OT - ESPN Layoffs

[methodology]

Sucks for those losing their jobs but espn did this to themselves. I remember back in the 90s everyone literally would get up early to watch sportscenter before going to work or school. They played highlights of every game rather than only large market teams. It was highlights not a sports gossip show. I haven't watched anything but live sporting events on espn in over 10 years. I could care less about pop culture and all the bs sportscenter and espn has turned into to. It's no longer ESPN it's turned into E!SPN.

 

[huskymedic]

This sounds good for CT...

>>In total, fewer than 10 people in Charlotte are being laid off. The SEC network operations, as well as an events division, will remain in Charlotte. ESPN employs about 200 people locally.<<

 

[UCfor3]

They lost me when they turned the 6pm Sportscenter into essentially an hour of talk radio. I get home from work and I want to watch the sports news from the day not two people arguing over nonsense for an hour. Anchors used to report the news and if we needed an opinion on a topic they would throw it to a so called expert on that topic. Now it's the anchors who are tv personalities offering their own opinions in the form of a self created argument. Breaking down an nba press conference or a white house visit six different ways from every angle for 20 minutes is just brutal tv and not reporting sports news.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

FOX Sports has been raiding ESPN of all their high profile talent anyway.
Cowherd, Bayless, Broussard. I don't even watch ESPN anymore, FOX is much more entertaining.

I don't understand why ESPN is promoting Michael Smith and Jemele Hill to much bigger roles, they're okay, but just meh. Those two don't necessarily make me want to tune in and watch. Stephen A. is one of the few remaining entertaining personalities on that network.

The ESPN FC crew is really underrated if you're into world soccer, however. Very entertaining.

 

[Jerry1714]

FOX Sports has been raiding ESPN of all their high profile talent anyway.
Cowherd, Bayless, Broussard. I don't even watch ESPN anymore, FOX is much more entertaining.

I don't understand why ESPN is promoting Michael Smith and Jemele Hill to much bigger roles, they're okay, but just meh. Those two don't necessarily make me want to tune in and watch. Stephen A. is one of the few remaining entertaining personalities on that network.

The ESPN FC crew is really underrated if you're into world soccer, however. Very entertaining.

Wow so you enjoy Cowherd, Bayless, Broussard, and Stephen A. Smith? Really? Like this is not a joke that went over my head?

You actually enjoy listening to these people? Like for real?

I had to have missed the joke, right?

 

[JSM1970]

Fox Sports is awful

The Bayless show is a disaster

The irony is ESPN does a lot with the MLS, which blows chunks while Millennials attend, yet when Millenials watch TV they want to watch real leagues like La Liga, Bundesliga and EPL

So while they'll spend $$ to watch a junk product like the MLS live they won't watch any of it outside of that. ESPN guessed wrong there.

FOX Sports has been raiding ESPN of all their high profile talent anyway.
Cowherd, Bayless, Broussard. I don't even watch ESPN anymore, FOX is much more entertaining.

I don't understand why ESPN is promoting Michael Smith and Jemele Hill to much bigger roles, they're okay, but just meh. Those two don't necessarily make me want to tune in and watch. Stephen A. is one of the few remaining entertaining personalities on that network.

The ESPN FC crew is really underrated if you're into world soccer, however. Very entertaining.

 

[CL82]

Is anyone else thinking this karma for funding the evisceration the best college basketball conference of all time?

 

[Walker11]

Can't stand Cowherd. On point here. This doesn't even mention the boatloads of money paid towards other organizations outside of the NBA and NFL.

“Years ago when I used to work at ESPN, they signed an NBA contract and ESPN was paying the NBA $400 million a year, and it was reported as I was driving to work that day they had signed the NBA for $1.4 billion.

I told my producers … ‘fellas, it’ll never be the same here.’ You can not pay four times for the house what you paid for the house last year. And I said this company will never be the same.

It was at that point I started looking, and this is not going to end today. They have really cost-prohibitive contracts, combined with cord-cutting.

I said this when they cut 850 people, I said it the next day, it’s awful, and it will happen annually for the next decade. You have to have contracts …

I’ll give you an example – at Fox we pay $1.1 billion for the NFL. You have the 1 o’clock window and the 4 o’clock window, wild card games, NFC Championship, and two of the next four Super Bowls. We make a lot of money on the NFL … ESPN pays $1.9 billion, gets a bunch of highlights, no Super Bowls, and one increasingly irrelevant Monday Night Football game.

We have a great NFL contract, they have a really marginalized NFL contract. These firings are awful. It makes me sick.

The good news is – most of the people let go are really talented, but this is all about business, and when you have overpaid for products, sometimes six and seven hundred million more than you had to pay, certainly with the NBA that’s the case, they just pay way too much for it. This is the result, it’s awful, and I think unfortunately this was the first of a 10-year deal with the NBA and I just feel awful – there’s are a lot of good people.

 

[UCweCONN]

Explain this to me. Some talented people are losing their jobs, yet that no-talent, washed-up, played-out hack Chris Berman still has a job??? I was hoping to hear, "Back, back, back, back, back, back....Chris Berman's outta here!!!"

 

[methodology]

Explain this to me. Some talented people are losing their jobs, yet that no-talent, washed-up, played-out hack Chris Berman still has a job??? I was hoping to hear, "Back, back, back, back, back, back....Chris Berman's outta here!!!"

Pretty sure Berman is retiring and if not he probably has something in his contract to keep him around in some capacity seeing he's been there since the beginning

 

[UCweCONN]

Pretty sure Berman is retiring....he's been there since the beginning

Much like his act.....

 

[auror]

Sucks for those losing their jobs but espn did this to themselves. I remember back in the 90s everyone literally would get up early to watch sportscenter before going to work or school. They played highlights of every game rather than only large market teams. It was highlights not a sports gossip show. I haven't watched anything but live sporting events on espn in over 10 years. I could care less about pop culture and all the bs sportscenter and espn has turned into to. It's no longer ESPN it's turned into E!SPN.

It's weird that when you stopped watching ESPN sports highlights syncs up to the widespread use of internet enabled smartphones and broadband internet saturation.

 

[Walker11]

It's weird that when you stopped watching ESPN sports highlights syncs up to the widespread use of internet enabled smartphones and broadband internet saturation.

This is true but I would absolutely watch a show that was 100% highlights like the old days. The market isn't as big but it hasn't disappeared. I could find all the individual highlight clips of games I want to watch on youtube (for the NBA at least) but the old-style Sports Center shows are the perfect background distraction.

I don't want to watch Michael Smith and Jemele Hill give their opinions about a handful of topics. Unfortunately, this is totally the way things are going. If you read Skipper's press release, they want to focus even more on personality driven Sports Center shows. Mike Greenberg is up next and I am sure he will find a way to leave folks underwhelmed while pocketing 5 mil. per year. All the while the best beat writer on the best and most interesting team in the fastest growing league gets s...canned over his 80k salary.

 

[Vowelguy]

This sounds good for CT...

They cut fewer than 10 people in Charlotte and the SEC network is still based there. Impact on CT is less than minimal.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Truth be told, I'd probably watch previous day's replays the following afternoon.

With so much social media and other distractions during live games watching a replay can actually be more relaxing. And yes, I get that anyone can record a game and watch it on their own time.

I'd guess that replays couldn't get worse ratings and definitely save money over producing afternoon shows with personalities and content no one cares about.

 

[Robertelamin]

They need to get back into bass fishing and lumberjack games

 

[UConn990411]

Number 1, I doubt she belittled UConn EVERY time. And number 2, not everything is about UConn, so just because she maybe didn't speak glowingly about us doesn't make her a bad reporter.

She definitely wasn't fair when it came to UConn, and fair is something reporters are supposed to be (or at least attempt to be).

 

[methodology]

It's weird that when you stopped watching ESPN sports highlights syncs up to the widespread use of internet enabled smartphones and broadband internet saturation.

No I stopped watching when they stopped showing highlights of every game. When my teams got cut from having a 30 second highlight clip I stopped watching has nothing to do with Internet and smartphone cause honestly I never watch highlights now I just look at box scores. If espn was back to how it was in the early-mid 90s I would watch it and have it on in the background all the time.

 

[4in16]

Did the cuts hit ESPN 8 "the OCHO" ?

 

[kobe]

The American's lead basketball color broadcaster was let go. Bodes well for the AAC.

 

[UC313]

When i was a kid i would rattle off baseball stats like it was my first name. Catch that same 30 min SC 3-4 times over. I want every game, a 4-5 player stat line and a trend or two. Thats it. Gimme the beef and only the beef.

And please shut SAS up. His voice could be attached to katy perry's puppies and id still want to punch them.

 

[Vowelguy]

When i was a kid i would rattle off baseball stats like it was my first name. Catch that same 30 min SC 3-4 times over. I want every game, a 4-5 player stat line and a trend or two. Thats it. Gimme the beef and only the beef.
.

Everyone who says they'd watch the old Sportscenter are likely the minority. I doubt ESPN said "hey, let's completely change our flagship show for no reason." I assume they saw ratings erosion, and had research showing that viewers' interest in a highlights show was waning.

 

[Mano]

Everyone who says they'd watch the old Sportscenter are likely the minority. I doubt ESPN said "hey, let's completely change our flagship show for no reason." I assume they saw ratings erosion, and had research showing that viewers' interest in a highlights show was waning.

Perhaps, but when you have four different channels and need to scale things back you'd think they could find an hour to put two guys on with just highlights and stats and next to none of those expensive talking heads that they're now shedding. I'd watch that, and I'd wager a whole heck of a lot of fantasy nerds from that supposedly burgeoning market would too.

 

[Deepster]

Slightly OT. What has espn really ever done for Bristol? Sure. They've stayed there when they didn't "have to" but I am sure they have the sweetest of sweetheart deals with real estate and taxes. The talent lives in Avon/Canton and moves out when they're done. Talent flies in and out otherwise. Bristol still has plenty of warts and really hasn't benefitted socially from having a company of that magnitude headquartered there. and that doesn't include the lack of impact they've had helping the state of CT and city of Hartford.

 

[MadDogRevival]

Mike Greenberg is up next and I am sure . . . .

I'd rather eat my radio than listen to this guy more than 60 seconds. I have never heard a person work so desperately to be unoffensive and PC. It's painful to listen to. Seems like a swell guy, but I can't brook a man who has to couch every opinion in bubble wrapped, trite rhetorical crutches that function to round off any edginess. Yuck.

 

[Fishy]

The American's lead basketball color broadcaster was let go. Bodes well for the AAC.

Our contract renegotiation will worse than Custer's last act.

 

[8893]

The American's lead basketball color broadcaster was let go. Bodes well for the AAC.

Because he was so iconic and we all felt so connected to him?

Who was it again?

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't.

 

[Jaker]

Hopefully a bunch of Cuse communication grads are getting pink slips.

 

[JSM1970]

Bristol is a total dump

They get $$ they wouldn't otherwise and certainly some benefit of people working there and the references

Slightly OT. What has espn really ever done for Bristol? Sure. They've stayed there when they didn't "have to" but I am sure they have the sweetest of sweetheart deals with real estate and taxes. The talent lives in Avon/Canton and moves out when they're done. Talent flies in and out otherwise. Bristol still has plenty of warts and really hasn't benefitted socially from having a company of that magnitude headquartered there. and that doesn't include the lack of impact they've had helping the state of CT and city of Hartford.