Despite the popularity of the NFL Draft this week in Philadelphia, there is trouble at the Extra Sporktacular Programming Network. Some people believe the reason is broadcast hosts have been on a nonstop political diatribe against Republicans, Donald Trump, and more generally white people – trying to mollify the anger of the #blacklivesmatter and “taking a knee” crowd, and cowardly sponsors.
Another possible explanation is the rapid dissolution of cable TV operators’ power to bundle in ESPN for people who don’t want to pay for it (reportedly up to $8 a month) [Carriage fees]. People are dropping the cable programming and just using their cable internet to stream video – only what is free or they are willing to pay for. ESPN (mostly owned by Disney) has lost 12 million subscribers over the past 6 years
Or both.
Good, and I hope they get rid of Bob Costa too !
hell, he is with NBC, They should get rid of him too.
parrott
I don’t recognize any of the names
Trent Dilfer, Jayson Stark, Jay Crawford, Ed Werder
http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091
Most of the layoffs seem to be reporters, writers and columnists. What are the online hosts going to use for show material – twitter?
ole’ Trent Dilfer, Quarterback Baltimore Ravens the year they won the superbowl in 2000. They traded him the next year.
I use to watch a lot of football back then,
parrott
Owned by Disney still? I have no sympathy for a company that hires every washed up sports figure and pays them millions to spew hate over the air. I find the business model lacking and would hope that ESPN is relegated to the pile of defunct businesses quickly.
Not 100% Disney – Hearst Corporation owns a small portion. Mike and Mike was the franchise and that’s vaporized as well. Jim Rome is over at CBS now. The Cable TV side has live sports, but they don’t even have a death grip on that anymore. Even if I was a sports fan, a baseball game between Boston and New York is probably of limited interest to someone in Texas. Roku and direct streaming killed their business model of aggregating mediocre sports of little interest just so sports junkies had something to watch… (poker? Equestrian? Water polo?). I see they have two more channels they try to push on the cable operators. When I was looking, ESPN3 was airing a women’s college softball game. Other than relatives and potential boyfriends, nobody even goes to those in real life