ESPN Has Lost 7 Million Subscribers The Past Two Years

[SP Cook]

IMHO, Disney is trying to get in a position to do some kind of split.  Either sell off ESPN, or the whole TV division (not only is ESPN sinking, the Disney branded channels, Freeform, and OTA ABC are doing even worse).  As a lover of the Disney parks (have we ever had a thread on the private roads and unique signage at WDW? ) I hope that the core intelectual assets and the parks end up in the same company.  No matter how well intensioned, disptues between licensees arrise over time.

I had some extra time this morning, so I turned on the, soon to end, Mike and Mike show.  Generally ESPN gets a little better as football starts.  In late August, the day of the last NFL exhibition and the first serious college football games, with baseball in full swing, they did 25 minutes on an NBA trade, then went on to race and politics.  It is hopeless.

[bing101]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ja27l4Y_A8

If only we had more announcers like Chris Schenkel again. Dang sports TV just got replaced by pundits who should have went to CNN, Fox News or MSNBC.

[Stephane Dumas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ja27l4Y_A8

If only we had more announcers like Chris Schenkel again. Dang sports TV just got replaced by pundits who should have went to CNN, Fox News or MSNBC.

Or going back in time with Howard Cosell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMZLORnCc2g

Or guys like Dick Irwin Jr., Danny Gallivan, Foster Hewitt who described hockey games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8lsMgduOu4

[SP Cook]

Two things this week:

Sinclair launched its Stadium TV channel, which you can get for free on TV if you live in the 40% or so it owns a station, or free on the internet for everybody.  It has some minor sports, and is looking for more and it has a sports center like program, without the race and politics.

Fox Sports One launched its clone of Mike And Mike, running 6:30 - 9:30 with Cris Carter adn Nick Wright, and many of the former ESPN employees, talking mostly NFL.  It is WAY better.

[bing101]

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/mobile/index/article/id/107186

Update Sinclair responds to having a 24/7 sports channel called Stadium to go after Fox Sports, NBC Sports and ESPN.

Post Merge: September 15, 2017, 11:37:43 PM

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/espn-jemele-hill-trumo-white-supremacist-1202556517/

Jemele Hill one of ESPN's pundits is suspended for calling Trump a White Supremacist. Wow!!

Post Merge: September 15, 2017, 11:37:42 PM

https://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-hits-espn-on-twitter-demands-apology-after-white-supremacist-comments/

Here is an update President Trump goes after ESPN.

Post Merge: September 15, 2017, 11:37:39 PM

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/09/15/espn-president-john-skipper-employee-memo-not-a-political-organization/672083001/

Once again John Skipper the President of ESPN has to explain the latest scandal here between one of its pundits and Trump.


http://www.tmz.com/2017/09/16/michelle-beadle-jemele-hill-donald-trump-apology-white-supremacist/


The Feud Continues.


Post Merge: September 16, 2017, 02:46:25 PM
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-slams-espn-latest-sign-141203634.html

Yes this is a sign that ESPN or Disney the owners of ESPN cannot separate themselves from politics as much as they want to though.
Post Merge: September 17, 2017, 08:43:08 PM
https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/09/17/jemele-hill-tweets-espn-discipline

Update at this point the article speculates how ESPN should handle the Hill vs Trump issue.

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/17/551636211/espn-flap-shows-people-cant-even-agree-on-what-theyre-arguing-over-in-trump-era

Wow now yes race is at play at ESPN and now this has blown up into politics.
Post Merge: September 18, 2017, 07:23:10 PM

Makes perfect sense, since ESPN has borrowed the cable news model of having some talking heads blather about a "controversial" issue in sports for short, meaningless periods of time.  After a few talking points where no useful information is shared, it's on to the next subject.  Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Commercial.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/media/john-skipper-espn-staff-memo/index.html


Yes but now the president of ESPN has to go out and explain to the public that the sports network is not a political organization. This is right after one of the ESPN pundits did a rant against Donald Trump specifically and Trump's Cabinet went after ESPN and the supervisors of Jemele Hill. Its so bad that Disney wished they made one of the ESPN cable channels into a competitor of Fox News.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/don-lemon-donald-trump-espn-apology_us_59bf493de4b0edff971d2e39


http://www.espn.com/blog/ombudsman/post/_/id/871/espn-awash-in-rising-political-tide-2





Post Merge: September 19, 2017, 06:55:48 PM
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cable-viewers-could-lose-espn-abc-another-contract-dispute-n802301

Update Altice has a cable contract dispute with Disney the owners of ABC and ESPN. This affects the New York area.
Post Merge: September 19, 2017, 06:55:46 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-fight-over-jemele-hills-tweets-wont-go-away-its-about-truth-and-race-in-the-trump-era/2017/09/19/608238d8-9d1c-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.b31ac376248e


And the fiasco continues on ESPN.

[Stephane Dumas]

And the fiasco continues on ESPN.

Looks like that meme would fit ESPN like a glove.
via Imgflip Meme Generator

[bing101]

And the fiasco continues on ESPN.

Looks like that meme would fit ESPN like a glove.
via Imgflip Meme Generator

I sometimes wonder if Disney ever thought about shutting down the lesser rated or subscribed ESPN channels and consolidate. Also convert one of the ESPN channels into a Fox News or Alex Jones type network where pundits will get away with their political rants. I'm starting to think this is less about Jemele Hill and more about people above her who do allow these rants to happen. I wonder if Disney ever intended to make Jemele Hill into a Tomi Lahren type pundit here but that attracts anti-Trump audiences. Or has any cable network like CNN or MSNBC ever consider having her as their pundit in the contracts.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/espns-white-supremacist-trump-uproar-network-has-no-good-options-1041109

[SP Cook]

Hill's comments simply underline that she has been educated far beyond their intelligence.  Which is typical of ESPN's younger talking heads.  Upper middle class to upper class background, insular life background, elite private or AAU colleges, never worked a day in their lives.   

The issue, of course, is WHY?  Why comment on politics?  Why cover the NBA in the summer and fall and in the meaningless fluff manner it does?  Why pay people millions of dollars to argue sports in the daytime on weekdays when most sports fans are at work and why pay announcers millions of dollars when virtuall no one listens or does not listen to a particular game based on who is calling it. 

The answer, sadly, for Disney, is "because us can".  It long ago lost touch with most people.

[bing101]

Hill's comments simply underline that she has been educated far beyond their intelligence.  Which is typical of ESPN's younger talking heads.  Upper middle class to upper class background, insular life background, elite private or AAU colleges, never worked a day in their lives.   

The issue, of course, is WHY?  Why comment on politics?  Why cover the NBA in the summer and fall and in the meaningless fluff manner it does?  Why pay people millions of dollars to argue sports in the daytime on weekdays when most sports fans are at work and why pay announcers millions of dollars when virtuall no one listens or does not listen to a particular game based on who is calling it. 

The answer, sadly, for Disney, is "because us can".  It long ago lost touch with most people.

Well but somehow ESPN has to respond to immediate issues like how to go after Fox Sports Net National and local editions plus NBC sports net National and Local editions. But in the case of NBC and Fox they keep the politics and sports in different divisions though. Disney does not have a separate political talk division though and its starting to reflect on how recent ESPN political scandals are playing out from the Robert Lee Scandal to the Jemele Hill/Trump feud and how ESPN leadership has to explain every controversy to both the Disney CEO and Board to non ESPN Viewers. I wish its as easy as saying change ESPN Leadership though but then again it comes down to how the Disney CEO and Board handles ESPN and its political issues and what's their next move.

[bing101]

https://www.axios.com/sports-are-becoming-too-expensive-for-tv-networks-2487213761.html


Update Sports on TV are becoming too expensive on the networks.
Post Merge: September 26, 2017, 11:29:02 PM
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/352206-espn-anchor-who-called-trump-a-white-supremacist-nascar-bans-anthem-protests

Update a new Jemele Hill Fiasco is at play here. NASCAR and Her. This is in the middle of the NBA players and NFL staff going after Trump.

Well hey maybe its time for Hill to go to MSNBC or CNN as a pundit there. Well at this point ESPN is running the Roger Ailes playbook for different reasons.

[formulanone]

Geez, you're an ESPN-bot.

In any case, NASCAR did an about-face and vaguely said they aren't going to sanction drivers no matter what flag* they do or not stand at attention towards.


* except for passing under yellow.

[bing101]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/24/media/espn-president-trump-national-anthem/index.html


http://thebiglead.com/2017/09/25/how-often-do-espn-and-fs1-really-talk-about-politics-an-investigation/




https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/why-espn-is-more-political-than-before/540231/


Honestly I like to know what is going on here with Sports/talk shows specifically.

[Max Rockatansky]

Really Mike and Mike is the only thing I really ever watch on ESPN nowadays aside from Game Broadcasts.  It just seems like the fluff programming started all the way back when First Take was called "Cold Pizza."  Really I just miss the days where I could watch some weird second tier sport or even an NHL game.  With FS1 that had almost all the broadcast rights to all the Red Wings, Pistons, and Tigers games at one point in Detroit, that was some good nighttime viewing/background noise.  Really I rather just read the box scores nowadays rather than have to sit through pundits and commentators.  It doesn't matter to me what the topic is, if it isn't straight reporting about sports events it doesn't really capture my interest.

[SP Cook]

Even M&M is unwatchable.  It is the last week of baseball season, deep into football, with a MAJOR FBI raid on Louisville and other corrupt basketball programs, the lead today?  NBA. 

It is all ESPN cares about.  That and politics. 

[bing101]

Really Mike and Mike is the only thing I really ever watch on ESPN nowadays aside from Game Broadcasts.  It just seems like the fluff programming started all the way back when First Take was called "Cold Pizza."  Really I just miss the days where I could watch some weird second tier sport or even an NHL game.  With FS1 that had almost all the broadcast rights to all the Red Wings, Pistons, and Tigers games at one point in Detroit, that was some good nighttime viewing/background noise.  Really I rather just read the box scores nowadays rather than have to sit through pundits and commentators.  It doesn't matter to me what the topic is, if it isn't straight reporting about sports events it doesn't really capture my interest.

Well I watch some 30 on 30 films on ESPN and Golden State Warriors games that happen to land on ESPN and in some cases on ABC. That's the only time im actually watching ESPN. This pundit stuff im still trying to understand how did it end up that way to the point that people wonder if Roger Ailes or Alex Jones hijacked the network via the Directors seat.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-disney-espn-altice-optimum-20170928-story.html

Another note Altice is in a dispute with Disney and ESPN is one of the issues here.

[Takumi]

ESPN gets F1 broadcast rights starting next year. Not sure how I feel about this...
http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a12778328/formula-1-espn-broadcasting-rights/

[SP Cook]

I'm surprised by that, as I doubt very many people at ESPN could tell an Indy car from a F1 car or know who Lewis Hamilton was if he walked by their desk.

[ET21]

ESPN gets F1 broadcast rights starting next year. Not sure how I feel about this...
http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a12778328/formula-1-espn-broadcasting-rights/

I miss the GT circuit racing on ESPN3

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

ESPN gets F1 broadcast rights starting next year. Not sure how I feel about this...
http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a12778328/formula-1-espn-broadcasting-rights/

Considering that F1 is "owned" by Liberty Media, and they are American based, I don't think we should be surprised that they went with a network that is still (with minus 7+ million subscribers) the largest sports network in the U.S.
The two questions that F1 should have for ESPN, going forth, is how committed will ESPN be towards F1, and will the money (which wasn't mentioned in the R&T link) be worth it, on either side (Did ESPN pay too much, or did F1 take too little?)
Time will tell.

[nexus73]

There's three kinds of racing in my book.  Figure-8, Demo Derby and Cannonball!  Put those on the air (they were back in the Sixties other than Cannonball) and I'd watch them.  If I was younger I'd drive in them!

Rick

[bing101]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jemele-hill-suspended-espn/


Update ESPN is in a new scandal with Jemele Hill over a rant involving the Dallas Cowboys.


http://nypost.com/2017/10/22/jemele-hill-i-deserved-a-suspension/


Here is an update
Post Merge: October 26, 2017, 11:07:21 AM
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/espn-cancel-barstool-van-talk-1202596760/


ESPN is now in a new issue over one of their talk shows called "Barstool Van Talk" Damn!

[formulanone]

scandal

[Roadgeekteen]

espn's hot takes are stupid.

[bing101]

http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports/news/espn-layoffs-latest-news-rumors-firings-mike-greenberg-golic-scott-van-pelt-svp-jemele-hill/1js74yxvu7l0wz8g26kdwl7nd

Here is an update at ESPN.

[jp the roadgeek]

The way things are going, looks like Greeny jumped ship at the wrong time, while Golic is safely on board, as the morning show will still garner ratings nationwide.  The only things I tend to watch on ESPN now are live games, late night (after 11:00) SportsCenter; the talent used in these shows, including Van Pelt, are usually pretty tolerable and stick to sports and leave the hot takes and politics out of things.  The Around the Horn/PTI block, unless it gets really deep into political things, is usually watchable.   But if I'm home during the day, the Dan Patrick show on NBC Sports Network is a thousand times more enjoyable than the "Hot Take" shows of ESPN and FS1.