The Rise and Fall of ESPN (1 Viewer)

[ShamrockPride]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

 

[JAA]

It used to be "Plays, Of, The, Week, BUZZZ!!"

 

[belljr]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

Unless I didn't understand the article - I didn't read that it won't be on cable - just the main channels will now also be available to stream stand alone

 

[Capella]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

Misleading. It’ll be an option for streamers too. No chance they give up cable sub money.

 

[massraider]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

Unless I didn't understand the article - I didn't read that it won't be on cable - just the main channels will now also be available to stream stand alone

Nothing formal, but it seems like this is the plan. To take it off cable, and go streaming only.

They have all the live sports! People pay for streaming services with no live content, and ESPN has sports. It’ll be an easy sell.

 

[belljr]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

Unless I didn't understand the article - I didn't read that it won't be on cable - just the main channels will now also be available to stream stand alone

Nothing formal, but it seems like this is the plan. To take it off cable, and go streaming only.

They have all the live sports! People pay for streaming services with no live content, and ESPN has sports. It’ll be an easy sell.

From the article: The WSJ reports that ESPN has already begun “securing flexibility” in its deals with cable providers to be able to offer the channel as a DTC option.

 

[Doug B]

It used to be "Plays, Of, The, Week, BUZZZ!!"

...man, those days won't ever be back again. :poursout40:

 

[massraider]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

Unless I didn't understand the article - I didn't read that it won't be on cable - just the main channels will now also be available to stream stand alone

Nothing formal, but it seems like this is the plan. To take it off cable, and go streaming only.

They have all the live sports! People pay for streaming services with no live content, and ESPN has sports. It’ll be an easy sell.

From the article: The WSJ reports that ESPN has already begun “securing flexibility” in its deals with cable providers to be able to offer the channel as a DTC option.

You are right.

Inevitably, they will have streaming only exclusives, why wouldn’t they?

 

[JohnnyU]

Merrill Hoge's suits. It's like "You're white, guy. Just don't."

Wearing tennis shoes with suits. Kind of reminds me when people were wearing sport coats with jeans (80s or 90s?). Not me however.

 

[JohnnyU]

Really the downfall was when they decided to get into politics. People watch sports to get away from that crap.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Merrill Hoge's suits. It's like "You're white, guy. Just don't."

Wearing tennis shoes with suits.

David Letterman was one of the first I remember to do that back in the 90s. Expensive suits too.

 

[massraider]

Merrill Hoge's suits. It's like "You're white, guy. Just don't."

Wearing tennis shoes with suits.

David Letterman was one of the first I remember to do that back in the 90s. Expensive suits too.

Always with double breasted, that’s bad. Too formal. That’s as bad as “dress sneakers”.

 

[JohnnyU]

Merrill Hoge's suits. It's like "You're white, guy. Just don't."

Wearing tennis shoes with suits.

David Letterman was one of the first I remember to do that back in the 90s. Expensive suits too.

Always with double breasted, that’s bad. Too formal. That’s as bad as “dress sneakers”.

Isn’t dress sneakers an oxymoron?

 

[belljr]

looks like ESPN is going full streaming

No turning back now, kiddies.

They were vastly overpaying for broadcast fees like 10-15 years ago. Those contracts were just massive. Then it was followed by layoff after layoff. And now (let's keep it non-political) the stuff going on with Disney & DeSantis.

Still a shocking announcement, but paying attention to the company over the last decade or so, it's not entirely surprising.

Unless I didn't understand the article - I didn't read that it won't be on cable - just the main channels will now also be available to stream stand alone

Nothing formal, but it seems like this is the plan. To take it off cable, and go streaming only.

They have all the live sports! People pay for streaming services with no live content, and ESPN has sports. It’ll be an easy sell.

From the article: The WSJ reports that ESPN has already begun “securing flexibility” in its deals with cable providers to be able to offer the channel as a DTC option.

You are right.

Inevitably, they will have streaming only exclusives, why wouldn’t they?

Well they have that now with ESPN Plus but I'm sure they're going to have some more stuff that streaming only

 

[Moe.]

Cable won’t exist in a decade

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Really the downfall was when they decided to get into politics. People watch sports to get away from that crap.

Or we could point to The Six

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Cable won’t exist in a decade

Cable as in the thing you need a coaxial plug for or the thing where most channels still have to be bought as part of some big package? Because Sling and YTTV were nice at first but their prices are creeping up and up and it's looking like it's just the same thing all over again, and the "a la carte" stuff is still way too expensive to build a reasonable package out of.

I do hope you're right though.

 

[Moe.]

Cable won’t exist in a decade

Cable as in the thing you need a coaxial plug for or the thing where most channels still have to be bought as part of some big package? Because Sling and YTTV were nice at first but their prices are creeping up and up and it's looking like it's just the same thing all over again, and the "a la carte" stuff is still way too expensive to build a reasonable package out of.

I do hope you're right though.

That. That won’t exist in a decade. Channels you can browse will all be those FAST type of services like Pluto. Sports leagues will distribute their content directly (tennis channel, nba league pass) or in partnership with a specific provider (mls). RSNs are done. It’s over.

 

[massraider]

Because Sling and YTTV were nice at first but their prices are creeping up and up and it's looking like it's just the same thing all over again, and the "a la carte" stuff is still way too expensive to build a reasonable package out of

I've no idea how it shakes out, but I would bet against the current model being a long term solution, for all the reasons you said and more.

I'm very comfortable cycling through add ons, never have more than one aside from YTTV.

 

[JohnnyU]

Really the downfall was when they decided to get into politics. People watch sports to get away from that crap.

Or we could point to The Six

I don’t watch ESPN except for an actual game, so I’m not that knowledgable with the Six, but have heard of it. Is it still a thing? Wasn’t one of them fired? I can’t remember her name.

 

[The Z Machine]

Cable won’t exist in a decade

We can only hope

 

[Desert_Power]

Went to ESPN.com to check in on how the Lakers-Denver game is going. Clicking on the game, the first video was a long clip of Stephen A yelling about the Lakers to the face of Perkins. Second video was Windhorst talking about Carmelo Anthony's all time ranking. Who the heck cares about either of these things? Click on a highlight, get served a 1 minute ad.

This is just an abysmally run business. They fundamentally misunderstand what the fans want to see. Old school Sportscenter ran circles around this crap.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Went to ESPN.com to check in on how the Lakers-Denver game is going. Clicking on the game, the first video was a long clip of Stephen A yelling about the Lakers to the face of Perkins. Second video was Windhorst talking about Carmelo Anthony's all time ranking. Who the heck cares about either of these things? Click on a highlight, get served a 1 minute ad.

This is just an abysmally run business. They fundamentally misunderstand what the fans want to see. Old school Sportscenter ran circles around this crap.

To be fair, this is exactly what they're trying to change with this recent announcement, right? Currently ESPN+ and ESPN.com intentionally don't offer easy access to the games because they want you to have to watch it on actual ESPN through your cable provider. Making it easy to just go to espn.com or open up the ESPN app to watch the game is what they're going to change with this announcement, eventually.

 

[Desert_Power]

Went to ESPN.com to check in on how the Lakers-Denver game is going. Clicking on the game, the first video was a long clip of Stephen A yelling about the Lakers to the face of Perkins. Second video was Windhorst talking about Carmelo Anthony's all time ranking. Who the heck cares about either of these things? Click on a highlight, get served a 1 minute ad.

This is just an abysmally run business. They fundamentally misunderstand what the fans want to see. Old school Sportscenter ran circles around this crap.

To be fair, this is exactly what they're trying to change with this recent announcement, right? Currently ESPN+ and ESPN.com intentionally don't offer easy access to the games because they want you to have to watch it on actual ESPN through your cable provider. Making it easy to just go to espn.com or open up the ESPN app to watch the game is what they're going to change with this announcement, eventually.

Yes. Just speaking to their terrible content around the sports themself. Always seems pretty seamless to launch La Liga games from their app, but most other stuff seems a pain.

 

[grateful zed]

watched the entire final pga round on cbs.com, it was great.

 

[The Z Machine]

watched the entire final pga round on cbs.com, it was great.

This is the way

 

[rockaction]

I just clicked on a Stephen A. Smith segment and realized that I contributed to the problem. I'm sorry.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

I just clicked on a Stephen A. Smith segment

Why?

😉

 

[rockaction]

Why?

😉

It was about the NY Jets and I'd just gotten done watching "Four Days In October" on ESPN Plus. It was right at the bottom of the screen after the program was done, and I clicked because...well...Jets.

Can I ever be forgiven?

 

[Cowboysfan8]

Why?

😉

It was about the NY Jets and I'd just gotten done watching "Four Days In October" on ESPN Plus. It was right at the bottom of the screen after the program was done, and I clicked because...well...Jets.

Can I ever be forgiven?

I guess we can let it slide this one time. If it happens again it’s going on your permanent record

 

[rockaction]

I guess we can let it slide this one time. If it happens again it’s going on your permanent record

Cool. My somewhat anonymous permanent record is going to hose me when we're ruled by AI. Please heed my cries for help when it comes down to it.

Oh yeah, back to ESPN. Streaming, they say? Sounds like the way television is moving. Million different scrips for a million different niches. Gonna be tough to afford it all.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

I guess we can let it slide this one time. If it happens again it’s going on your permanent record

Cool. My somewhat anonymous permanent record is going to hose me when we're ruled by AI. Please heed my cries for help when it comes down to it.

Oh yeah, back to ESPN. Streaming, they say? Sounds like the way television is moving. Million different scrips for a million different niches. Gonna be tough to afford it all.

You know I got you

And yeah, my wife and I have been researching getting rid of cable but can’t really figure out a way to stream what we want to watch and save money

 

[grateful zed]

I just clicked on a Stephen A. Smith segment and realized that I contributed to the problem. I'm sorry.

:reported: