Posted on 05/24/2018 11:43:50 AM PDT by T-Bird45
Link only due to MSN site however the entire WSJ article is there, no paywall.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Cause sports is boring, and there's nothing of substance one can say about it?
The only time I ever watch ESPN is when I'm at the barber shop. They have it on multiple screens, but (thankfully) with the sound turned down.
When I was in there last week for my spring haircut, I kept one eye on ESPN. They were doing a split screen debate of some sort, black guy on the left, white guy on the right.
After some minutes, I couldn't help but notice that the black guy was talking and talking and talking, and the white guy's role seemed to be to sit there, say nothing, and look chagrined. I'm really not exaggerating.
I have no clue what was the topic of discussion, and it obviously doesn't matter.
My impression is that they felt that the golden ‘path’ would just continue on and they didn’t care if they lost 10-to-20 percent of their ‘clients’. I think they are closer to a 40-percent viewer loss if compared against a dozen years ago.
Churches are stumbling along the same path....becoming politicized and waking up to see a quarter of their congregation walking out.
Everything the Left touches, it destroys.
I broke the FR Rules and read the article before posting. Anyway, it’s a pretty good article and discusses a lot of the dysfunction that’s killing ESPN. Some of the issues they touched on could be expanded upon. ESPN has been left-wing SJW political for some time, but until recently it didn’t matter because they were growing, not shrinking. Today, they are shrinking and while the politicization is part, it’s not all of it.
ESPN bought a lot of long-term contracts with escalating fee structures in the belief that the viewer numbers would continue to climb instead of declining. The reason the viewers are declining is related to four reasons.
1. The leagues are going around ESPN with their own on-line streaming packages to watch games live.
2. The leagues’ own websites feature better news and videos than do the ESPN Sportcenter shows. The consumer can chose the story they want to follow and the videos they want to watch on the website and not have it determined for them by SportsCenter.
3. The product the leagues themselves are selling has declined, particularly the NFL and NBA.
4. The 18-25 age demographic just doesn’t care about spectator sports. Particularly the left-wing members of that demographic. Courting them with their propaganda isn’t effective because they can get their lies from any of a number of other media outlets without having to suffer through the sports content they don’t care for.
All in all, ESPN went the path of stupid, and then repeatedly doubled down on it.
About all I watch these day in sports is MLB (Astros) and the PGA. The ONLY time I watch a game on ESPN is if they are the only ones televising it. If the Astros channel (ATT Sports net) could show it simultaneously, I would not watch ESPN at all. The ESPN baseball coverage sucks.
“The 18-25 age demographic just doesn’t care about spectator sports.”
This is probably the biggest challenge for many businesses. In times past this generation was coming into money for the first time and was ready to assume debt to start building families.
Now they already have debt from college and they are not looking to start families. Their generational motto should be: If it is not free it is not for me.
A rational response to a point.
Why take on a huge financial risk (marriage if you’re a male, children if you are female) when you have no real “need”.
My dad bought me stock in ESPN when Bill Rasmussen started it. It was started to broadcast UConn games and to broadcast Hartford Whalers games. I knew it would be a great network, and it was until Dizzy bought 80% of it from Getty. Dizzy (Disney) screw it up badly. I wish Dizzy would sell it to someone who would keep it for sports and Entertainment, not left wing political crap.
It’s a story essentially about self-inflicted wounds.
Certain TV businesses, particularly sports related, have to decide what their primary purpose TO THEIR VIEWERS is, stick to it and not let other agendas be interjected into what they are supposedly serving their audience. In sports, politics can do nothing but divide.
Fans do not see their divisions over what teams or figures they admire, favor, or do not appreciate as relative to, or related to politics; until stupid sports talking heads and sports telecast executive start interjecting them into sports. ESPN took that bad route, among many other bad steps, and has been losing.
Anti Trump with Steve Smith and Max Kellermen and Molly.
Left wing college indroctnation and a failing public school system....
It’s not just Disney-ESPN it’s the whole dadblamed wide world of sports like the NFL.
Rush Limbaugh was canned at ESPN for being too political.
The NFL refused Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to buy into a team (they don’t have to bake the cake apparently) because he supposedly wasn’t right for the game.
Marxist led protests are A-OK to these public welfare corporations that rape the public for billions in subsidies. Build me a stadium and then I GET THE MONEY FROM THE NAMING RIGHTS!
At least they’ve given up the lie that the billion dollar SuperBowl is a “non-profit” event.
My two grown sons couldn't care less about sports and that seems to be the norm for their generation.
I know ESPN became a large media company but I don't believe I've ever watched them. I've never been much of a cable-TV watcher and I cut the cable a few years back because pretty much anything I want to watch is available on Netflix or YouTube and that's all fine by me. If I want to watch a movie, I'll get it on demand.
Surprised no one has mentioned the annoying ESPN Insider feature where the “popular” articles/analyses require one to pay for a subscription.
Meanwhile Bleacher Report, once an attractive alternative to ESPN, now requires you to “sign in” with an email address or through Facebook.
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