OT - ESPN Layoffs

[Dove]

 

[Kembacity]

Good guy, but a legitimately terrible color commentator.

from a January game this year:

See when I heard Elmore got the axe he was one I was actually affected by, and then I realized that often times this year during games he called I found myself shouting "NO you moron, that's clearly not a good foul call" or something along those lines at the TV while Elmore went on and on about something he was wrong about.

Maybe those wrong takes finally caught up with him, I'd also imagine he comes with a hefty price tag having been there for so long. I'm assuming he frequently called our games because he had to be one of the older guys and traveling in state to a UConn home game is something he would do.

 

[huskyinfl]

They could have televised this like a bizzaro draft where the talent sweats it out or like the bachelor for a rose, since all these ESPN people love the bachelor.

Most of these people will be better off without ESPN and get back to real writing and reporting. Those guys have all the fun vol 2 coming soon.

 

[Northbound]

Kind of ironic that the company that touts itself internally as a technology company is going to get gelded by that very same technology.

Iger just got extended until 2019 and I'm betting on top of his agenda is "fixing" ESPN and that is likely to mean doing something with the leadership at ESPN. Talk about hot seats - John Skipper - welcome to the sauna.

 

[the Q]

Jemelle Hill, Sarah Spain and Kate Fagan should be canned, brutal

No idea how they stay but actual talents like Jayson Stark and Len Elmore and a few others who were quite good get let go.

How cheap most those 3 be to last when their talent level isn't on the same planet as many of those axed today?

 

[Showballot]

There's just so many other ways to absorb content and view highlights these days. ESPN pivoted and became more "trendy" and "gossipy" but ultimately victims of cord cutting, leagues taking control of its own content, technology, and disney owners.

 

[UConnJim]

O'Neil never impressed me.

ESPN is falling off a cliff. They're losing six-figure subscriptions a month and ratings are tumbling.

Which is, of course, perfect timing for UConn. The conference realignment money fire hose is now off and the American will walk into a buzz saw the next time the contract is negotiated.

It is unfortunate for the American, but if UConn can get back some of it's media rights, they will see improved revenues. I continue to believe that if UConn was able to negotiate it's own media deal, revenues would be substantially higher than they are today, even being in the AAC.

ESPN's distribution business model is falling off a cliff, not consumers' interest in live sports. ESPN can't continue to increase price and their subscriber base is falling so they have to cut costs. The dilemma for ESPN is if they lose attractive content, their value proposition will diminish. ESPN is in a financial bind which will allow competitors and new entrants to grab attractive media rights from ESPN. Who thought we would see NFL games on Twitter and Amazon? Prices will go up for attractive rights and go down for unattractive rights.

 

[Jerry1714]

I agree Dilfer was awful and angry.

Weird I thought that would be right up your alley.

 

[gtcam]

I really hate to see anyone lose their job - my heart goes out to those who did
BUT ESPN has turned into a real crap show - they get all those tax cuts and perks that the idiot Malloy gave them and they crap on UConn more than any other program in the country
A part of me wants them to fail but then that would mean more lost jobs - not a good thing

 

[polycom]

So ESPN went the way of being of the culture notice how no one who was of the culture was laid off. The culture is two things; be a bold personality in the major sports. As a minority millennial I have no idea how older people who are white watch ESPN, I can appreciate not everyone cares what Lil Wayne has to say about football.

 

[NJHusky]

Ironic that the people responsible for overpaying for content, morphing it into something I barely watch and putting ESPN in this position still have jobs

 

[FlakeyFoont]

If ESPN were smart they'd get rid of every single football and basketball sideline reporter. They'd save a ton of money and, in fact, I'm not sure anyone would notice or care. Then again, maybe the coaches walking to the locker rooms at halftime might miss the idiotic, insipid questions and, I have to admit, the first thousand times that I heard one of them say, "We need to cut down on the mistakes and take better care of the ball", it was mildly interesting. But that was years ago.

 

[UConnfan8]

Dana O'Neil and Danny Kannell both were awful sports reporters

 

[Dove]

This sounds good for CT...

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

This sounds good for CT...

and awful for those who worked at ESPNU in Charlotte

 

[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