ESPN Has Lost 7 Million Subscribers The Past Two Years

Started by Stephane Dumas, November 30, 2015, 10:38:23 AM

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Rothman

Quote from: bing101 on December 08, 2016, 12:06:33 PM
Quote from: english si on December 07, 2016, 06:29:05 PM
Quote from: bing101 on November 22, 2016, 02:45:22 PMWell we also have youtube if you want to see sporting events that ESPN does not air such as these following games.
was this meant to be a joke set of sports no one cares about?


:p


No if we really hate these pundits so much on ESPN why not watch some games or leagues that ESPN does not cover.

Yeah, that jump in the video's pretty darned amazing.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.


english si

#51
Quote from: bing101 on December 08, 2016, 12:06:33 PMNo if we really hate these pundits so much on ESPN why not watch some games or leagues that ESPN does not cover.
Do ESPN really show almost every possible sport that you have to go to netball and bowling? Not that there's anything wrong with these sports, just that they aren't ones Americans like to watch (hence the ':P'). That you picked sports that would basically be on 'the Ocho'* suggested that you were joking, though I wasn't sure.

*at least in N America - as I pointed out the bowls would have aired on bog standard UK TV (I think I saw an earlier round of a lesser contest once - one team were literally old women - though, to be fair, retirees are the majority of people who play the sport). Plus the other sports, save the bowling, would have been televised somewhere in Europe.


bing101


Desert Man

ESPN on the radio is a ratings disaster and money loser, like on the AM and FM dials, when more listeners go to the internet and satellite subscription to hear sports talk or live games. Locally, in English is 103.9 FM and in spanish 1330 AM from L.A., and from Tijuana but in English 1500 AM (they must air the Mexican national anthem at Midnight). Would it be cool if ESPN or FOX News or WGN goes over-the-air, like the closing XETV 6 (audio can be on 87.7 FM). But the radio and TV industries are so last century, millennia or age. ESPN is in danger of folding, like ABC-owned Radio Disney (710 or 1110 AM in my area), and the odd but cool Radio MTV used to be on terrestrial radio in the 2000s.   
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.


bing101


Hot Rod Hootenanny

Published on Sunday...
http://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/03/05/espn-sunday-nfl-countdown-replacement-chris-berman-sam-ponder
Quote
1. During my career at Sports Illustrated I've seen many layoffs at our company. There are few things more gutting and demoralizing to see great people leave your organization. I report the following joylessly:

SI has learned that ESPN will have significant cost-cutting over the next four months on its talent side (people in front of the camera or audio/digital screen). Multiple sources said ESPN has been tasked with paring tens of millions of staff salary from its payroll, including staffers many viewers and readers will recognize. Those with contracts coming up would be particularly vulnerable, sources said. The company is also expected to buyout some existing contracts, which is something rare for ESPN historically beyond a few NFL talents. The cuts are expected to be completed by June. Sources within ESPN say that there is no set list of names yet and stressed that behind-the-scenes people will likely (key word) not be impacted by these cuts.

Last month Reuters reported Disney had a lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, hurt by the drop in advertising revenue at ESPN. In addition, ESPN continues to shed subscribers at an enhanced rate, down to 88.4 million households in Dec. 2016. That number was 100.002 million in Feb. 2011.

Though it remains one of the great destination jobs in the sports media and hiring will continue, ESPN has experienced significant layoffs over the last two years. In Oct. 2015 the company laid off roughly 300 employees, many who had spent their entire professional careers at ESPN. Sports Business Daily media writer John Ourand, in this piece on those layoffs, examined the skyrocketing rights fees and deep distribution cuts that led to those layoffs.

On Sunday when contacted by SI.com, an ESPN spokesperson provided the following statement: "We have long been about serving fans and innovating to create the best content for them. Today's fans consume content in many different ways and we are in a continuous process of adapting to change and improving what we do. Inevitably that has consequences for how we utilize our talent. We are confident that ESPN will continue to have a roster of talent that is unequaled in sports."
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

bing101


Takumi

Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

jp the roadgeek

Interstates I've clinched: 97, 290 (MA), 291 (CT), 291 (MA), 293, 295 (DE-NJ-PA), 295 (RI-MA), 384, 391, 395 (CT-MA), 395 (MD), 495 (DE), 610 (LA), 684, 691, 695 (MD), 695 (NY), 795 (MD)

formulanone

Quote from: jp the roadgeek on April 26, 2017, 07:42:02 PM
Live feed: http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091

Sadly, Doctor Jerry Punch was one of the layoffs after 30 years.

You're not going to find many PhDs with articulation and sporting credentials.

Takumi

Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

74/171FAN

For me, the biggest loss is Jayson Stark.  He truly helped me appreciate the game with his consistently long columns about all of the abnormal things that happen in baseball every night.
I am now a PennDOT employee.  My opinions/views do not necessarily reflect the opinions/views of PennDOT.

Takumi

Agreed. They should have kept him and dropped Keith Law.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

SP Cook

Jerry Punch has an MD, not a PhD.  He let his medical license expire in the 90s as he rode the NASCAR wave.

Anyway, if you look at the list, ESPN's plan going forward is pretty clear. 

First, how did ESPN get in the shape it is in?  Well, yes, it is all due to streaming and the internet and all of that, yes.  But the reason ESPN is so expensive and thus people are wanting to "cord cut" and get free of it is its massive over-bids for sports contracts.  Particularly the NBA. 

The NBA cashed in at just the right time, with the other 3 networks launching sports channels and ESPN's management just panicked.  $24 BILLION for a sport that just is not that popular.  If you look at its ratings and do the standard normalizations to make it an apples to apples comparison with sports broadcast regionally, such as most baseball, it just massively over-bid.  It thought that the old system of bundled cable would continue and "everybody" would pay up. 

It bid so much that it made going to unbundled alternatives reasonable for many people. 

So ESPN fired 100 of the about 1000 "talent" positions, as well as closed most of its second base of operations in Charlotte (ESPNU was run from there).  Who did it fire. 

The people that don't cover the NBA.  ESPN either realizes it is stuck with the NBA until 2023 or is do dumb that it still thinks it made a good deal, but either way it is doubling down on it.  The hip-hop SC6 that it replaced Sports Center with is the future at ESPN.  Lifestyles, rap music, soap opera like coverage of NBA players lives,. 

ESPN going forward is a place for live games only.  There will be nothing for the 98% who do not watch the NBA regular season before game time.

formulanone

#66
Quote from: SP Cook on April 27, 2017, 09:49:57 AM
Jerry Punch has an MD, not a PhD.  He let his medical license expire in the 90s as he rode the NASCAR wave.

Yeah, that's it...Thinking of the wrong doctorate.

I think we're at the point where paying billions for any sport is going to be a loss (or a loss-leader) to a network. And that's when the sports bubble really bursts; when the leagues or sporting bodies are going to have to reduce their contractual prices well before the handshake. Either that, or the teams go to their own pricing models and distribution.

SportsCenter has been nearly unwatchable over the past 10 years or so; exceptions on Sundays or Mondays when there was enough action that they didn't rely on so much filler. Even then, I can largely do without it...I have things to do on Monday mornings, and places to be. Once they had to remind their viewers before each commercial break that they're in their Los Angeles studio (as if the plugs for the Budweiser Top 10 Plays brought to you by Chevy Trucks and Progressive Insurance wasn't enough), it seemed that I'd just outgrown that sort of bullshit. Never mind the Twitter feuds, pointless chatter about celebrities, and many hollow interviews that are largely indistinguishable from one team/coach/player to the next.

slorydn1

I don't think I've watched 50 total hours of programming on ESPN since their final NASCAR broadcast from Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2014. My work schedule and advancing age have made it almost impossible to watch an entire Monday Night Football broadcast.

When Dan Patrick left the network the final reason for me to watch SportsCenter left with him. By then I was consuming all of my stats/scores/highlights in other media anyway.

Now that Chris Bermann is gone I see no reason to watch any of their NFL related programming except the game itself, anyway. I don't follow basketball any more, todays players would be spending most of their time in the emergency room if they had to play against the players of the 80's and early 90's (and with that time period's rules too).

I'll watch the Indy 500 Memorial day weekend as it is my tradition to watch all 3 races (F1's Monaco, the Indy 500, and NASCAR's Coke 600) back to back so that'll add 3 more hours to my ESPN total since 2014-still not sure I'll hit 50 hours,lol.
Please Note: All posts represent my personal opinions and do not represent those of any governmental agency, non-governmental agency, quasi-governmental agency or wanna be governmental agency

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Max Rockatansky

Quote from: slorydn1 on May 13, 2017, 05:17:30 AM
I don't think I've watched 50 total hours of programming on ESPN since their final NASCAR broadcast from Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2014. My work schedule and advancing age have made it almost impossible to watch an entire Monday Night Football broadcast.

When Dan Patrick left the network the final reason for me to watch SportsCenter left with him. By then I was consuming all of my stats/scores/highlights in other media anyway.

Now that Chris Bermann is gone I see no reason to watch any of their NFL related programming except the game itself, anyway. I don't follow basketball any more, todays players would be spending most of their time in the emergency room if they had to play against the players of the 80's and early 90's (and with that time period's rules too).

I'll watch the Indy 500 Memorial day weekend as it is my tradition to watch all 3 races (F1's Monaco, the Indy 500, and NASCAR's Coke 600) back to back so that'll add 3 more hours to my ESPN total since 2014-still not sure I'll hit 50 hours,lol.

I still watch a half hour of Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN 2.  Really those guys are pretty much a throw back to how things used to be at ESPN and generally are infinitely way more informative in that short time span in regards to what has been going on in sports than the "new millenial" version of Sports Center. 

Really not having copious amounts of racing on ESPN and even the NHL to a lesser extent really helped to hasten my declining interest in the network.  Fox Sports was the big thing when I last lived in Detroit for all the local sports stuff like the Red Wings and Tigers.

spooky

I actually watched SportsCenter yesterday morning for the first time in who knows when because I was hoping to see footage of the NASCAR race (and wreck) from Saturday night. (I have no idea about ESPN's current level of NASCAR coverage - I know in the past they have had extensive coverage when they had the races, to next to no coverage when they stopped broadcasting races.)

I did not see NASCAR footage, but I did see an extensive Derek Jeter ballwashing segment ahead of last night's number retirement ceremony. ESPN decided that the superstar is far more important than the sport a long time ago.


SP Cook

Quote from: bing101 on May 17, 2017, 10:04:16 PM

Update

Doubling down on the NBA. 

Almost all of the ESPN daytime "talent" have the same background.  East coast or other urban centers.  Upper middle class or upper class background.  Graduates of elite colleges.  Left liberal to far left.

What you can expect from ESPN before 7 ET?  NBA, NBA, NBA, NBA, race, race, race, politics, politics, politics.  There is nothing there for most people, and, leaving out the NBA, MSNBC is a better choice for those who want that sort of thing.


bing101

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/5/31/espn-manipulates-tiger-woods-photo


Update ESPN is in hot water for photoshopping Tiger Woods Police mug shot.


QuoteWhen Tiger Woods was arrested on Memorial Day for DUI, the photo of Woods' mugshot was plastered online and all over TV stations coast to coast.But, ESPN, who is tight with Tiger decided they would give the 14 time major winner a bit of a haircut before presenting his photo to their viewers. Check out how EPSN took what was a newsworthy photo and photoshopped it to make the golfer look better.                    




http://nypost.com/2017/05/30/espn-keeps-hemorrhaging-subscribers/


Plus an update on ESPN's Downturn.

         

NWI_Irish96

Quote from: slorydn1 on May 13, 2017, 05:17:30 AM
I don't think I've watched 50 total hours of programming on ESPN since their final NASCAR broadcast from Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2014. My work schedule and advancing age have made it almost impossible to watch an entire Monday Night Football broadcast.

When Dan Patrick left the network the final reason for me to watch SportsCenter left with him. By then I was consuming all of my stats/scores/highlights in other media anyway.

Now that Chris Bermann is gone I see no reason to watch any of their NFL related programming except the game itself, anyway. I don't follow basketball any more, todays players would be spending most of their time in the emergency room if they had to play against the players of the 80's and early 90's (and with that time period's rules too).

I'll watch the Indy 500 Memorial day weekend as it is my tradition to watch all 3 races (F1's Monaco, the Indy 500, and NASCAR's Coke 600) back to back so that'll add 3 more hours to my ESPN total since 2014-still not sure I'll hit 50 hours,lol.

The Indy 500 was on ABC not ESPN, so you didn't have to add to your total.

As for Berman, he's one of the biggest reasons I don't watch ESPN.  Back when ESPN broadcast baseball Division Series games, ESPN put him on the 2005 Boston-Chicago series, knowing full well that he's a huge Red Sox fan and fully unable to suppress that.  I'm so glad the series was a sweep, because I was so sick of him I was going to have to resort to radio for games 4 and 5, and I haven't watched a single minute of ESPN that he's been on since then.

Mike Golic could have been more professional and unbiased calling a game involving his own kids playing for his alma mater than Berman was in that series. 
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jp the roadgeek

Quote from: cabiness42 on May 31, 2017, 06:33:19 PM
Quote from: slorydn1 on May 13, 2017, 05:17:30 AM
I don't think I've watched 50 total hours of programming on ESPN since their final NASCAR broadcast from Homestead-Miami Speedway in November of 2014. My work schedule and advancing age have made it almost impossible to watch an entire Monday Night Football broadcast.

When Dan Patrick left the network the final reason for me to watch SportsCenter left with him. By then I was consuming all of my stats/scores/highlights in other media anyway.

Now that Chris Bermann is gone I see no reason to watch any of their NFL related programming except the game itself, anyway. I don't follow basketball any more, todays players would be spending most of their time in the emergency room if they had to play against the players of the 80's and early 90's (and with that time period's rules too).

I'll watch the Indy 500 Memorial day weekend as it is my tradition to watch all 3 races (F1's Monaco, the Indy 500, and NASCAR's Coke 600) back to back so that'll add 3 more hours to my ESPN total since 2014-still not sure I'll hit 50 hours,lol.

The Indy 500 was on ABC not ESPN, so you didn't have to add to your total.

As for Berman, he's one of the biggest reasons I don't watch ESPN.  Back when ESPN broadcast baseball Division Series games, ESPN put him on the 2005 Boston-Chicago series, knowing full well that he's a huge Red Sox fan and fully unable to suppress that.  I'm so glad the series was a sweep, because I was so sick of him I was going to have to resort to radio for games 4 and 5, and I haven't watched a single minute of ESPN that he's been on since then.

Mike Golic could have been more professional and unbiased calling a game involving his own kids playing for his alma mater than Berman was in that series.

Berman is not a Sox fan; he's a San Francisco Giants fan, and makes no bones about being a Buffalo Bills fan.  I know Ravech is a Sox fan, and Buster Olney usually has a Yankee leaning because he covered them before coming to ESPN.

Can't believe ESPN fired John Clayton.  Great NFL source gone.  But Dr. Jerry, who was fired, did cover Indy.
Interstates I've clinched: 97, 290 (MA), 291 (CT), 291 (MA), 293, 295 (DE-NJ-PA), 295 (RI-MA), 384, 391, 395 (CT-MA), 395 (MD), 495 (DE), 610 (LA), 684, 691, 695 (MD), 695 (NY), 795 (MD)



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