Why ESPN is Failing

1UNI2ISU

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It will be interesting to see which is the first conference to offer their entire package via streaming. That will be the end for ESPN (and my DirecTV bill.)

Not a huge conference yet, but the American has said they are going to aggressively shop their package to Amazon and Netflix when their ESPN deal is up in 2019.
 
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madguy30

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For whatever reason it's typically refreshing watching CBS's coverage of the NCAA tourney, and I generally like their NFL and NCAA regular season coverage as well.

I know it's not 24/7, but take away all the glitz and noise and you have what people want to watch: sports.
 

kingcy

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Another issue is they have is their love or catering to certain conferences or teams. The ACC/Duke love gets old in basketball. Yes they are good but you turn off a lot of viewers by the constant coverage of those given teams and little mentions or highlights of other teams. Even their top ten plays is a joke anymore. Look at their view of ISU right now, its like their experts watched this team play in Jan and are taking talking points off that game.
 

IlliniCy

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I'm so old I used to watch this instead of SC:

thumb-400.jpg
 

Doc

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ESPN is doing their 24 hour special on the NCAA tournament right now and First Take is supposed to be doing it. They've been talking about Ezekiel Elliot pulling down some woman's shirt at a St Patrick's Day parade. The woman didn't even care. Why can they not talk about anything other than Pro sports specifically the NFL?

This is kind of funny because yesterday I saw people were mad because ESPN wasn't covering the Ezekiel Elliott incident while they did cover all of Grayson Allen's trips. White people love to claim reverse racism.
 

alarson

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Not a huge conference yet, but the American has said they are going to aggressively shop their package to Amazon and Netflix when their ESPN deal is up in 2019.
This might prove there isnt much downward pressure on rights prices yet if they get a decent deal. While there are cordcutters, which hurts espn, the rightsholders still are sitting pretty good because sports offers something that very few other programming does: live viewers. Now that so many have dvrs and can skip commercials, the programming that is watched 99% by live people gains a massive amount of value to advertisers.
 
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I-stateTheTruth

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Delivery of content has changed in all areas and their model has to change with it. But I love the fact that just about every important ISU game is on one of their channels and I can watch them on the East Coast.
 
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isufbcurt

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I like ESPN but I was pissed yesterday when watching sportscenter and they had a segment/interview with the Ball family. Giving that garbage guy more TV time should be punishable by jail. LaVar Ball is the basketball version of Trump, just throw random **** out there and hope it sticks.
 
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ClonesFTW

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Consumption has changed, period. We all used to watch SportsCenter all day because we wanted to see the highlights from the last 24 hours. Now we've already seen it 5 seconds after it happens live on Facebook or Twitter.

Networks are panicking and think, how can we retain viewers?! The answer so far has been the shift to personality and/or opinions, I mean just look at FS1's line up. The bubble is bursting, and political commentary or bias (right or left) on sports networks doesn't help.
 

CycloneErik

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I like ESPN but I was pissed yesterday when watching sportscenter and they had a segment/interview with the Ball family. Giving that garbage guy more TV time should be punishable by jail. LaVar Ball is the basketball version of Trump, just throw random **** out there and hope it sticks.

A brand for the kids already. That dad doesn't sound at all like he's planned out how to cash in on his kids.
 

Blackhawk6515

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When they make stars out of people like Stephan A Smith, that's all you have to know.

I don't see how they are losing money with all of the commercials they play.
 

capitalcityguy

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All that Tebow coverage sure is left leaning. Pinko liberal Tebow

Proving you don't even see or understand the point you are disagreeing with. Using your logic, MSNBC is right leaning with all their Trump coverage.

Folks are tired of seeing 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick disrespect America. They’re tired of the channel they tune in to watch sports push Black Lives Matter, or gun control instead of just basketball, baseball, and football. Sports fans witnessed ESPN fire pitching legend Curt Schilling because he spoke out against Islamic terrorism and North Carolina’s transgender bathroom bill. Viewers watched as Caitlyn Jenner was given a heroism award and University of Missouri football team was given a humanitarian award because they had the “courage” to go on strike and force the school’s “racist” president out of his job. Obama always says elections have consequences, well, so does alienating half the country. And ESPN is crawling on its hands and knees to beg for conservative viewers to come back.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidc...was-a-bad-idea-that-is-after-it-lost-viewers/
 
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alarson

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Clark

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When they make stars out of people like Stephan A Smith, that's all you have to know.

I don't see how they are losing money with all of the commercials they play.

they made 4.3 billion dollars last year, they aren't losing money. They'd like to make 4.3 billion dollars this year, which is why they'll fire people to get back profit. Cord cutting is real and it'll be interesting to see if ESPN changes with the times or goes the way of newspapers.
 

Clark

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Proving you don't even see or understand the point you are disagreeing with. Using your logic, MSNBC is right leaning with all their Trump coverage.



http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidc...was-a-bad-idea-that-is-after-it-lost-viewers/

it's the dumbest argument you'll ever hear about why ESPN is losing viewers. Here's why it's dumb: if your opinion is correct, those sports fans would be watching fox sports or NBCsports, but ratings show that they are not. They're cutting cable altogether. So you're telling me people are so angry with ESPN that instead of just watching another sports network, they're getting rid of their entire cable package? That logic does not compute.

That'd be like being mad that Blue Bunny donates to Steve King, so you boycott every grocery store that sells it (rather than you know, just buying a different brand of ice cream)
 
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capitalcityguy

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it's the dumbest argument you'll ever hear about why ESPN is losing viewers. Here's why it's dumb: if your opinion is correct, those sports fans would be watching fox sports or NBCsports, but ratings show that they are not. They're cutting cable altogether. So you're telling me people are so angry with ESPN that instead of just watching another sports network, they're getting rid of their entire cable package? That logic does not compute.

That'd be like being mad that Blue Bunny donates to Steve King, so you boycott every grocery store that sells it (rather than you know, just buying a different brand of ice cream)

I gave two reason. Cutting the cable AND perceived political bend. I meant those to be two mutually exclusive reasons.
 

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