The popularity of ESPN

[Art]

According to a survey commissioned by BTIG Research, 85% of 1,600 people plooed said they would not be willing to spend $20/mo. for a standalone ESPN/ESPN2 subscription. When asked if they could save $8/mo on their current cable bill by cancelling the same package, 56% said they would.

See link for the entire story.http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/espn-standalone-streaming/

 

[jabba2]

Only thing worth watching on ESPN is college sports. Maybe the once per week MLB game occasionally. Just not what they want for it.

 

[MtNittany]

According to a survey commissioned by BTIG Research, 85% of 1,600 people plooed said they would not be willing to spend $20/mo. for a standalone ESPN/ESPN2 subscription. When asked if they could save $8/mo on their current cable bill by cancelling the same package, 56% said they would.

See link for the entire story.http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/espn-standalone-streaming/

 

[BowieLion]

Yup, you identified a major part of the problem...the 4 letter is only good for live sports viewing, the rest is crap.

 

[Ten Thousan Marbles]

Yup, you identified a major part of the problem...the 4 letter is only good for live sports viewing, the rest is crap.

Scores and highlights are OK, too. But they need to can the goofy commentary. rein in the egos.

 

[91Joe95]

Disney destroyed that channel for me.

 

[broey1]

The one thing they should do is show more sports & have less talk.

 

[Harer19]

ESPN went down hill without my man Stuart Scott!

 

[Lane]

According to a survey commissioned by BTIG Research, 85% of 1,600 people plooed said they would not be willing to spend $20/mo. for a standalone ESPN/ESPN2 subscription. When asked if they could save $8/mo on their current cable bill by cancelling the same package, 56% said they would.

See link for the entire story.http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/espn-standalone-streaming/

Only thing better is if the people had pooed instead of plooed.

Then we would have known if they gave a crap.

 

[Relayer]

ESPN went down hill without my man Stuart Scott!

You do remember Stuart Scott was the anchor on ESPN the night Joe got fired and was basically encouraging riots in State College. It's sad what the man went through and he seemed like a good guy, but I will never forget how he acted on the air that particular evening. No surprise his buddy Stephen A Smith called for the death penalty the following day.

 

[sss]

Agreed, Stuart Scott was the worst that night. I can't remember if I had any respect for him before, but I certainly did not after that night. I wonder how many times he asked the people on the ground that night, "Do you see a riot?:" It was the most surreal TV viewing I think I have ever watched.

 

[Harer19]

You do remember Stuart Scott was the anchor on ESPN the night Joe got fired and was basically encouraging riots in State College. It's sad what the man went through and he seemed like a good guy, but I will never forget how he acted on the air that particular evening. No surprise his buddy Stephen A Smith called for the death penalty the following day.

I honestly don't remember watching that or seeing that! I think I tried to shut out the media at that time! Too devastating!

 

[Fizz1]

ESPN owns the SEC network.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...-bias-ownership-derrick-thomas-manziel-stoops

 

[Op2]

Yup, you identified a major part of the problem...the 4 letter is only good for live sports viewing, the rest is crap.

And on top of that, the only reason ESPN is good for viewing live sports is because they have exclusive rights to a lot of live sports. It's not like every channel has the same live sports but people tune in to ESPN because their coverage is so good. Their live sports coverage is fairly crappy but if they are the only channel showing the game you want to watch then you have no choice but to watch them.

 

[JoeBatters1]

Here's hoping the cord cutting continues and ESPN goes out of business completely.

As for Stuart Scott, he represented everything wrong with the ESPNinazation of sports. At ESPN all games were reduced to highlight clips and the studio host became the star attraction- not the players. Scott was the epitome of the narcissist culture of ESPN where everything was about the sportscaster - it was all about me. We've mentioned on this board about how ESPN made stars out of nobodies like Vitale and Corso, well that's what ESPN does - it makes losers into celebrities and gets the ignorant/dumb public to think that utterances from these losers actually mean something. Never forget that the "E" in ESPN stands for entertainment. There is certainly much better entertainment available than what ESPN is offering.

 

[BPXCIV]

Espn jumped the shark long ago

 

[BBrown]

Scores and highlights are OK, too. But they need to can the goofy commentary. rein in the egos.

Agreed. That (what they think is smart and funny) commentary was played out about 15 years ago. It ended when Dan Patrick left and the other guy became so full of himself it was impossible to get his head into the shot.

 

[BobPSU92]

ESPN went down hill without my man Stuart Scott!

Sad what happened to Scott, but he was awful. His act grew tired quickly. espn went downhill with Scott. That's the problem with espn. They hire characters, not just good sports analysts. These guys go into character on the air, and it's terrible.

 

[BobPSU92]

Agreed, Stuart Scott was the worst that night. I can't remember if I had any respect for him before, but I certainly did not after that night. I wonder how many times he asked the people on the ground that night, "Do you see a riot?:" It was the most surreal TV viewing I think I have ever watched.

Yup, Scott was a douchebag that night.

 

[Franklin_Restores_TheTradition]

Sad what happened to Scott, but he was awful. His act grew tired quickly. espn went downhill with Scott. That's the problem with espn. They hire characters, not just good sports analysts. These guys go into character on the air, and it's terrible.

True, but I would argue that this "model" ("hire individual characters" and try to "brand" them) was predicated upon "Boomer", "Swami", Chris Berman who was the station's lead sportscaster (along with Bob Ley) since it's founding in 1979.

I think it's fine to have these types of "personalities" do the SportsCenter intraday review to make it somewhat entertaining (no different than pre-game shows), but ESPN went overboard when they tried to brand all these personalities with their own shows, followings, etc... - personalities like Jim Rome, etc... Nobody could watch all these scrappy "sports talk shows" with "game show host personalities" - it really gets old turning on ESPN and the only thing that's on all the channels is a re-run of SportsCenter or a crappy sports talk-sbow featuring a bunch of morons screaming at one another arguing about a really dumb topic that most of them know a fraction of what they think they know about it! Used to watch ESPN a lot, but not that much anymore except for live broadcasts of games.