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Message: [QUOTE="Rocktheworld, post: 2840826, member: 5037"] I think I’ve only seen this mentioned once, and it’s insane that that’s the case. ESPN over-payed for NBA and NFL contracts that didn’t pan out and they took huge losses. Thus, they couldn’t keep their talent around who was the real reason anyone watched in the first place. It’s going to be a weird analogy, but when YouTube exploded in popularity in the late 00s, there were dozens and dozens of successful gaming channels. Nearing a decade later, there are very few. The ones who have sustained success, outlasting the presence of a massive pool of options, did so through their engaging personality. Any dope can upload a gaming video of them kicking ass at Call of Duty, but over time as the market was saturated, channels maintained their followings because of their personalities and charisma. Anyone on tv or the internet can upload highlights and stats; but this saturation of the market wasn’t ESPN’s undoing. It was their inability to keep personalities and segments like Primetime around, which set them apart from other reporting services. There wasn’t anything particularly special about Primetime, to stick with that example. It was Berman, TJ, and their chemistry. Besides the entertainment factor, ESPN couldn’t even keep around their best analysts, another thing that set them apart. Now, it’s half highlights by some no-name, and/or drama reporting [/QUOTE]