This is a good article detailing ESPN's significant problems. They are losing an average of 10,000 subscribers a day.

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn- ... ent-030617

ESPN is still great at college sports, 30 for 30, and "authentic" discussion shows. They need to concentrate on those.

They really did get dominated by the Big Ten though. I think people underestimate just how badly they were hurt by not playing nice with them and then the BTN showing up while the Big Ten still took them for huge money.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

There are only a few things in the universe that I really truly hate, and ESPN is one of them. I know, totally irrational, but it is what it is.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

He does college football for FS1, so yes he is still affiliated with them. And no, he's definitely not better than other milquetoast morning shows since he's actively awful.

ESPN has been covering the more "personal side" of sports for nearly 25 years now. It probably all started during the OJ Simpson circus and it continues today. To blame their current decline on "political" coverage is silly.

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Who's More Now

nothing to do was wrong but thats hardly his main gig. he is so much better than any other morning show its not even close. that said, he's still not great. i find my mornings full of listening to local newstalk.

You sure it wasn't because of ESPN's liberal agenda villainizing a Duke player who repeatedly trips, kicks and elbows people?

MANY loved Duke and their players before this swerve left!!!

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Le Batard had a segment about this today and said the exact same thing.

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Not a mult.

I think it is more of the aging, changing times. We old guys don't like the young, new guys on the network, young folks don't like the old farts. I still choose M/M in the Morning over Mully/Handley, but have no use for the Golic on before M/M. And the kids don't listen to any radio and watch all their highlights on Twitter, etc. IF I had the answer, I'd be rich!

I think that simplest (and most measurable) explanation is true here: people are cutting cords. I'm one of them. The data from the outkick the coverage article indicates this as well. On a more critical note, as we all know, ESPN purchasing the rights to all these games/leagues or whatever has totally destroyed the wall between their sports broadcasts and sports coverage. It's turned the latter, with few exceptions, into extended commercials for the broadcast side. It's laughable.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

A lot of things are conspiring to bring ESPN down, but their liberal sportswriter political swerve hasn't done them any favors. There is something condescending and snide about the tone of sportscasters who dip their toes in that pool. This board should be pretty aware of this.

lol you think Le Batard is just going to say "hey you know what? part of this is my fault I've alienated listeners"? Hahaha

For one, they are so trapped in the media bubble that they still (even after the election!) think their political takes represent the national consensus and that it pays off long term pandering to the urban-liberal bourgeois because you'll pull in more listeners than you alienate. This is categorically false but, like any other industry, these people are influenced by praise/scorn from their colleagues. Especially when so much of media is just aggregating stories they get caught in a feedback loop of publicly heaping praise on each other's "emotional, brilliant piece" on whatever is the identity politics topic du jour.

They are also a cable network and who the fuck still has cable? That's the bigger issue, but it doesn't help their forays into different types of media when they actively piss off people by telling them the guy they voted for is literally Hitler and they are literally Nazi's.

There is no significant population tuning out of the TV station because Le Batard and Jones are SJWish on the radio. In fact they're pretty damn muzzled from going in that direction across the TV shows they appear on.

Can't speak for everyone, but we are dropping ESPN due to the vulgar nature of its commentary. A couple comments about butter being on a role
( which is a mortal sin) was enough for us.

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sooooooooooo, I wrote a thing...

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The really smart people at ESPN failed to foresee the cord cutting that is happening now in the US when they ridiculously over paid for the pro and college leagues they bought the rights to. The sports bubble is closer to bursting then ever.

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To be fair, I don't know many broadcasting companies that accurately anticipated the cord-cutting trend. I also think broadcasters leaning more "left-of-center" may alienate some consumers, but neither alone are the sole root cause to ESPN's decline.

The ESPN model has remained the same for as long as I can remember: Sportscenter is the flagship, everything else is an off-shoot of that, including their documentaries. What made Sportscenter so great was a combination of novelty and the development of characters in their rotation of hosts. The current talent on the show are lame and forgettable. Plus, every other sports recap show follows a similar model. It's boring now.

Unfortunately, Barstool Sports is more of the model key demographics pay attention to these days. Big Cat, PFT Commenter, Portnoy and others have massive online followings and absolutely zero restrictions on their content. That's what ESPN, Fox, and others have to compete against.

Live sports are the last line of defense against cord cutters. It's one of the few things people want to watch live. It's just a battle that will be slowly lost. I still have cable specifically because of live sports. The leagues would have gone somewhere else or done their own distribution. Where would ESPN be then?

They are just going to cut costs and make money while things change.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

This is very true, and it is also the last line for advertisers in broadcast tv. Even proprietary programming can be dvr'd and then the commercials skipped. But you made a good point earlier about ESPN having solid programming like 30 for 30. I left that out when I said I only watch ESPN for live sports. Those types of programs are well done, unique, and enjoyable.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

What's crazy is that in the midst of all this trouble, an ESPN documentary just won an Academy Award.

I believe many of their documentaries are done by independent film makers.

Catholics Vs Convicts was for sure.

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You know what's another fun facet of this? I'm pretty sure that sometimes media/cable networks try to DDoS (direct denial of service, picture a child petulantly throwing a ton of internet bandwidth/data at someone to overload them) streams of various "big" sporting events... Presumably to make ppl think "boy I'd better pay up so this doesn't happen next time!"

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You know what's another fun facet of this? I'm pretty sure that sometimes media/cable networks try to DDoS (direct denial of service, picture a child petulantly throwing a ton of internet bandwidth/data at someone to overload them) streams of various "big" sporting events... Presumably to make ppl think "boy I'd better pay up so this doesn't happen next time!"

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From what I understand, the first "D" in "DDos" stands for "Distributed", the idea being that multiple sources of data make it harder to stop an attack, and also make it harder to find the culprit. There's something else people do now with DNS spoofing or something, they somehow get a DNS server to "send the internet" to a single IP.

Regardless, I highly doubt huge media corporations would be involved in this kind of thing, as the only thing preventing script kiddies from being sued into oblivion for taking down, say, PSN, is a lack of assets to surrender as payment for damages, and even then, they still sometimes go to prison.

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/03 ... oportions/

by DYLAN GWINN 17 Mar 2017

It’s not often that we’ve had the chance to associate the word “biblical” with ESPN. However, according to the Sporting News, biblical best describes the current freak-out level amongst talent at the sports cable giant.
One week after finding out about massive layoffs, overwhelmingly targeted at the “on-air” side of the network, a source has told the Sporting News, that the impending cuts have set off a “panic of biblical proportions” among ESPN on-air talent.

The last round of layoffs at ESPN probably set off a panic as well, but without the attention this one has received, since the previous round targeted support staff only with over 300 production and behind-the-scenes types getting let go.

This time, however, the layoffs will be televised with many on-air personalities said to be on the chopping block.

A source told the Sporting News, “Everybody’s calling their agent. Nobody is safe.”

According to Sports Illustrated, the layoffs won’t take place all at once. Instead, they’ll stretch out over the course of next four months.

Another source told the Sporting News, “The analysts are responding very differently than the non-athletes. Ex-jocks are used to coming and going. The non-athletes are more panicked.”

ESPN has gone from 100 million subscribers to just 88 million in the last five years. A crushing blow in any era, this massive subscriber loss has occurred while exclusive TV rights fees for sports leagues has grown exponentially. ESPN will pay the NBA $1.4 billion dollars annually for the next seven years, in addition to paying the NFL $1.9 billion per year through 2021.

And that’s for “Monday Night Football,” one game per week.

As noted just last week, while cord-cutting is its own separate issue, ESPN’s ratings have taken a hit as well though not necessarily due to its live sports programming. Instead, the ratings hits have come on “Sportscenter,” and ESPN’s opinion/commentary shows.

The hosts of those opinion shows will be the ones watching for pink slips over the next four months.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

The Masters actually charges very low rates for those days. CBS/ESPN have a year-to-year deal with Augusta National that neither of them really make money on the TV side.

100 layoffs to be announced today, largely to be on air personalities and writers.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Pierre LeBrun is gone. As if ESPN could ignore hockey more than they already do.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson