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ESPN Ombudsman: Deal with it

If that is their feeling and opinions then their demise will happen much quicker.
Maybe they need to understand what the acronym ESPN means.
You let go of some of the best folks in the business and you act as if things are fine. You can't help people when they refuse to see.
 
ESPN was built on the viewership of red-blooded, sports crazy males. Why they have chosen to deviate from that group is extremely puzzling.

Why would any CEO jeopardize losing their main clientele by choosing programming that could cause them to stop supporting their product?

I always assumed that an entity as big as ESPN was being run by intelligent people. After seeing the programming they have chosen to air lately, it is evident that is definitely not the case.
 
Haven't watched ESPN in--literally--five years. If the game is on ESPN, I listen to the radio. Two things I will not tolerate:

  1. I watch sports to get away from politics, not to be drug back in the mud. ESPN evidently believes they can use their clout as a megaphone for their own cultural games.
  2. Less sports for more "talk". Morons shouting at morons shouting at morons. No. Just, no.
 
I wanna see what a right-wing sports network looks like.

I bet Wisconsin basketball gets hella airtime. In between the tennis, NASCAR and golf coverage of course.
 
I wanna see what a right-wing sports network looks like.

I bet Wisconsin basketball gets hella airtime. In between the tennis, NASCAR and golf coverage of course.

That's such a biased statement!!!

Oh, I forgot, there is no such thing as bias when making fun of conservatives.[eyeroll]
 
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It's MTV redux
Yep that's exactly the analogy I have made. MTV thought itself to be too big and too important to confine itself to music and bit by bit they no longer even have music. They're just a 3rd rate reality network now. ESPN is on the same trajectory.

ESPN still gets big sports events but they are the worst network out there at covering those events. Now getting rid of the sports guys and keeping their entertainment guys they are becoming even less of a sports network.
 
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That's such a biased statement!!!

Oh, I forgot, there is no such thing as bias when making fun of conservatives.[eyeroll]

Awww. Didn't mean to offend conservatives with a joke. I like to jab both sides. Red teamers are easier to rile in general but it could be because there's more of them where I live.

Try the spirit of the guy below

No rodeo coverage?

It's replaced choreographed protesting from mom's basement at 4 a.m. Wednesdays. Check your local listings for more information on the newly launched Coservative Sports Network, formerly known as MSNBC-Bristol.
 
People say they don't want to hear "politics" on whatever (sports shows, cooking shows, etc.). I think what people today don't want is to hear differing opinions.

No, people just don't want to hear about politics on sports channels. Has nothing to do with differing opinions.

It's the same reason I don't go to CNN or the Weather Channel expecting to watch the ball game or commentary concerning it.
 
It's MTV redux
Exactly what I was scrolling down to post. Can't wait to see how this works out for their bottom line. How's MTV doing now (as HBO Lite) compared to when they ruled the entertainment world with an iron first, but then couldn't handle the stigma of being mostly just music?
 
I agree that politics has no place on ESPN, but none of you guys have touched at the heart of this issue. ESPN/Sportscenter demise signifies a cultural and technological shift. Ppl don't need Sportscenter for highlights anymore! In fact the sports rundown model is all but dead. Anybody can look on there smartphone or social media much faster than waiting one hour to see what they want sprinkled in a show. This is why ESPN has to push 30 for 30, OTL, E60, and the SC6 type of programs. They HAVE to bring more to the table or the will die the same death of movie rental stores, or yellow pages, or VHS/cassettes, etc. This is the crux of their issues and the question is have they missed the boat already or can they make a turn.
 
No, people just don't want to hear about politics on sports channels. Has nothing to do with differing opinions.

It's the same reason I don't go to CNN or the Weather Channel expecting to watch the ball game or commentary concerning it.

I understand that if you’re interested in getting information about sports you might not want to dilute it with other topics – whether it be politics or traffic or something else. But I don’t think that’s the truth of what’s going on with most that complain about this. Because it sure seems to me that the people who seem to complain the most about “politics” being interjected into some non-sports program/format are the same ones that try to interject it, usually in a back-handed way, into half the posts/opinions/statements they offer. And they always make it abundantly clear that they don’t like the mixing because they deem it to be a different political view from that of the “political team” they root for.
 
I agree that politics has no place on ESPN, but none of you guys have touched at the heart of this issue. ESPN/Sportscenter demise signifies a cultural and technological shift. Ppl don't need Sportscenter for highlights anymore! In fact the sports rundown model is all but dead. Anybody can look on there smartphone or social media much faster than waiting one hour to see what they want sprinkled in a show. This is why ESPN has to push 30 for 30, OTL, E60, and the SC6 type of programs. They HAVE to bring more to the table or the will die the same death of movie rental stores, or yellow pages, or VHS/cassettes, etc. This is the crux of their issues and the question is have they missed the boat already or can they make a turn.

Brilliant point.
 
I'm liberal as hell and don't mind about injection of politics, but I never watch ESPN outside of games. People saying "stick to what you do" are missing that what they traditionally do is quickly becoming obsolete. Highlights are all over the internet, twitter, etc. I don't need to turn on a tv channel and watch talking heads for analysis. They aren't dying because they got away from what they used to do. They're getting away from what they used to do in an attempt - very possibly a misguided or futile attempt - to draw viewers in a different way. Ten years ago I watched Sports Center every day to see what was going on in sports. Now I never watch it, and see what's going on by following people on twitter and checking the sports subs on reddit.
 
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I agree that politics has no place on ESPN, but none of you guys have touched at the heart of this issue. ESPN/Sportscenter demise signifies a cultural and technological shift. Ppl don't need Sportscenter for highlights anymore! In fact the sports rundown model is all but dead. Anybody can look on there smartphone or social media much faster than waiting one hour to see what they want sprinkled in a show. This is why ESPN has to push 30 for 30, OTL, E60, and the SC6 type of programs. They HAVE to bring more to the table or the will die the same death of movie rental stores, or yellow pages, or VHS/cassettes, etc. This is the crux of their issues and the question is have they missed the boat already or can they make a turn.

Finally somebody gets too what is actually happening.

Also this isn't about content or ratings. Everybody keeps saying they won't watch and it will help quicken Espn's demise. This isn't about bad ratings, although worse ratings will lead to them selling ad's/commercials at a cheaper rate, that alone hasn't caused what is happening now. This is about the demise of the Cable/Satellite providers. Espn has lost approximately 15 million subscribers in the last 6 years and that's what is crippling the network. All the people here not watching ESPN is not what's hurting them, as long as you have a cable/satellite package that includes ESPN they really couldn't care less rather you watch or not. This is about the younger generation and people in general cutting the cord to cable/satellite providers and getting their fix from other outlets via social media. Espn has contracts that where bid on at the peak of TV viewing, now TV subscriptions are falling like the stock market in 2008. Although better leadership could have potentially seen this coming I don't think it's fair to just say they are stupid and it's their politics that are causing this. A lot of networks are dealing with this and it's a big reason for the crazy rise of reality TV as it's cheap to pay, produce and air reality shows. Espn does not have that luxury, their content is getting more expensive every year as contracts of the players and broadcasting rights continue to rise.
 
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I agree that politics has no place on ESPN, but none of you guys have touched at the heart of this issue. ESPN/Sportscenter demise signifies a cultural and technological shift. Ppl don't need Sportscenter for highlights anymore! In fact the sports rundown model is all but dead. Anybody can look on there smartphone or social media much faster than waiting one hour to see what they want sprinkled in a show. This is why ESPN has to push 30 for 30, OTL, E60, and the SC6 type of programs. They HAVE to bring more to the table or the will die the same death of movie rental stores, or yellow pages, or VHS/cassettes, etc. This is the crux of their issues and the question is have they missed the boat already or can they make a turn.

I watch NBATV most mornings for their highlight show/commentary. 30 to 60 minute doses.

There's still a market, if the content is packaged correctly.
 
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You have to be a full-fledged digital media company now

That's cool.

But does being a full-fledged media company require you to cover politics in a biased manner and inject it into sports coverage?

The answer, of course is "no."

The argument the ombudsman is making is that covering politics is inevitable, because of its cross-section with sports.

Fine. So cover it. But cover it in a balanced manner.

Hire conservative pundits for 538.

Don't fire Curt Schilling for "hate" speech.

Get rid of the Undefeated, or develop a sister site that focuses primarily on white people in athletics.

The stated need to cover politics is simply a cover for Disney/ABC to promote its liberal agenda through sports programming.

But make no mistake, they built their empire on sports, purchased the broadcast rights to programming that many Americans are not going to turn away from, and accordingly, they have a captive audience on which to push their agenda.

But, as evidenced by criticisms the ombudsman is referencing and even comments in this thread, even in spite of the programming they have, they have turned off enough people who are willing to sacrifice watching something they enjoy, in order to not be subjected to the tripe ESPN spews during its programming. That is failure.
 
How do I know I'm not in ESPN's new demographic?
Because of all the ESPN channels I get...including the original, 2, U and News....I find myself actually wishing Classic was part of my package.
 
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I see a thread on someone thinking about cutting cable at least once a month on this board. And this board is full of the demographic cable companies crave. Nobody wants to buy cable packages anymore, especially the youths who are watching people play Zelda and over watch on YouTube or twitch.

Espn tied their whole business model to cable and they can't do snythinh about it. People can't binge watch sports any time they want like they can with everything else, so they don't watch.
 
This is like a glancing blow on the hurt meter and I don't like it either, but there is a WAY larger picture than what ESPN used to or is noted for doing. Regardless of what any entity does well, if they do not EFFECTIVELY ADAPT they will die! Not a matter of it but when. Cable TV and rundown sports news is a dinosaur. ESPN has to marry sports with cultural elements (politics excluded). That demand is high.

In fact I have a thriving podcast b/c we incorporate sports with everyday life and vice versa. We have a market b/c we predicted this over a year ago would happen to espn. Switching The Coverage is name of podcast. We are on iTunes, Souncloud, and are @switchcoverage on twitter. (Also no 13 Bracketology in world).

I was the guy who would watch 3 straight episodes of Sportscenter to see what I missed in the 1st 2 episodes. I have no interest what so ever in watching 60 minutes of SC not really b/c of the ppl or the content, but b/c I can get it easier than what ESPN can provide on TV. I'm on espn.com and twitter for news, and only watch espn for 30 for 30/ E60 and for games.



That's cool.

But does being a full-fledged media company require you to cover politics in a biased manner and inject it into sports coverage?

The answer, of course is "no."

The argument the ombudsman is making is that covering politics is inevitable, because of its cross-section with sports.

Fine. So cover it. But cover it in a balanced manner.

Hire conservative pundits for 538.

Don't fire Curt Schilling for "hate" speech.

Get rid of the Undefeated, or develop a sister site that focuses primarily on white people in athletics.

The stated need to cover politics is simply a cover for Disney/ABC to promote its liberal agenda through sports programming.

But make no mistake, they built their empire on sports, purchased the broadcast rights to programming that many Americans are not going to turn away from, and accordingly, they have a captive audience on which to push their agenda.

But, as evidenced by criticisms the ombudsman is referencing and even comments in this thread, even in spite of the programming they have, they have turned off enough people who are willing to sacrifice watching something they enjoy, in order to not be subjected to the tripe ESPN spews during its programming. That is failure.
 
Could save some money for how much they pay Joey Brackets to make guesses and way too early bracketology. Also could shed some salary on Chad Ford who edits his draft board after the NBA draft takes place.
 
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Channels like ESPN & league network packages are losing subscribers to live streaming websites that host sporting events. Even on YouTube that are password protected or must have the link because they are unlisted. Only that streamer is paying for a cable subscription. No traffic is going to ESPN or those companies for those games, just the website the game is being streamed on. There are tons of people who do that. You can get something like Amazon Fire Stick, get the program Kodi, has other TV channels & Movies to watch on there free.
 
My guess is that Curt Schilling is truly enjoying ESPN's demise........
Isn't Schilling still on the payroll? Pretty sure I saw him and Rick Sutcliffe in the booth the other night for the Red Sox Yankees game while I was at the gym....
 
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