ESPN
- Thread starter steinek11
- Start date
Crazy how poorly management has been at one of the biggest brands in the world. I work at a different fortune top 50, and it's been a disaster since woke CEO's took over a few years ago.
Van Gundy was the only reason to listen to an NBA game. Jackson is terrible. Otherwise when ESPN people start spouting agenda talking points mute they go.
I like McShay a lot. The rest are well-known, but I am pretty indifferent to them.
Suzy Kolber is the one that shocked me. She's an actual host with some cred who's been around for awhile. Most are just former players.
Never had anything against her, but didn't think that she brought that much to the table. Not in the league of say, Doris Burke, who frankly is as good or better than any of the male analysts.
I'm not happy to see him lose his job and Todd & Mel had a good chemistry together. But he had a reputation (perhaps unfair) for not actually putting in the time watching as much film as he should. And he had a good gig doing sideline reporting at college games, but he pretty much ruined that by showing up to work drunk.
I'm no ESPN fan. I don't even have the network at home anymore. But it does seem to me that ESPN has been making cost cutting moves in areas that were actually growing for them. They got rid of their original podcast department just as podcasts were really getting popular. They gutted their HS recruiting department a few years ago. They did the same with their fantasy football staff- and now two of their "experts" are a sportscaster and a podcast producer. These are guys who do not have any more expertise than you or I. Before you know it, Troy Aikman will also be doing NBA basketball and baseball.
I will be glad when Disney/ESPN figures out that having to have 1 male and 1 female for every sports broadcast is not necessary. Most of the time the women are horrible and I watch the games on mute.
With all the streaming and social media - highlight shows, sports debate etc just aren’t valuable
The real only thing of value is live sports - all the rest is just filler for which ESPN was overpaying
All the talking heads, analaysts etc values have plummeted thus the cut backs
People opining about draft picks, players rankings, recruits etc just aren’t worth mid to high six figures or in some cases 7 figures.
I think the main ESPN platform would do better just with live sports and playbacks of classic games from the past as filler(they would have to own the media rights to play these)
The real only thing of value is live sports - all the rest is just filler for which ESPN was overpaying
All the talking heads, analaysts etc values have plummeted thus the cut backs
People opining about draft picks, players rankings, recruits etc just aren’t worth mid to high six figures or in some cases 7 figures.
I think the main ESPN platform would do better just with live sports and playbacks of classic games from the past as filler(they would have to own the media rights to play these)
Maybe Disney will just replace the personalities with AI generated characters. Now don't laugh too much because in Taiwan there's already an AI generated weather person on TV who looks and sounds just like a real person giving the weather updates.
It is. I really have no idea what’s happening on network TV like NBC, CBS or ABC. I mostly watch YouTube for a wide variety of things. And when I do want to see a TV show or movie, I’ll look for one on Prime, Hulu, or Tubi. I’ve been doing this for a few years. The little I know about ESPN is from YouTube segments I watch, because they are all kind enough to load up a ton of content.
Right there with you. Exception is it'll be on at the gym when I'm there early in the morning, so I incidentally see the highlights and scores. Otherwise I really wouldn't be that informed, and nowadays, it doesn't break my heart.
It is now where you no longer watch a game or highlights without societal ills being injected. I want to watch pro football, not an advertisement for BLM on every field, I want to watch the college World Series, not see false advertising about gender equity and racial discrimination, I want to see highlights without personal biases on race or ethnicity. Sports Center was an every morning event for me while getting ready for work, now I puke when I even think of the network. I did a huge happy dance when the B1g left the Diversity World of Disney. The Evil Empire is going down in flames and I love it.
All of this madness was caused by ESG. For too long companies where saying “it’s ok we are losing money, our ESG rating is great”. Well a good ESG rating doesn’t pay payroll or debt. The financials should push the financials. Cash doesn’t lie at the end of the day. The ESG model worked ok at the start for broadcast companies like ESPN (Disney), HBO (WB discovery), and Netflix because the left enjoyed the content and the right was “hate watching”. And ofcourse the socialist that drive ESG we’re giving these companies high ratings.
But Eventually the right got tired of it and just turned it off. Started fighting them the best way they could, by not buying their products. Then eventually the moderate left and middle just got tired of it too. Then investors started looking at these companies and going “great your ESG rating is fantastic but you lost 9 Billion dollars in operating income last year (WB/ HBO) or your cash flows are extremely awful (Disney/ESPN)”. Things that are actually measurable.
So now companies are starting to say “screw ESG, let’s look at getting back to good profitable business and let our companies economic health drive our stock price”.
Make no mistake, ESG is a socialistic program. The stock market is a capitalist as anything comes. Socialism and capitalism don’t mix, ever
Let’s be honest, McAfee would have been to “white” for ESPN two years ago as their ESG model drove the company. But financially he would have always been a no-brainer.
But Eventually the right got tired of it and just turned it off. Started fighting them the best way they could, by not buying their products. Then eventually the moderate left and middle just got tired of it too. Then investors started looking at these companies and going “great your ESG rating is fantastic but you lost 9 Billion dollars in operating income last year (WB/ HBO) or your cash flows are extremely awful (Disney/ESPN)”. Things that are actually measurable.
So now companies are starting to say “screw ESG, let’s look at getting back to good profitable business and let our companies economic health drive our stock price”.
Make no mistake, ESG is a socialistic program. The stock market is a capitalist as anything comes. Socialism and capitalism don’t mix, ever
Let’s be honest, McAfee would have been to “white” for ESPN two years ago as their ESG model drove the company. But financially he would have always been a no-brainer.
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McAfee will say what he needs to say to keep his job. He will do and say what is needed.
ESPN just signed McAfee to an 85 million dollar deal
Not exactly a DEI hire
I’m with many on the viewing of espn. Back in the day I watched it constantly and knew who all their anchors were. Now, I never watch espn other than during football season, and it’s just live games at that. Couldn’t tell you any of their shows or anchors. They also went too political too.
The one that shocks me the most is Todd McShay. I enjoyed the first draft podcast he did with Mel. I'm sure that is going away now. Like others have said, I mainly get all my sports news from YouTube clips. I get to pick and choose what I want to watch and it's all ad-free with YouTube Premium.
I just hope ESPN isn't planning to center everything around Pat Mcafee. I don't hate him, but he is just another guy who likes to talk a lot and doesn't seem to care much about the college game.
Each year ESPN finds a way to suck more life out of college football. I'm surprised they didn't tell Lee Corso and Mel Kiper they are getting too old and need to hit the road.
I just hope ESPN isn't planning to center everything around Pat Mcafee. I don't hate him, but he is just another guy who likes to talk a lot and doesn't seem to care much about the college game.
Each year ESPN finds a way to suck more life out of college football. I'm surprised they didn't tell Lee Corso and Mel Kiper they are getting too old and need to hit the road.
I watched a show on Hulu the other day...it sort of seemed "older" just from like the phones and cars...I looked it up and it had been on network TV like 15 years ago. I literally never even heard of the show and it went two season, never saw a commercial, nothing.
TV is on life support as we know it.
Good take. The formula is simple, make programs that appeal to a large audience and advertisers will flock to it.
Cosby show was all black. America loved it. Friends and Seinfeld we’re almost entirely white and people loved it. The office had a pretty diverse cast and people loved the show.
They try so hard, and mostly fail