ESPN Is Pathetic

shaggydog2000

shaggydog2000

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So I go to ESPN.com and checkout the Celtics page to see some if there is anything worth reading about there. Top of center column is an infographic comparing Isiah Thomas and John Wall's numbers head to head in last nights game. Good start. Next thing down is a video of Lebron, a man not playing in a series involving the Celtics, talking about IT. Next is a video of STEPHEN A SMITH shouting about something stupid. I didn't click on it, but I know he was shouting, and it was stupid all because STEPHEN A SMITH was the one talking. So yeah, ESPN is pretty pathetic by responding to everything on the planet with more Lebron and SAS.
 
edmunddantes

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At least they seem to have fixed the issue where ESPN.com content was completely unrelated to the page you actually wanted to see.

I had posted in here before about being on the NFL page and the first 15 stories highlighted in the main column contained 6 or 7 stories about other sports and not the NFL.

Just went back to see if it was any better, and the first 15 stories all included NFL related content.
 
Kliq

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Captaincoop said:
ESPN fired everyone who gathered any sports news, but they are still paying for awesome content like this:

http://theundefeated.com/features/kelly-oubre-jr-vs-kelly-olynyk/
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NBA Twitter and YouTube are filled with comments about white players all being wimps. It's a nice double racist situation where it is assumed that all white NBA players are pampered prep school kids and all black players are straight-from-the-hood thugs that scare all the white players.

Also, that is what Aaron Dobson is doing now?
 
Quiddity

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On the subject of ESPN going the "over the top" route a la HBO Now, I recall reading in the past that ESPN's contractual arrangements with the cable companies would make this a problem. That one of the ways ESPN is able to get on as many tiers as possible and at as high a rate as possible is because it has made concessions to the cable companies that it wouldn't go out there and offer an over the top option. By doing so, they could have contractual issues, but probably more importantly the cable companies would drop it from more tiers and/or push for a lower rate for the channel.

Ultimately there is no solution for ESPN IMHO. Their business model is built on forcing huge numbers of people who don't even watch the channel to pay them significant fees by forcing ESPN into as many cable packages as possible. With the rise in technology and the cord cutting phenomenon, the days of being able to ride massive profits due to this model are coming to an end. They are in a catch 22 situation where they are in a bad monetary position due to paying out these massive contracts to televise the sports leagues, but being able to air those games is the very thing that enables ESPN to push for such high rates to the cable companies. The entire model is collapsing, it was only a matter of time until it was going to.
 
T

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Only because these never get old (he's a hockey beat writer in Canada)...

 
ifmanis5

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Meanwhile, ESPN's problems still dragging on Disney.
Reuters Top News‏Verified account @Reuters 46m46 minutes ago
ESPN concerns drag on Disney, shares dip
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-walt-disney-results-idUSKBN1852FL?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
ESPN lost subscribers during the quarter and was hit with higher programming costs, in part due to a new, more costly NBA contract, Disney said in its earnings report. Fewer subscribers means less revenue for ESPN, which is locked into sports programming contracts for several years.

"Lower numbers of people paying for television is a big problem for ESPN, given the cost structure they have with sports rights over the next several years," said BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield.
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Ale Xander

Ale Xander

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Best 2 minutes (non-game) on ESPN in the last 10 years was the bit that just aired on PTI about wooing. (Cincy)
Can't stop laughing
 
ifmanis5

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Remember the downsizing? Now get ready for double downing...
http://deadline.com/2017/05/espn-revamps-sportscenter-boost-tv-digital-news-updates-1202093854/
ESPN Revamps ‘SportsCenter’ As It Boosts TV And Digital News Updates
Disney’s sports channel is focusing its TV schedule around personalities including Steve Levy, Kenny
Mayne, John Anderson, John Buccigross, Sage Steele, and Hannah Storm — who have signed new multi-year deals.
And starting August 28, SportsCenter will offer frequent news updates on TV as well as digital platforms.
The initiative, SportsCenter Right Now, will aim to offer twice per hour updates — more if there’s breaking news — on ESPN from 7:00 AM ET to 3:00 PM. They will “expand in placement and frequency over the following months,” the company says.
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Seabass

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I'm happy to rag on ESPN all day, but SVP's Sportscenter at midnight is what they should be doing more of. Smart, funny, and does deep dives on stories he cares about.
 
Red(s)HawksFan

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
And isn't there already an ESPN channel devoted to that with ESPN News? And also the Internet?
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ESPN News hasn't been about news in a long time. I think somewhere upthread I broke down a 24 hour cycle on ESPN News to be about 5 hours of Sportscenter-style programming and 19 hours of hottakez reruns of PTI, ATH, First Take, etc and occasional E60 / 30 for 30 documentaries.
 
kenneycb

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Seabass177 said:
I'm happy to rag on ESPN all day, but SVP's Sportscenter at midnight is what they should be doing more of. Smart, funny, and does deep dives on stories he cares about.
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They don't have the talent to do that though. And it's not like they really had it before the layoffs either. I guess Bucci might be able to do it but he can get annoying after a while. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else off the top of my head who could successfully do something similar.
 
John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
ESPN News hasn't been about news in a long time. I think somewhere upthread I broke down a 24 hour cycle on ESPN News to be about 5 hours of Sportscenter-style programming and 19 hours of hottakez reruns of PTI, ATH, First Take, etc and occasional E60 / 30 for 30 documentaries.
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That sucks. As you can tell, I haven't been on ESPN News in a long time*, I was still under the impression that they just ran a SportsCenter-esque half-hour show for most of the day.

* You know what's crazy, I distinctly remember when Bill Simmons was still writing his columns for Digital Cities and he was being courted by ESPN. He wrote about going to Bristol and meeting some people and one of the things he talked about how ESPN was going to debut a whole channel devoted to SportsCenter all day, which I assumed was ESPNews. But I just checked the Wiki page for ESPNews and it said that the channel was launched in 1996. So it couldn't have been Simmons who wrote about this.

Getting old is turning my brain to mush.
 
Cesar Crespo

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What's the point of reairing all the shows in a world where DVR exists? Also news updates sound good, but how much is actually going on in the sporting world between the hours of 7am-3pm?
 
kelpapa

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Marciano490 said:
The ESPN anchor who was fired as she returned from maternity leave had previously suffered a miscarriage while on air at the network. Heartbreaking story.

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/former-espn-anchor-shares-poignant-story-ivf-air-miscarriage-175425103.html
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Wow. I remember seeing her announcement on Twitter of the babies, and I was blown away that I hadn't noticed she had become pregnant. I had wondered about the back story on that - she posted that they had some difficulty, and didn't make any public announcements for that reason. I can't imagine having a miscarriage on live tv.

IIRC, David Price was her husband's best man at their wedding (and set them up).
 
Lose Remerswaal

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bosox79 said:
What's the point of reairing all the shows in a world where DVR exists? Also news updates sound good, but how much is actually going on in the sporting world between the hours of 7am-3pm?
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Saves money, and there are still folks in the world who don't have DVRs.

I'm looking forward to Bomani and Pablo. Pablo is consistently great, and other than Bomani's shots at Boston, he's one of the fairest talking heads on that network. Will make a real hole on ATH, and on ¿HQ?
 
Kliq

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Lose Remerswaal said:
Saves money, and there are still folks in the world who don't have DVRs.

I'm looking forward to Bomani and Pablo. Pablo is consistently great, and other than Bomani's shots at Boston, he's one of the fairest talking heads on that network. Will make a real hole on ATH, and on ¿HQ?
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Pablo is the best personality ESPN has and I don't know if it is particularly close. I really liked Bomani before his weak Boston takes and now my opinion of him is a little bit altered.
 
edoug

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ESPN has made at least one good decision, fire Jay Mariotti. Well Mariotti is having a twitter war with Scott Van Pelt. Today he tweeted this,
“22 dead in Manchester. Or are you too immersed in a frat-house ratings quest to know? Have a good day. #perspective”
 
DJnVa

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ESPN announcer on ESPN3 during CUSA baseball tourney.

"Pitch count climbing here. He had 27 pitches through 2 innings and now has doubled that during next 2 innings."

Yes--it seems like the pace is pretty much the same.
 
DJnVa

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More interesting than that--Mike and Mike apparently no longer get along: https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/05/22/mike-greenberg-mike-golic-relationship-espn-radio

ESPN Radio is now experiencing some off-camera issues of its own. Multiple ESPN staffers, including current and former employees who have had roles with the show, told SI.com last week that the once-warm relationship between partners Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic has turned icy over the last year, prompting a number of ESPNers to predict that the show will conclude long before this December’s contractual end. The sources said Greenberg and Golic are not talking to each other off the set—and hardly at all before the show or during commercial breaks.
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dcmissle

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This October will mark their 19th anniversary, if they make it.

First hint of differences between them, and that's quite remarkable. Many marriages make it only a third as long.
 
The Long Tater

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E5 Yaz said:
I'm still trying to wrap my head around two hours of SAS and Max Kellerman
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I had this show on for 45 minutes this morning while packing up a hotel room. It's just awful. Obviously I'm not the target market, but who is?
 
dcmissle

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My the four-letter is quite the collection of star fuckers, to and through the point where the stars fade.

The ESPN crawl on the weekend of the pivotal accident was THE most Soviet style piece of reporting I have ever seen in a sports context.

I say this with little or no vitriol in the direction of Tiger Woods. Even if one grants the truth of every negative remark ever made about him, Woods has had a stunning fall from grace. There is no there to visit anymore, for any redeeming purpose.

ESPN, on the other hand, clearly has not suffered enough.
 
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