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Grantland.com (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter pollardsvision
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Tom Hagen
Footballguy
I think the Deandre Jordan hostage crisis would have made a pretty entertaining column.
RC94
Footballguy
The only thing I have any interest in with ESPN is live sports, specifically college football and NFL. Otherwise they offer nothing interesting and it's certainly not worth a subscription fee.
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
Their baseball telecasts have become unwatchable mostly because of how awful Kruk and Schilling are together. They obviously despise each other, and Schilling begins every sentence with "When I played....", and Kruk just grunts for three hours.
Capella
Footballguy
Jack White
Footballguy
MattFancy
Footballguy
Bogart
Footballguy
Same here. And it's going to be worse once the NFL season fires up, and no Cousin Sal.His podcasts
Simmons's contract with ESPN only ran through September so I imagine he will be up and running again somewhere else by early October.Same here. And it's going to be worse once the NFL season fires up, and no Cousin Sal.His podcasts
facook
Footballguy
Probably never happen due to Disney contract but I was kinda hoping Cousin Sal would do a weekly podcast and have Simmons on to guess the lines. Could even give him a stupid nickname and have him be like an old school masked wrestler that everyone knows is really Dusty Rhodes/Simmons. "I'm Cousin Sal and this week I'm joined by The Night Ranger!"
Ghost Rider
Footballguy
I hope this is all true. ESPN stink so bad now, and despite them covering the NFL ad nauseam, their actual coverage sucks. They give most games like a 20-second highlight clip and move on to letting one of their 332 talking heads blather on for minutes. Awful.
John Bender
Footballguy
Agree with all this...
However, I sleep with the TV on...and out of force of habit I cannot sleep unless it's on ESPN for some reason. I always go to sleep with Sportscenter on
and have for probably 15 years now.
Billy Bats
Footballguy
Ghost Rider
Footballguy
I can't name a single current Sportscenter anchor. I remember when they were so good, you couldn't help but know who they were.Agree with all this...
However, I sleep with the TV on...and out of force of habit I cannot sleep unless it's on ESPN for some reason. I always go to sleep with Sportscenter on
Tick
Footballguy
NFL Matchup has always been a top-notch show. They bury it in the schedule - one of my best things about a DVR is that it grabs that show for me.
roadkill1292
Footballguy
While I've felt like Grantland has been losing steam since Simmons left, Matt Hinton had a piece today that I (naturally) liked.
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
Yeah I'm actually getting rid of ESPN and realizing that i'm not going to miss anything.
Capella
Footballguy
Dan Lambskin
Footballguy
MLB Network FTWAgree with all this...However, I sleep with the TV on...and out of force of habit I cannot sleep unless it's on ESPN for some reason. I always go to sleep with Sportscenter on
waking up to Heidi Watney
SIDA!
Footballguy
Every cable subscriber in America basically pays $6 and change directly into the pockets of ESPN as part of their monthly cable carriage fee. Insane.
SIDA!
Footballguy
i really enjoy PTI and to a much lesser degree Around the Horn...but other than that I am right there with you. Outside of a live game, I can't recall the last time I watched. I think I tuned in for the Hernandez stuff because that was just surreal.
roadkill1292
Footballguy
I don't watch PTI and I'm one of the six or seven people nationwide who actually likes Kornheiser.
The rumors about ESPN's financial difficulties continue to circulate. I really think the way we buy sports content on tv is gonna change dramatically in the next decade.
The rumors about ESPN's financial difficulties continue to circulate. I really think the way we buy sports content on tv is gonna change dramatically in the next decade.
Cliff Clavin
Footballguy
Why don't leagues just cut out the middle men (ESPN/locals/TNT/etc.) and have their own channels?
Joe T
Footballguy
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
I'm not big on "thinking ahead."
We had Sling, probably going to VUE. Sounds like ESPN might bail on Sling anyway.
Cliff Clavin
Footballguy
Like the NFL network + all the Sunday ticket channels (minus the Direct TV crap) without selling games to ESPN or Fox or CBS, yes.
RUSF18
Footballguy
Because the middle men are paying them billions of dollars for the privilege of airing games. And they can afford to because they have millions more subscribers than the sports networks would be able to get on their own. For now at least, until we get more cord cutting.This was a really good article on ESPN potentially being a bubble about to burst, based on the same info others were talking about earlier. The effect on league revenues from cord cutting isn't something I thought of before.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/is-espn-a-giant-bubble-about-to-burst-071215
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Cliff Clavin
Footballguy
The league's wouldn't make as much from the subs but couldn't they recoup it from the selling the advertising directly?
RUSF18
Footballguy
Maybe. I assume selling ad space for every airing of every event they have would require significantly more infrastructure. Otherwise, it's just a different middle man you're talking about.
And to be honest, they probably won't make it up. Many times these deals don't result in profits directly for the networks. It's used as a loss leader for their other programming. Think of how much CBS #### Nantz and co are plugging during the NCAA tourney.
And to be honest, they probably won't make it up. Many times these deals don't result in profits directly for the networks. It's used as a loss leader for their other programming. Think of how much CBS #### Nantz and co are plugging during the NCAA tourney.
GroveDiesel
Footballguy
I agree. I think it's not just an ESPN bubble, I think it's a sports' revenue bubble. Get ready to see declining salary caps and player salaries.
roadkill1292
Footballguy
Fascinating article, including the brief ESPN response at the end in which they claimed that something like half of all subscribers tune in to ESPN at some point during the month (instead of the 25% that Travis guessed). I wonder how true that is?
Dan Lambskin
Footballguy
Ash
Footballguy
Outside the US, and that's exactly what I do. 1 fee for the year, every game every week right through to the Superbowl with Condensed and All 22 versions of each available afterwards. Pretty sure it's the same as the Rewind package except I can stream live.
Cliff Clavin
Footballguy
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
Cowherd leaving for Fox. For whatever that is worth.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Cowherd has expressed interest in branching beyond sports. Considering he's not that bright, nice, or interesting, I can't imagine how that could go well."Good said:
roadkill1292
Footballguy
Sammy3469
Footballguy
If my math is correct, the NFL currently makes:
5 billion from the networks
1.5B DirectTV (and FWIW my guess is Hausfeld is going to win this lawsuit...they know what they are doing)
1.16B NFL Network
Total is now 7.66 billion in national TV revenue. So to get back to that figure they would either need to get cable systems to have each subscriber pay ESPN like fees of $6.60 a month (which won't happen) or charge each of its 19 million or so weekly viewers an astonishing $403 a year. It's figures like $403 that makes the networks and the leagues want these products bundled as long as possible.
Cliff Clavin
Footballguy
That makes sense. So what does a network make in advertising revenue? From the Super Bowl alone, networks get $250M~.
Sammy3469
Footballguy
The Fox article says ESPN makes 25% of its total revenues from advertising, so that's another 1.65 billion....so I guess you'd back out the 403 to 300...point still stands though...how many of the 19 million would pay that much especially since that's on the viewer level, not household/point of watching level.
Plus that doesn't include the extra costs involved in setting this up. Can they do it sure, but as of today the economics don't make sense. They will if ESPN gets de-packaged (for lack of a better term), but that's probably a good 5-10 years still out (though it's probably closer to 5 than 10 these days).
roadkill1292
Footballguy
Crap, my math was all wrong. I was thinking cable fees only accounted for 25% of revenues and advertising the rest. But if advertising accounts for only 25%, then losing 7% of your subscribers -- your biggest revenue flow -- every year will really hurt. Their margins must already be really tight with those giant annual rights fees. Guys holding down those nice talking head jobs there must be getting a little nervous.
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
Deadspin cites numerous unnamed Grantland writers who fear for the site's existence, and/or think Connelly's wrecking the shop. Also noted that a lot of writer's contracts are up at the end of this year, and Wesley Morris is already in talks with the NYT.
Sammy3469
Footballguy
GPJ beat me, but here's the link:
http://deadspin.com/no-one-knows-what-espn-is-doing-to-grantland-1718037323
http://deadspin.com/no-one-knows-what-espn-is-doing-to-grantland-1718037323
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John Bender
Footballguy
Shame...
I don't care for the site much but I love the podcasts.
Hollywood Prospectus, the Jacoby and Juliette reality tv one (I don't watch reality tv shows, but get all my news from the podcast)...
Also Food News on Mondays is pretty funny and good - it's 15 minutes.
The Game of Thrones recaps were great too.
The NFL Podcast is really good
If they put the hammer on those, I'm not going to be happy.
RUSF18
Footballguy
They'll just pop up somewhere else in a different form. Maybe a couple of the voices change but you'll basically be able to get the same content.
About the only person who is a lock to stick around is Jalen. He's an ABC guy through and through.
Bruce Dickinson
Footballguy
Did not have Wesley Morris pegged as the crown jewel to steal away from the Grantland staff. I find most of his stuff predictable.
Hope Lowe and Keri don't get absorbed into 538 as a merger. That site destroyed everything that was interesting and insightful about Neil Paine's writing.
Hope Lowe and Keri don't get absorbed into 538 as a merger. That site destroyed everything that was interesting and insightful about Neil Paine's writing.
A lot of the site's contributors are fine in their blogging roles but aren't major talents. Zach Lowe is the only guy I will follow to a new site (I'd probably feel the same about Keri if I had the same active interest in baseball as I do the NBA). I get the sense that Lowe is enjoying his increased access to the league through ESPN although I'm sure he could go write for any sports outlet he wanted.
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
Grantland should do a lightning round about Grantland.
