Espn. What happened?

[pj]

ESPN lost over 13 million subscribers over 6 years, as of 9/15/2017, when the following article was written.

ESPN has lost nearly 13 million subscribers in 6 years, but it is not as bad as it sounds

The key takeaway from the article? "But that loss in revenue is due to cordcutting. Politics and "bad programming" are playing a far-less important role."

Cord-cutting takes away cable subscribers from all cable networks. It doesn't explain why ESPN subscribers are down 12% in a period when other sports networks increased subscribers:

 

[Stainmaster]

ESPN doesn't really agree. They are getting out of the politics game.

ESPN’s New Boss Changes Course, in Step With the N.F.L.

When football fans tune in to see the Los Angeles Rams play the Oakland Raiders on ESPN today, they will be greeted by a brand new “Monday Night Football” crew. After Jon Gruden left to return to coaching, ESPN executives opted for a radical makeover, selecting Joe Tessitore and Jason Witten as the lead announcers.

This is just one of the many high-visibility changes to take place at ESPN since Jimmy Pitaro was named the company’s president in March. Along with “resetting” (his word) the network’s relationship with the N.F.L., Pitaro has overseen a rebuilding of ESPN’s daytime lineup and the return of “SportsCenter” to its past prominence. …

His ESPN is a network in lock step with the N.F.L., still the most popular sports league in the country. It is one that is swiftly retreating from offering commentary on political and social issues, and re-establishing the prominence of bread-and-butter highlights. It is a vision that raises questions about the company’s commitment to hard-hitting investigative journalism, and whether it is even possible to be a down-the-middle sports network anymore. …

[ESPN personnel interviewed] spoke carefully. Fulsome praise for Pitaro could be seen as criticism of his predecessor, John Skipper; outlining, or praising, the major changes he has undertaken by definition means admitting major changes were necessary. …

Jemele Hill, who was suspended by ESPN for suggesting fans boycott sponsors of the Cowboys last fall, is leaving the company. Michelle Beadle, an outspoken critic of how the N.F.L. handles domestic violence cases, was removed as one of the three hosts of the uneven morning show “Get Up.” The change came one day after Beadle said she doesn’t watch football as part of a segment about Urban Meyer.
And as part of a shake-up of daytime programming,

“SportsNation” — which was co-hosted by one of ESPN’s most outspoken on-air personalities on social issues, LZ Granderson — was canceled and “High Noon,” a new show hosted by Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre, who delight in discussing issues of race and politics, was reduced from 60 minutes to 30 and had its time slot changed.

All told, that is five of ESPN’s strongest voices on the vexing intersection of sports, politics, race — a conversation that Skipper had encouraged — who won’t be seen speaking about these topics as much, or at all, this football season.

If this is a question of shuffling around individual shows, good for them. I have no problem going on record that caving to irrationally angry boomers when shaping the entire image of one's network is a terrible long-term strategy.

 

[CL82]

Overpaying for sports to monopolize the market coupled with cord cutting hurt profits. In order to recoup, ESPN fired high priced talent and decided to become "more topical." There already is a ton of political content on cable people who want that aren't going to ESPN for it. ESPN's core customers didn't want to be force fed political content. It was the "New Coke" marketing move of cable TV.

Just my take.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

ESPN should learn from history
The very dramatic NFL highlight shows was a large part in elevating that league into to colossus it has become. NFL films and the great voice of the late John Facenda ( the voice of God) was possibly the greatest PR coup in history.
ESPN is run by Disney executives. Do they really understand their audience?

 

[August_West]

It's exactly like MTV in that when you have access to the internet to watch your music video or your sports highlights you don't have to wait through all the content you don't care about. The internet killed ESPN and MTV both.

This.

It’s all it is. Things change. The internet has changed the way information is consumed in such a huge and devastatingly fast changing way.

I lol at people who say “politics”

That’s a snowflakey excuse.

 

[Slasher]

I agree , as a Sox fan, pains me to say it- but a rod is not bad. Only good announcer left in my opinion is jim nantz, and maybe Gus johnson( makes everything sound exciting ) and maybe joe buck. All the great ones are no longer. musburger , costas, enberg. Al Michaels good too. But not many left

You had me until you said Joe Buck. He's the worst.

 

[the Q]

Yep. It's weird. I was there when Dempster drilled him and cheered my arse off at that with the rest of the Fenway faithful. (I think he ended up something like 3 for 4 with a gomer that night?)
Now, he's not only a good announcer, with a ton of knowledge, he doesn't even seem like a bad dude either.

Is it possible a rod seems likable? Dare I say ? Lol

Arod is great because he’s obviously a former player who knows what he’s talking abut, but you can tell he’s a student of the game.

Some guys are just good at baseball, but don’t love it. He does.

Another example is a story about him and jeter.

One night after a game they went to Jeters apartment. While jeter was in the kitchen arod flipped on the tv. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for he asked jeter what channel the west coast games were on.

Jeter basically laughed it off saying he didn’t get the mlb extra package to see other mlb games.

Baseball was business to jeter.

For arod Baseball was so much more. He legitimately loves it. It’s realy hard for me to not like guys like that.

 

[SubbaBub]

You can get scores and highlights on your phone. It makes little sense to put a full on TV production for something people stopped needing a decade ago.

Also, those clever catch phrase anchors who became popular got expansive. They went with cheaper talent on SC and made darn sure they didn't get too big.

Lastly, outrage drives eyeballs hence people like Steven A Smith and hour after hour of senseless issue debates on every show.

 

[goskis2018]

The share of the population frustrated by ESPN's "politics" doesn't have demography on their side. They're overwhelmingly older, and as such will represent less and less of ESPN's potential customer base going forward.

I'm sorry that these people are upset, but they would do well to realize that any struggles ESPN faces going forward are environmental (cord-cutting) and structural (show lineup construction), rather then a response to their boycott campaign.

Maybe I'm a statistical anomaly but me and alot of guys I know stopped watching ESPN because of politics. Not necessarily in the traditional sense of I'm boycotting ESPN because they are liberals but more so in the why on Earth is ESPN political in the first place. It's just unpleasant and uncomfortable to mix sports and politics. 22 by the way

 

[the Q]

This.

It’s all it is. Things change. The internet has changed the way information is consumed in such a huge and devastatingly fast changing way.

I lol at people who say “politics”

That’s a snowflakey excuse.

Or just call it what it is: abysmal programming.

How did a hack like Beadle have a job to begin with?

 

[whaler11]

Politics doesn’t do them any good - it might not drive away as many people as psychos on the internet claim but it certainly doesn’t add viewers.

 

[storrsroars]

Is it possible a rod seems likable? Dare I say ? Lol

Anytime you allow yourself to think that, just replay this:

 

[QDOG5]

I agree , as a Sox fan, pains me to say it- but a rod is not bad. Only good announcer left in my opinion is jim nantz, and maybe Gus johnson( makes everything sound exciting ) and maybe joe buck. All the great ones are no longer. musburger , costas, enberg. Al Michaels good too. But not many left

I agree, and on the news side I miss Edward R.Murrow and Walter Cronkite.

 

[August_West]

Politics doesn’t do them any good - it might not drive away as many people as psychos on the internet claim but it certainly doesn’t add viewers.

its silly that they do politics. But it has nothing to do with their decline.

ESPN is a victim of the same things that killed Blockbuster video, the DVD player , 24 Hour photo huts, Cassette tapes, and Newspapers. The way we consume media has entirely changed.

I was a voracious ESPN watcher in the 90's/early 2000's stopped watching years and years ago. Nothing they could do right or do wrong wouldve changed that. Ever. Progress is killing them. Hell, you know me Im a political junkie and I would imagine (just by scanning about who is complaining about "politics" in this thread alone) that ESPN probably aligns with me. Don't care. Still won't turn them on. Dont need to.

The only thing I ever watch on ESPN is 30 for 30's.

 

[the Q]

Anytime you allow yourself to think that, just replay this:

Yeah he did some dumb things during his career. No question about that.

 

[the Q]

its silly that they do politics. But it has nothing to do with their decline.

ESPN is a victim of the same things that killed Blockbuster video, the DVD player and Cassette tapes and Newspapers. The way we consume media has entirely changed.

I was a voracious ESPN watcher in the 90's/early 2000's stopped watching years and years ago. Nothing they could do right or do wrong wouldve changed that. Ever. Progress is killing them. Hell, you know me Im a political junkie and I would imagine (just by scanning about who is complaining about "politics" in this thread alone) that ESPN probably aligns with me. Don't care. Still won't turn them on. Dont need to.

The only thing I ever watch on ESPN is 30 for 30's.

I used to really like pardon the interruption. Way back in it’s OG days.

But even that I don’t care about anymore. No question they need some more original content.

 

[whaler11]

its silly that they do politics. But it has nothing to do with their decline.

ESPN is a victim of the same things that killed Blockbuster video, the DVD player , 24 Hour photo huts, Cassette tapes, and Newspapers. The way we consume media has entirely changed.

I was a voracious ESPN watcher in the 90's/early 2000's stopped watching years and years ago. Nothing they could do right or do wrong wouldve changed that. Ever. Progress is killing them. Hell, you know me Im a political junkie and I would imagine (just by scanning about who is complaining about "politics" in this thread alone) that ESPN probably aligns with me. Don't care. Still won't turn them on. Dont need to.

The only thing I ever watch on ESPN is 30 for 30's.

If I’m home on Saturday mornings I’ll have Gameday on while I handicap the games. That’s about it.

There just isn’t a market for a general interest highlight show across multiple sports.

 

[the Q]

If I’m home on Saturday mornings I’ll have Gameday on while I handicap the games. That’s about it.

There just isn’t a market for a general interest highlight show across multiple sports.

Hence the rise of nfl network and mlb network (which is absolutely amazing btw)

 

[whaler11]

Hence the rise of nfl network and mlb network (which is absolutely amazing btw)

And still get zero ratings.

 

[Vowelguy]

Cord-cutting takes away cable subscribers from all cable networks. It doesn't explain why ESPN subscribers are down 12% in a period when other sports networks increased subscribers:

Gee FS1 went from showing whatever crap aired on the Speed network to showing MLB playoffs and CFB and their ratings are up? Quelle soiprise!
Ditto for NBC SN.

 

[UofCT]

So basically espn is like tmz now. They are Just trying to put everyone’s business on blast for the quick easy viewership. It’s funny because I’m pretty sure the younger audience (under 25) doesn’t really watch SportsCenter and I know damn well my demographic(ages 30-50) Is sick of the “new” espn, and people over 60 didn’t really care about ESPN as much as my generation did- so why wouldn’t they stick with their bread and butter and cater to their main age group? Dumb.

There is a good sportscenter on snap chat which I've seen twice.

 

[RichZ]

ESPN has been deteriorating since the 90s.
Root cause -- the evil mouse.
Disney.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I don't understand why people care so much other than espn funded hating on the Huskies. Olberman & Patrick aren't walking thru that door and if they did they'd be gray and old.
ESPN is a TV station that has games on it sometimes, I check it to see what freakin' channel a game is on, the end.

 

[J187Money]

I don't understand why people care so much other than espn funded hating on the Huskies. Olberman & Patrick aren't walking thru that door and if they did they'd be gray and old.
ESPN is a TV station that has games on it sometimes, I check it to see what freakin' channel a game is on, the end.

LOL. The anger about everything here is unreal. I used to consume things one way, now I consume them another. If anything, there is MORE of everything I want and definitely way more than what I need. Can't possibly consume everything that is out there. Plenty to choose from. Maybe its a little more difficult to figure out what you like, but hardly a catastrophe.

 

[Robertelamin]

Things I love about ESPN:

1. ESPY’s
2. X-Games
3. LeBron James breaking news.

Things I hate about ESPN:

1. Sports - Boring!