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whaler11

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How many more homes is ESPN in than FS1? – February 2017 Cable Coverage Estimates

Two more brutal months for everyone.

Based on watching some ESPN tonight they have no idea how to get anyone to watch anymore.

This whole Sports Center 6 or SC6 is going to be an all-time ratings disaster.

I'm watching the 11pm SC and they are walking off the SC set onto the Liberty Mutual background taking about teenager car insurance.

SC in LA has Arnold on for God's sake.

Good luck to these leagues collecting on those contracts. This network is completely adrift and has no idea how to get viewers or save subs.

This is like watching MTV as they moved from being MTV into being another station that shows reruns of 15 year old movies around the clock.

Really the only thing worse is watching Fox Sports 1 try to figure out what to do. Their late night 'Sports Center' is the worst show in sports television history. It makes Katie Nolan look like Al Michaels combined with Howard Cosell.
 

whaler11

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The rough math for ESPN if you annualize that pace: On the low end a loss of 275 million a year in annual revenues.
 

pepband99

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There is one big difference between MTV and ESPN - the product isn't a niche, and isn't going away. The Neilsen moves to try and rate OTT will prove very interesting.
 

whaler11

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There is one big difference between MTV and ESPN - the product isn't a niche, and isn't going away. The Neilsen moves to try and rate OTT will prove very interesting.

I don't think you mean OTT - you mean the streaming services. The ratings aren't as important as figuring how how many subs there are.

I wouldn't want to be an organization who is counting on huge dollars from them in 2025. Of course they could figure everything out but they were making so much money from passive subs it looks just about impossible to me to generate the same revenue when a big percentage of the passive money disappears.
 

pepband99

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I mean OTT - Neilsen dipping their toe in the water with the streaming services, but it's just the tip of the OTT iceberg.
 

SubbaBub

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They still think people tune into SportsCenter to see anchor shtick and hot takes.

They just want scores, highlights, previews and non-shmaltzy news stories.

I only watch these days as background when nothing else is on.

The faster they switch to an interface for streaming devices, the better.
 
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Really the only thing worse is watching Fox Sports 1 try to figure out what to do. Their late night 'Sports Center' is the worst show in sports television history. It makes Katie Nolan look like Al Michaels combined with Howard Cosell.
I've been trying to get on the Fox train playing my part in killing ESPN. Fox definitely has solid talkshow programming (I like Cowherd and Skip/Shannon) and the best niche sport coverage but I've also noticed that they don't have a regular "Sportscenter" at 3, 6/7, and 9 yet. I think once they get solid talent like that they can start to take over for ESPN
 

whaler11

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I mean OTT - Neilsen dipping their toe in the water with the streaming services, but it's just the tip of the OTT iceberg.

Sorry I read it as OTA not OTT.
 

IMind

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The only reason I care about the ESPNs, FS1, NBC Sports net, is for live sports. I watch ZERO other programming. It takes me five minutes to open up a sports app on my phone... check scores... and read any news that matters... I don't need some moron like Scott Van Pelt giving me his (bad) comedic take on it. ESPN died the day Apple released the iPhone... they just don't know it yet.
 

ConnHuskBask

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I would cancel my cable if it wasn't for live sports. In fact, I have to get the custom sports package with fios just in order to get CBS Sports Channel (thank you AAC).

If I'm not watching any specific, SNY is a nice alternative if you just want some local sports news.
 
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I was with DirecTV for 20 years until this past month.

Now, I use Amazon Firestick, local antenna and Sling TV.

That saves me a good bit of money and I can get the live sports I want to watch.
 
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There is one big difference between MTV and ESPN - the product isn't a niche, and isn't going away. The Neilsen moves to try and rate OTT will prove very interesting.

MTC was the biggest thing going for cable for 15 years. Music is almost as popular as sports. Not sure I'd call it niche.
 

IMind

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I was with DirecTV for 20 years until this past month.

Now, I use Amazon Firestick, local antenna and Sling TV.

That saves me a good bit of money and I can get the live sports I want to watch.

Same here... I mean I pay for a few more subs... but I was paying for most of them before I left DirecTV. I added SlingTV and Vue... It's still hundreds of dollars less a month than my DirecTV bill was for the number of sets I have.
 

nomar

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They still think people tune into SportsCenter to see anchor shtick and hot takes.

They just want scores, highlights, previews and non-shmaltzy news stories.

I only watch these days as background when nothing else is on.

The faster they switch to an interface for streaming devices, the better.

It used to be, I'd watch an hour of SportsCenter to catch a 15-second clip of the UConn game (assuming we were ranked). Now you just go to ESPN.com and watch the clip.

I can't remember the last time I watched SportsCenter.
 

shizzle787

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I have to agree - ESPN has had a political lean in their sports coverage in recent years and its not helpful...let the other "news" channels serve that purpose.
Not only that, they should stick to highlights with some commentary for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAAB, and NCAAF. That's it. Bringing Jemele Hill in for the SC6 isn't helping at all as she is very political and polarizing. ESPN should get rid of the political aspect as much as possible and focus on highlights. Sportscenter used to be a great show. Now it is unwatchable.
 

whaler11

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Not only that, they should stick to highlights with some commentary for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAAB, and NCAAF. That's it. Bringing Jemele Hill in for the SC6 isn't helping at all as she is very political and polarizing. ESPN should get rid of the political aspect as much as possible and focus on highlights. Sportscenter used to be a great show. Now it is unwatchable.

The 6:00 show will be a disaster but there is no audience for a general highlight show anymore.
 
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I saw a ton of tweets today about Disney blaming ESPN for a major dip in profits.

I hope that place suffers dearly.

"Suffering," while still making a enough to burn. My kind of suffering.
 

pepband99

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MTC was the biggest thing going for cable for 15 years. Music is almost as popular as sports. Not sure I'd call it niche.
Music is not a visual medium. It existed for thousands of years without video, and will do it for thousands more. It's the definition of niche.

Live sports are the same in terms of timeframe, but you're not changing the medium.
 
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Music is not a visual medium. It existed for thousands of years without video, and will do it for thousands more. It's the definition of niche.

Live sports are the same in terms of timeframe, but you're not changing the medium.

I'd argue MTV wasn't selling music. It was selling music videos.
 

Dream Jobbed 2.0

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How many more homes is ESPN in than FS1? – February 2017 Cable Coverage Estimates

Two more brutal months for everyone.

Based on watching some ESPN tonight they have no idea how to get anyone to watch anymore.

This whole Sports Center 6 or SC6 is going to be an all-time ratings disaster.

I'm watching the 11pm SC and they are walking off the SC set onto the Liberty Mutual background taking about teenager car insurance.

SC in LA has Arnold on for God's sake.

Good luck to these leagues collecting on those contracts. This network is completely adrift and has no idea how to get viewers or save subs.

This is like watching MTV as they moved from being MTV into being another station that shows reruns of 15 year old movies around the clock.

Really the only thing worse is watching Fox Sports 1 try to figure out what to do. Their late night 'Sports Center' is the worst show in sports television history. It makes Katie Nolan look like Al Michaels combined with Howard Cosell.
I had to google who Katie Nolan was. And for that, I thank you.
 

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