Posted on 08/17/2013 1:04:26 PM PDT by jimbo123
When ESPN launched in 1979, nobody thought much of it. While there was finally a station for sports-starved fans to counter network television (cable was a dream back then), watching Australian Rules Football wasn’t exactly must-see TV.
Eventually ESPN grew into a daily destination. “SportsCenter” couldn’t be missed, especially when Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann were on their game. College basketball flourished with telecasts from coast to coast. When the NFL and MLB jumped on board, the station really took off.
Over time, many ESPN on-air personalities seem more interested in becoming celebrities than real journalists (can you say Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless?). Luckily there are still guys like Buster Olney, Chris Mortensen and Andy Katz around to provide real news.
While MLB Network, the NFL Network and Golf Channel are good spots for those with specific interest in one sport, ESPN has remained the place to go if you want all-around sports coverage.
But that may be changing.
Fox Sports 1 launches today (taking over for the Speed channel) and should be the first real challenger to ESPN’s dominance.
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The 4 networks should just own the NFL, lol
Surfing the Cox channel listing, I saw it listed.
Turned to it. A group - 1 female and several guys — yelling about college football.
Yelling!
Why do people on the Fox entities — FoxNews, FoxBusiness, and now Fox1Sports — have to yell at each other?
I watched about 30 seconds and continued my channel surfing to other destinations.
Good points, I didn’t realize the NHL and NFL contracts were that far out. Games from broadcast would be a good idea in principle, maybe Saturday or Friday night football? But I doubt that would fly with the NFL or fans. The NBA contract is their best bet, but FOX would have to get around Disney and that’s going to be brutal because you better believe they want to block Fox from sinking ESPN. But, just like sports there’s always the “any given Sunday rule,” Disney would be hard to outbid, but it may be possible.
Yeah the NHL and NBC signed a 10 year deal in 2011, about 10 minutes after the comcast merger was approved. All the NFL TV contracts got renewed right after the player lockout ended 2 whole years before the current contracts expire. They’re interesting deals to look at, they show the difference between the sports. NHL gets $200 million a year, the most they’ve ever gotten from TV. ESPN will be paying the NFL around $100 million a GAME.
Really if FS wants to defeat ESPN the first thing they need to do is crush NBCSports, they’re more vulnerable, not as well funded, and that will expand their sports reach putting them in a position to take on ESPN.
Us racers really got screwed on this deal as well as the NBSS channel. I loved Speedvision when it first came out but it morphed into a stupid reality car channel for the last 5 years. The only things worth watching on Speed was Moto GP and F1 and I wouldn’t give a bucket of horse pee for all the stick and ball sports they will be carrying.
Oh well, I guess we were all forewarned, racing has all become spec racing so everybody has a chance. Kinda like all the kiddie sports, eh.
The Golden Age of racing is over and I am sincerely glad I got to witness it.
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