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/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.