More Cuts at ESPN

Thanks for the shout.

The early evening news is going down all over and I imagine ESPN sees this with SC.

People are working later. Long commutes. Kids have more activists so parents so there after work and don't plunk themselves in front of TVs anymore.

The 6pm/5pm SC used to be made up of the news of the day. In 2017, you already know through your sports news source of choice - whether online or listening to the shows of the day. You already have reaction.

I don't think Smith/Hill is a great move but it's also one where the network realizes there is only so much of an audience.

Tangent on the business overall:

In TV news, where I work, we maxed out our evening news audience about five years ago. Now our market's overall viewership is down 25-30 percent from 2011. That's a huge amount.

Mornings, however, are UP. 30 percent here. I do mornings and it's a new world. We have more viewers because, during the previous six hours, they are checked out and unplugged. Morning news is the only growth.

This is why some newsrooms do morning news at 4:30 instead of 5 am. It doesn't cost much more and your sales team has a lower price point for ads for some smaller clients. Our 4:30 am goes up a little more each year.

Look at your FOX affiliate. They probably do a four-hour newscast from 5 to 9 am. That revenue pays for the entire newsroom, even if they have a weak evening news operation.

There is no real growth for SportsCenter anymore. There is nothing they can tell you that you don't already know.

 

A few years ago, when one of my favorite teams played a big game I watched SportsCenter after because I wanted to see the highlights and know what people were saying. Sometimes I'd watch the last 45 minutes of one show, then the first 20 of the next just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Now I check out Twitter.

 

I don't think the antecdotes about how much less ESPN we on the board all watch (and I'm the same, I barely watch anything that isn't live event coverage) is the story here. Guess what gang? We're getting older and aging out of the demographic that can consume all sports all the time. It was always going to happen. But what's killing ESPN right now* is that the next generation isn't tuning in to replace us. That's the part that's broken.

* The day will come, sooner or later, when Watch ESPN is offered for a monthly fee and no need for a pay TV subscription, the way HBO Go works now. It will start WWIII with cable and satellite companies who will then seek to slash the rights fees ESPN gets from them, but as they continue to bleed subscribers at some point it will pencil out for Disney and they'll take the plunge.

 

The cable company was always the middle man.

Cut them out, and it's the content provider selling directly to the consumer. What's wrong with that ?

Is it a drastic shift in the business model ? Yes. Will it be painful? Yep. But I think the market will adjust and ultimately the providers of content (in our case sports) will get paid.

Cutting the cable cord and reconfiguring your content consumption via AppleTV does not mean it's all free.

What I see happening big picture: Decreasing interest in sports.

Leagues expanded and got greedy. Seasons got too long. Games got too long. Things like the WNBA happened.

What must and will happen now: Sports themselves need to get leaner.

I do work in tennis now, and I'd like to see every tour stop combine men & women the way Indian Wells, Miami and Cinci do. Those are the most successful events. Also fewer tournaments and smaller draws. Make what there is special. Leave them wanting more etc.

Every single sport should contract in some way.

 

Okay, Lugs. Here's what I don't get.

My satellite sports programming, as I look through right now, has five different college baseball games on from regional sports networks. These aren't even the traditional powers.

It's a Roman orgy of live sports. My son watches his beloved euro soccer on Sunday mornings. I get my football fix. And we still pay for it all - especially the 600 channels we never watch.

Perhaps time for an experiment this fall:

Networks
FS1. I like Big XII.
Big Ten.
Netflix.
Amazon prime.

If I could get THAT combo, I'd be good. And I'd save a hell of a lot of money.

 

Damn, that's good.

 

I did the same thing back in the 80s and 90s. Now I don't, and I sure as hell don't look at Twitter. What a waste of life.

 

Unlike this message board.

 

Or your posts.

 

I don't get Royals games in Virginia. But if Sal Perez hits a homer, within ten minutes the beat writers have told me the distance, exit velocity and other relevant stats/trivia. A Royals blogger has noted it's the fourth time he's homered on a slider this month (or whatever ) and MLB has posted a video clip.

Yeah, Twitter sucks.

 

I bet the beat writers and the blogger make a lot of dinero on that info, too.