now they're seen and known nationally.
Chiney is only taking advantage of an opportunity afforded to her. They like her at ESPN. She wants to get into the business. She's been on at least 5 different ESPN shows recently including SportsCenter, Get up, Golic & Wingo, and a number of NBA and college studio pre-game, half time, and post game shows, and a round table talk show that aired today.
Shes also done a couple of basketball sideline reporting gigs (ala Holly Rowe). I think she does a good job, and is getting better with each show. She knowledgeable, articulate, intelligent and available. Her star is rising at ESPN. Not bad for a young lady who
was not a broadcast journalism major in college.
Layoffs Hit ESPN On-Air Talent as 100 Staffers Lose Jobs
ESPN is ending evening SportsCenter segments on ESPNews. And the franchise still seems likely to lose anchors, but through contracts not being renewed rather than layoffs.
"ESPN president John Skipper made the announcement on Wednesday, noting that “changes” in the talent lineup will be implemented this week.
“A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions,” Skipper wrote in a note to employees posted on the network’s website. “Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent — anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play — necessary to meet those demands.
"These decisions impact talented people who have done great work for our company," Skipper continued. "I would like to thank all of them for their efforts and their many contributions to ESPN."
