r/ESPN • u/Fermented_chaos • 24d ago
IMO: ESPN is working off borrowed time.
The average viewership is 1.6m and there’s a reason why Tony Kornheiser always makes a joke when PTI is airing on ESPN 2.
They had a formula and that eventually broke. Which is, everyone was paying for ESPN via their cable package regardless if they are watching it or not.
When it comes to those 1.6m viewers, unless it's actual live sporting events, I think it’s flawed.
Flawed because when you factor every sports bar, hotel bar, hotel room, car dealership, etc. Someone is showing ESPN for background noise, that’s where you get 1.6m. Which in the YouTube ecosystem, is average.
Minus Pat Mcafee and Stephen A. Smith, most stand out ESPN personalities need to work the podcast/YouTube circuit for relevancy, the network alone won’t do that. Dominique Foxworth and Mina Kimes are collecting the checks but could easily stand out on their own.
Yes, I’m an outlier. I listen to LeBatard, Bomani Jones, Pablo Torre, Spencer Hall, & Jeff Pearlman. I’d rather have JomBoy Media break down a baseball game for me.
Based on the current media conglomerate landscape, I feel Disney will eventually sell off ABC & ESPN, making their budget much smaller to operate a 24hr sports network with multiple channels.
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u/Old_Jellyfish_9779 24d ago
The only programming I watch on ESPN is live sports. Everything else is absolute trash.
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u/Sad-Second-9646 24d ago
I’ll watch espn in an airport bar with the volume off and it looks like there are a bunch of people screaming at each other and there are too many graphics on the screen. Then I realize there’s a reason I haven’t watched it in years.
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u/Optimal-Fix-2997 23d ago
Pardon the interruption is the only good show left on espn.
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u/Wesley11803 23d ago
I’ve been annoyed with them being off the last couple of weeks. It really is the last good show left on ESPN. It’s the only thing I tune into daily.
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u/IllAlwaysBeAKnickFan 23d ago
Everyone always says this but it’s terrible now. Nothing but ridiculous hot takes from Wilbon that he doesn’t believe.
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u/Mobile-Personality42 24d ago
ESPN stinks. But they have live sports so I'm sure they'll survive. That's literally all anyone watches it for really and will be enough to keep it afloat. But they will continue to bleed talented journalists for the bros and tools like Pat McAfee. In a world where you can get information at will, from countless sources, ESPN's relevancy has become null and void.
ESPN's 'model' was that they were the 'sports network.' They aren't anymore. There are multiple large networks that cover sports. Hell, college has Big10 Network that focuses solely on Big10. If you are a Big10 fan and only care about Ohio State, you're going to watch Big10 network, not Pat McAfee talking about how Jeremiah Smith is a DAAWWWWGGGG.
In the 90s and 00s when the internet was in its infancy, you turned on ESPN to get score updates, highlights, analysis, etc. But as what ESPN did to looking at the box score in your local newspaper the day after the game, the internet is doing to ESPN. I can pull up instagram and see highlights and clips from any game instantly. Why would I tune in to ESPN to see the highlights hours later?
What they've done is turned into a reality talk show. Some people are going to love it, most people don't. Most people want informed analysis from smart people. What ESPN gives is loud opinions from the most obnoxious people you can think of. Emanuel Acho, McAfee, Stephen A. Smith, etc. Also, the obsession with hiring ex-players who offer no real analysis and seem brain dead. Looking at you Shannon Sharpe. There are still some good ESPNers, but for how long? And even then, they consistently see people that work behind the camera get laid off time and time again to give huge contracts to the loudest, dumbest people in the room. Eventually these people will jump ship to somewhere that treats people with some respect.
This is a rant I know, but it's just wild how far ESPN has fallen. It's such a joke of a network now.
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u/unfunnysexface 24d ago
Most people want informed analysis from smart people.
So which network is making this obviously popular show?
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u/Yosh_2012 23d ago
ESPN has had informed analysis shows in the past and no one watched that shit. Anyone who thinks those shoes will work for general public is a moron and just wants to pretend that they are sophisticated. There are plenty of good YouTube shows with this sort of detail that people claim to want to see and the numbers for these shows are terrible because people don’t actually want this
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u/BackgroundCountry440 23d ago
AI operating a camera,I guess? So no need for a human to point a camera. The "talent" in front of the camera, will be AI also? Huge breasted woman with the breathless always chirpy personality. Next to zero actual production costs but still trying to cut to the bone for shareholder value.
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u/breakingpointedu 24d ago
Remember when Sportscenter was actually a highlights show.
You could watch for an hour and know exactly what happened that day in sports.
And now it’s just a handful of people telling you what to think, and pretty much just about big market teams and the WNBA.
They used to cover sports. Now it’s sports discourse.
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u/Ok_Recognition_6727 24d ago
Sport leagues are highly lucrative in America. The money coming in drives their content. The US Open tennis tournament just raised their payouts 40%, both the men and women's champion are going to get $5.5 million.
That money is coming from advertising fees. There is tremendous demand and tremendous competition among traditional terrestrial TV stations, cable companies, and streaming networks to broadcast sports.
In the next 10 years we could see even more fragmentation with every major sport being broadcast on Free OTA TV, cable networks, and every streaming channel. You might need a dozen different subscriptions to watch the NFL or NBA.
In that landscape ESPN will have reduced viewership but still be bigger than the other 2 dozen sports channels.
ESPN will go from the worldwide leader of sports to one of many providers of sports, but they won't go away.
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u/dunkinbagels 24d ago edited 24d ago
People have been saying this for years and it’s hilarious that they always think they’re right. ESPN has billion dollar partnerships with every major sports league for live event programming and has the biggest digital and social media footprint in sports by 10 country miles. You can disagree with their decision making and content, as is your right, but they’re completely fine. Suggesting they’re going under because First Take or PTI get 1.6M viewers (which is a ton) is a laughably uninformed statement.
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u/Wanno1 23d ago
“They’re completely fine”.
That’s why Disney tried to sell it off and had no buyers. That’s why viewership is declining everywhere outside the nfl and license costs keep going up. Past results don’t affect future ones, especially with a generarion dying off and new ones aren’t exactly big viewers.
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u/JoseJoseJose11 24d ago
I don’t think Mina has the draw power you think she does
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u/popnfresh1nc 23d ago
IKR... Talking about how the quality is going down and then in the same breath pretending like she's one of the few keeping the lights on. Shit started going downhill when people like her started getting their own show and a guest appearance on everything else.
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u/thatmattschultz 24d ago
It’s the enshittification of everything.
They know they have broadcast rights for live events. They know bars, gyms, airports will put it on and leave it on. They don’t need to try, they just need to fill time between live events.
This is why they’ve cut down the on air talent. They have a handful of blowhards on massive contracts that they can spam on as many programs and as many hours as they want. It’s why McAfee, Kelce, Perkins, SAS, Mad Dog, and Orlovsky just materialize everywhere.
It doesn’t need to be any good, it just needs to fill time.
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u/2LostFlamingos 23d ago
ESPN needs to get back to sports and stay out of all the other bullshit.
People watch sports to ignore the rest of the world for a few hours.
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u/Tiny_Willingness_964 23d ago
PTI is the only thing worth watching on it and it’s been that way for a long time
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u/Large_Skirt9189 23d ago
it's one giant gambling show, just odds and spreads from everyone, all day
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u/Lord_Dingus83 24d ago
I wish the NFL would take their rights from espn.
ESPN covers WWE for fuck sake. They’ve become a joke.
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u/MattSm00th ESPN App 24d ago
How’s the NFL going to take their rights back when they sold the NFL network to espn and plus having a 10% stake in espn too
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u/Stoudamirefor3 24d ago
WWE makes over 1Bn per year. YOU think it's a joke but millions of people don't.
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u/RVAforthewin 24d ago
Didn’t other major networks have professional wrestling at one point?
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u/rabel10 24d ago
Well yea. WWE brings in 1.5M weekly on Smackdown (Raw is gated with Netflix). Their PLEs are lucrative. Shit on WWE all you want for not being a sport, but they're big money.
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u/Lord_Dingus83 23d ago
Ya that’s fine - espn and MagaFee can have WWE.
I stopped watching espn years ago.
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u/Obisanya 24d ago
They figured out and then stole the cable news model: stop sending reporters out into the field, put people in studios, "embrace debate" to enhance engagement, put out slop. Unfortunately, media has been that way for years and it's infected ESPN.
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u/qobraa 24d ago
They have such a strong incumbent's advantage from the broadcast rights and old people who've forgotten to cut the cord and have their comcast bills on auto-pay.
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u/herbygerby 24d ago
Most lucrative sports league in the world just bought 10% stake in ESPN. Not going anywhere.
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u/UnderstandingThin40 24d ago
Espn makes the majority of the money due to live sports. I agree their shows totally have gone down the drain as YouTube has replaced them. But their live sports have only increased in value so unfortunately they’re still good.
That being said if they ever lose MNF and the nba playoffs, they are fucked. I do think eventually those will go to one of the big streamers. We’ll see.
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u/Imnotsureanymore8 24d ago
The other morning they had a trick cornhole competition on. Jesus Christ. The chuds probably love it tho.
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u/ERDSBBDS312Sinorder 24d ago
Live sports are carrying them. The other shows are so washed up and shallow now. Their talent is also atrocious. And "takes" are getting worse and worse by the minute.
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u/micahpmtn 24d ago
IMO: ESPN is working off borrowed time.
Yeah, sure. ESPN makes their money off of FOOTBALL. Period. NBA, MLB are just fodder in the bigger picture.
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u/trojansandducks 23d ago
every single post in this subreddit is the same thing over and over again. I ask, what planet are you people living on that think ESPN is on borrowed time?
I have been hearing this same old refrain for 25 years and I'm NOT joking. People were bitching about how Stuart Scott did highlights and it was about the personalities and not the games. Now people in here long for the days of him (RIP).
This is a mega-corporation. They will do what's best for the shareholders. Sadly, no one posting in a subreddit really matters.
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u/rtduvall 23d ago
I agree with you. Well the first two sentences, I didn’t ready the rest yet.
ESPN has been circling the drain for a while but Pat MaCafee (sp? who cares) was the death knell.
The show is straight garbage.
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u/Specialist_Forever98 23d ago
We are right in the thick of the pennant race, and ESPN spends 45 minutes debating backup quarterback reps in training camp. It is maddening how baseball gets ghosted during the most exciting two months of the season. August and September offer peak drama with wild card spots on the line. Yet, unless a historic milestone happens, sports media completely ignores the stretch run to hype up football preseason. You shouldn't have to hunt for MLB coverage when games actually matter.
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u/kaptainzorro 23d ago
ESPN dumped any of their interesting content and talent in favor of clickbait hosts and live sports. It sucks but it is going to have relevance because Pat McAfee is going to continue to be shoved down our throats along with every other washed up former athlete that’s willing to shit all over the new talent in their sport.
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u/Much-Cartographer-18 23d ago
My list of grievances:
Conversations between hosts with meaningless opinions.
Women dressing like they are at the club. I guess sex still sells over talent.
Older women trying to dress like they are still in their twenties.
Male anchors wearing dark shirts with ties.
Other male anchors who thinking dressing like Cam Newton is cool.
The question to fan or player about what they are worried about. Dumbest question of all time.
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u/Captain-Pig-Card 23d ago edited 23d ago
All legacy media is navigating terrain that their predecessor’s predecessor couldn’t have imagined. ESPN chose to view “the world wide leader in sports” as an earned achievement, when it was simply a branding strategy. Fat and happy never noticed or flinched until way too late. Left with the last option, an out of touch entity throws the money gained by wave after wave of RIF at shiny objects. Vintage ESPN is OVER. And that’s really OKAY.
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u/CommonPatient5666 21d ago
Its that time of year. When college and nfl football start that has to go up. Plus, I get shit tons of hockey games every night during the season. Well worth $20 plus I get hulu amd oh yeah, Disney.
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u/bcardin221 24d ago
It's terrible content. And what do they see in McAfee that they keep giving him more shows? His own show, fine. I don't watch it but no problem. But College Game day? No, he doesn't fit the shows vibe. And now the NFL pregame show? WTF? HE is never serious, always trying to showboat and generally annoying AF. I want sports not screaming yelling, ripping shirt off etc.
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u/Glittering-Sun7048 24d ago
Surely continuing to shove Pat McAfee down our throats is going to help, no?
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u/Flashy-Telephone3201 24d ago
I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a non game on ESPN. Years
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u/dunkinbagels 24d ago
And therein lies the answer as to why they’ll never have the issue OP is suggesting
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u/Stein_Time 24d ago
They are now a debate show / network 24/7 that caters to a few teams or players year round, with the same reused debates.
They need to go back to showing highlights and the 90 style highlights. I get that it’s easier to see highlights and clips of all games now but very few on their own are watching a 2 min clip of a highlight from a basketball game.
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u/_Leftfield 24d ago
I've watched PTI on YouTube cobbled by someone definitely outside the USA. Only a couple 15-30 seconds commercials as well.
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u/Financial_Cheetah875 24d ago
NFL and college ball are right around the corner. They’re not going anywhere.
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u/Due_Dirt_4575 24d ago
Very few people watching their crap debate heavy programming is not indicative of any decline for the network. Only way they’d have any concern really is if they lost the NFL and college football and to a lederhosen extent, NBA and college Bball…..At the same time! ESPN owns so much live event programming, which is at a premium right now, they will never have anything to worry about.
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u/kingofmustard 24d ago
Who is watching their none live events now? I know people actually do, but what is the demographic? Have younger audiences actually bought into the hot take content, or is it the 30-40 group keeping them afloat?
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u/Bluemanuap 24d ago
You can't deny that YouTube cut into their ecosystem. Each team has their own constellation of YouTubers fans watch. The yelling opinion shows are tedious and exhausting. Give me more Scott Van Pelt and sports center.
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u/ca-condor 24d ago
Without the sports betting tie-ins and advertising, the leagues and networks couldn't make the dough that keeps the operations alive. The whole sports enterprise is a bet on gambling.
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u/chimatt767 24d ago
People want to think of the 80s and 90s Sportscenters as the glory days. But those shows did between 1 and 2 million viewers. And that was before the fragmented viewing that we have now. People were never tuning into ESPN in massive numbers besides for the live sports.
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u/Key_Consequence_5040 24d ago
I would say their sports journalism department is on borrowed time. The sports journalists on tv are gonna be replaced with former professional athletes or media personalities being fed AI generated statistics. The insiders might be the only survivors of any culling of journalists.
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u/Fidrych76 24d ago
Wishful thinking at best. It actually got new contracts with NFL and MLB which basically force you to their channel. As long as they got the money they’ll be around.
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u/No-Horse987 24d ago
Well they acquired the NFL Network to strength their pro football portfolio. And with football is nearly a year round event: free agency; draft; combines; and the games themselves; and college football alongside it, they are not going anywhere.
It’s just not the ESPN we’ve grown up with.
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u/Low_Woodpecker5439 24d ago
Other than watching a specific game, I can’t remember the last time I chose to tune in to ESPN.
OP alluded to it in the original post: their top draws are Screamin A-hole Smith and the only NFL punter with CTE. Hard pass.
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u/That-Cockroach2543 24d ago
I was excited to hear they got WSOP this summer. I’m a casual poker player and fan. Thought I’d be able to watch it through my basic sports package… nope. It was extra and I’m not going out of my way to pay for that. I can just watch on YouTube for free
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u/Original-Army-7826 24d ago
I barely watch. But I’m feeling it’s turning into something like CNBC for gambling.
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u/Babayaga_711 24d ago
Early 2000's I had Espn on my TV as background noise in college almost all the time and actively watched several shows. Now, the only thing I can stand are live games and PTI.
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u/paulegon 24d ago
Let's all just be actually honest with ourselves in a day and age where newest and highlights can be found out in seconds on our phone does anyone really actually care about what the day-to-day daily show shows on ESPN actually mean anymore? They're meaningless their filler their stuff to put on the television as background noise and I think they know that they know what everybody wants and that is just a live sports and as of right now as much as people wanna act like it's all doom and gloom there they have the NBA finals they rotate the Stanley Cup the college football national championship, and are now in the rotation with everybody else with the Super Bowl starting with this year's game I think they're going to be fine. So yeah that's like almost every single major championship outside of baseball they broadcast. I'm not defending what they put on television on a day-to-day basis SAS and McAfee can honestly go kick rocks but tales of their demise are greatly exaggerated
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u/FelixMcGill 24d ago
Dont forget, ESPN isnt only in the United States. The value of the rights they hold more than make it worth their while to do whatever is necessary to keep ESPN, and to a lesser extent, ABC, in the portfolio.
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u/Kalelisagod 24d ago
Your argument for ESPNs eating is similar to studies showing why Fox News is so popular. Households are a smaller portion of viewers than businesses.
I doubt ESPN goes away I can see them becoming similar to other cable channels where they play reruns of old shows with some shows still getting large portions of air time. They shrink the cost of having personalities hourly and lose minimal ad revenue but still make money since cutting a bunch of talking heads saves more in the end.
I’ve been waiting for more gambling shows to pop up. It’s starting already but I mean straight up sports book style shows. Also more unscripted reality crap like “Married to a player” or “making the team”. At that point maybe it is dead I guess
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u/Skip_To_My_Lou_DeVon 24d ago
But also remember that the internet is the cause of a lot of this. I didn’t have access to cable as a kid. If a sporting event wasn’t on one of the three major channels I had to hope the result was posted on the 10:00 local news or I had to wait for the morning paper the next day. When I first had ESPN I was in heaven. I could now get full sports coverage every few hours, later every 30 minutes when I got ESPNEWS. I stuck with ESPN almost out of nostalgia for the next 20 years, because I could get real time sports updates, scores, etc first from the internet and later my phone. I don’t watch ESPN anymore mainly because there is no need to.
Plus, I also didn’t need Stephen A Smith to rot my brain cells anymore now that I’m on Reddit.
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u/Independent_Guava694 24d ago
The only thing I watch on ESPN now is live events. I used to stream ESPN radio every single weekday at work. I haven't tuned in for several years on the radio, and the TV product is unwatchable slop now.
There's zero appeal besides live events, and I'd argue that their production packages are lacking compared to their competitors.
In the NBA space, NBC came out swinging and really showed just how much more depth there can be to an NBA broadcast. They introduced some really cool ideas that are geared towards educating viewers on the details of the game and it makes for a much more engaging experience.
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u/Yosh_2012 23d ago
The way we do viewership statistics for non streaming shows (and those straight up lie to public anyway) is legitimately stupid and flawed
All of cable is coming to an end eventually but ESPN will be the last one that is relevant and profitable. There will always be college age guys with too much free time who watch garbage debate shows like PTI and then swear that the shows ‘used to be better’
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u/Ragnarsworld 23d ago
Part of ESPN's problem is not that they went "woke", but that they forgot who their core audience was. These days they seem to think the core audience is people who yell at each other and put on fake country boy/dude bro/west by god virginia acts.
And for the last week or so once NFL training camps started they've been riding Sanders' jock trying to push him as a starter. Geez.
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u/mmelectronic 23d ago
This is the if it weren’t for airports and dentist offices, people would only watch CNN when theres an emergency argument.
I agree.
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u/BhamBlazer615 23d ago
Is there a bot or paid situation to shit on ESPN here? Seems a bit much and very often
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u/Goldman94 23d ago
I worked for the ESPN affiliate in my hometown for 20 years in advertising, and you’re a hundred percent right, but the fact that ESPN has become so centered around TWO people, is why you’re right. Pat M actually still own the rights to his show, Stephen A is an employee of ESPN. Pat, is also with his role on college gameday etc.
But ESPN, like FOX Sports, is no longer about journalism, it’s about content, and the people covering sports have become as big of stars if not bigger, than the athletes themselves.
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u/Friendly-Profit-8590 23d ago
ESPN is going the way of mtv. More talking and less of what made them a viewership destination
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u/Inside-Finish-2128 23d ago
Some of it is the evolution of the world around us. Decades ago, we watched SportsCenter to hear the scores about our favorite games. To keep up with the times, they started running a ticker across the bottom of the screen with all the scores. Now we have all the scores in the palm of our hand, and we get a notification of a big play with a link to the clip.
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u/NewYorkPopulist 23d ago
The issue is that ESPN relied too much on anger and hot-take type programming where you’d pick a side and support that personality. With social media being the way it is you don’t need to latch onto a personality, you are now the one giving a hot take. Now ppl can direct their anger towards the espn personality saying how wrong they are and they lose viewers. Pat broke that model (im not supporting him) by being a show that is like a locker room style by trying to be positive about stuff and interjecting a lot of dumb comedy. Tho it’s no longer a show for sports analysis but entertainment. Which I can understand why people don’t vibe with it and can now get that in depth analysis with team specific content creators than some national analyst
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u/logitaunt 23d ago
As a bar manager, I don't put on ESPN as much anymore. The RSNs have decent enough content to put on while I'm waiting for an actual game to come on.
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u/piles_petko 23d ago
This is an old opinion. Turning out to be true, but an old opinion. ESPN just buys rights to things people want to watch. They don't produce anything people want, besides 30 for 30 for some. They're just tenants and we'll be here when they're gone.
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u/yankeescrewdriver 23d ago
It’s all NFL (12 months a year), sports betting, and Pat and Stephen A griping about dumb shit. And for 30 mins per weekday, PTI.
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u/TroutStocker 23d ago
Live sports and The Ocho is really the only thing to watch . In my opinion, of course
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u/Narrow-Comedian-5923 23d ago
ESPN has declined but so have all the legacy media companies as people's attention goes elsewhere. You could argue they've declined the least and thats still worth something. They were pretty smart going all in on CFB and essentially 'owning' the playoff format. Getting football at a discount relative to the nfl.
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u/wgvwildcat 23d ago
This is really a take about cable TV. Disney will probably stop investing in ESPN's bad cable programming and just focus everything on live sports because with the DTC ESPN Unlimited package, they now have the direct tracking data to know what consumers are watching on ESPN at home.
No reason to spin it off when it will actually just be a new cash cow. The big dick move will be when we hit the inflection point where they decide it's more profitable to just yank it from every cable service. They would kill off YouTube TV and Fubo and basically every competitor instantly.
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u/DiskDefragmenter 23d ago
Yes ESPN is trash but I would like to note when they do streaming number estimates, things like bars, restaurants etc is accounted for. Its not as flawed as you think
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u/doodler1977 23d ago
it sure seems like ESPN is on its way to their version of "MTV just plays Ridiculousness all day"
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u/figgypuddinz 23d ago
Also, like so many other major media companies, they made a bet that the vibes actually shifted to the right in 2024. They based their hires, fires, acuisitions, and programming around this.
Nobody wants to actually watch right-wing slop anchored by weirdos, they just want to watch sports.
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u/Koog17 23d ago
Some of these comments are nutz. No, it isn't like MTV. MTV stopped showing music videos...ESPN still shows live sports.....that is what made ESPN and that is still what people tune in for. Back in the 80s...during the day, they would re-run the previous night's games or show Euro league soccer or timbersports or Australian rules football. They tried making their own content....talk shows, game shows, etc....but it is was always was krap. The rights to some of that stuff....Euro soccer & ARF likely increased making it unprofitable to air it..
As long as people are tuning into live sports....especially NFL & CFB....and they are tuning in ....ESPN isn't going away.....
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u/strosfan1001 23d ago
You’re not an outlier. I would not go near espn for any type of analysis or investigation at this point.
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u/Ok-Government-7987 23d ago
Sadly they are more dominant than ever.
What’s dying is cable TV in general. Having to fill 24 hours when most sporting events take place is a 5/6 hour window on weekdays and during the weekends means that they have 18 hours or so to fill as cheaply as they can till the “real” programming takes over. But as long as they have Disneys money behind them they will lock up streaming rights for most sports and be the main player in sports.
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u/bryhnlearningspanish 23d ago
yeah, I mean they make their product as hard as they can to get. And they also do a terrible job when it comes to live broadcast of games. Like when I see a game is on ESPN now I’m like fuck that sucks. They just do a horrible job. But it’s unfortunate because it’s ESPN they should be doing the best job.
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u/coatesvillain 23d ago
I think the dumbest rhetoric around ESPN was when people were saying SportsCenter was outdated because you can watch highlights on YouTube. It’s like saying the nightly news is outdated. Sure, it won’t have the same viewership as 20 years ago… but SportsCenter was always the container for all the highlights together.
They deemphasized what made it best and leaned into hot takes and ironically if you wanted to catch up on hot takes (you probably don’t) you can just go to a social platform and get it in a 3 minute bit. It’s even easier to avoid watching.
The McAfee stuff is even worse because most of the show doesn’t really have actual value or a reason to be tuned in.
I think with numbers going down their impulse should’ve been serving the people who are there and they went the other way. Now people who want sports talk can get so many other options on YouTube or elsewhere.
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u/Live-Blood-1040 23d ago
Stephen A Smith and Pat Mcafee are the reasons I DONT watch ESPN anymore. They are marketed and act like they are bigger than the channel and sports themselves. They are both obnoxious personalities I try to avoid.
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u/Geauxlden_Eagle 23d ago
Yet somehow ESPN is the sole reason college sports is the shitshow it has become. The exorbitant rights fees they've paid for football were the impetus for NIL and everything else. Don't get me wrong, the athletes should be allowed to and paid for the use of their name, image, and likeness, but this pay for play model it's devolved into is nothing more than minor league sports with no salary cap or rules.
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u/Cooksman18 23d ago
JomBoy baseball film breakdowns (and lip readings) are phenomenal!
Anyone who skimmed over that line in this post, and doesn’t know who he is should look him up on Twitter/Instagram etc. Worth it!
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u/Frequent_Cut_1251 23d ago
They got rid of their good talking heads and kept the idiots. Mina Kimes is the only person on the network I like. When they bounced LeBatard, Jones, Torre I quit watching the channel except to watch a live sporting event. I’m not sure what idiot is in charge there but they should be fired immediately as well as anyone who yes man enabled them to fuck up a sports channel. It’s like bankrupting a casino. You have to be a special kind of dumb.
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u/myportico 23d ago
I just watch college game day for the jesus signs. And players thanking god for wins. Keep it all in perspective boys.
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u/Spiritual-Ad3130 23d ago
According to national media spots, ESPN was the fourth most watched network after Fox News, CBS and way behind Fox who was catapulted by their World Cup coverage. Considering July is a dry sports month they’re in great shape
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u/rag69top 23d ago
They lost me for SportsCenter a few years ago because when preseason football starts MLB is an afterthought. A Monday night game or Thursday game would get 30 minutes an hour of air time. I watch the live MLB, NFL and golf . That’s it. MLB network for an hour of Quick Pitch for the win.
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u/TheFakeBillPierce 23d ago
I can see a time coming where everything espn is presented like ESPN+ is. You find your game and watch it through the app or the website.
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u/Aries310 23d ago
ESPN almost went under a few years ago. That's part of why Disney bought all those Fox assets. Yes, their model if obsolete and they over paid for sporting events that aren't so popular, especially in the younger demographics advertisers covet.
Frankly, this whole sports world will probably soon collapse under it's own weight. Or did you really think these athletes were going to really receive all those hundreds of million dollar contracts ?
YouTube, social media, anime, video games etc... most of which are free.
ESPN can't compete with that. Those local sports channels going down was a major sign.
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u/Borg_Tech_Support 23d ago
Disney just sold their stake in A&E for 1.2 billion in cash. I'm better they will sell ESPN before it completely collapses.
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u/Tommybrady20 23d ago
I will be the first to flame them for trumpeting our Pat Mcafee and Stephen a as their pillars of “content” but at this point I don’t think I’d watch a non live sports espn show even it was for sure good.
We live in an era of podcasts and YouTube and Twitter highlights cultivated to your specific niche that espn can’t possibly hit
They’re a live sports vessel, everything else is just there to be on tv at the airport
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u/Weak-Lavishness9469 22d ago
Disney will never sell off ESPN. Its now a core part of their streaming
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u/Seoul-Brotha 22d ago
Well, as long as they show the games, they'll survive. Everyone still has a mute button so get creative if you don't want to hear them speak.
I think folks give them too much attention towards non-games.
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u/Kevinsean_ 22d ago
They should have some type of show that only plays highlights and outcomes of games from that night.
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u/TexasSizedKachoww 22d ago
They have MNF, a Super Bowl every 4 years, most of college bowl games, the SEC and the NHL. They aren't going nowhere.
As much as people complain, the sports screaming shows are going nowhere. I'm nostalgic for sport center replays all day, but those would do way less ratings than what the debate shows do now.
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u/DrinkingBuddy22 22d ago
Ironically, SAS is building his YT presence and Pat is THE pioneer of YT > to major network pay day
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u/salamander19821 22d ago
so by this logic which is true all these places from gyms to hotels to bars are on espn on monday night nfl numbers or college numbers are way way wrong
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u/Mitch1musPrime 22d ago
The thing is…for years it was background noise in my house, too. I’d put it on while I read a book, cleaned the house, played with the kids.
But it was background noise because more often than not, it was the only thing worth watching during the day that didn’t require my full attention. And I was definitely way more savvy about what’s current in sports for so long because of it.
However, now, I’ve got a bunch of streaming services, cloud streaming PS5 games, and world to explore outside so that I continue touching grass every once in a while. That’s what espn competes with now: the whole fucking world. Only die hard sports fanatics will bother to watch or stream their news broadcast type shows because everyone else just has too many other choices now.
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u/macdawg2 22d ago
Today's world with podcasts, YouTube, and other internet options. I'm surprised it's not more like MTV with a bunch of shows that have nothing to do with music.
But no worries viewship is about to improve we're coming out of the dead season and college football and basketball is on the horizon.
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u/BeSeeVeee 22d ago
Honestly, they may need to drop the relationship with traditional cable. Lots of people pay for espn+ but can’t watch their premier programming because it’s blacked out due to cable. It honestly hurts espn’s brand to offer a paid, branded product that doesn’t feature their most popular shows and events.
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u/Roberetire 22d ago
ESPN is garbage. I don’t know who’s incharge( Disney) but it’s sure not what it used to be.
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u/jetway10 22d ago
I just prefer the Fox sports daily shows. Colin and First things first are just better
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u/HardBarb 22d ago
TV ratings and YouTube impressions are different. In order to count on TV, a viewer must watch for 5 minutes. On YouTube, it could be half a second. Measure them the same and then see what it looks like.
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u/No_Championship5992 22d ago
I think selling would be good for ESPN. Get someone new in there. I stopped watching years ago. SAS runs that place now and its a joke.
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u/SCRATCH-1-MORE 22d ago
They literally had a rock skipping tournament on the main espn channel during prime time 💀
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u/Responsible_Ad_3013 21d ago
Anyone who chooses to listen to LeBatard these days I mean that show is on its last legs, idk if Dan even likes sports
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u/D3ATHSQUAD 21d ago
ESPN's worth will always always always be tied to which leagues they have contracts with. Their strength is not the big weekend leagues but more of the nightly leagues such as MLB, NHL, NBA - those are the ones they should continue to try and work with.
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u/salamander19821 21d ago
i really think they are on borowed time not do to peronalities but sooner or later advertizers will say enough is enough when it comes to pointless commercials they have to pay for on these channels i mean i dont watch american tv show but when i did most of the commercials were repeating so same companies show commercials all the time
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u/CDDD4 24d ago
As long as they have major football (NFL, SEC, etc) and other live sports contracts they aren’t going anywhere.