What the hell happened to the 6:00 PM version of Sports Center on ESPN? I had taken a break from it until the NFL season was over. Tried to watch it last week and just about threw up. It is God Awful! What a shame, they used to have professionals deliver the sports news. It was good stuff. I guess this what our future is going to be, but it will not include my household ratings.
The NEW Sports Center???
- Thread starter Sawyer
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I know in the mornings when I'm getting ready, I used to be able to watch nothing but highlights and scores. Now, whatever the bastardized version it has become, just has people discussing, in length, top story lines. They even give you a little countdown to when they might show a highlight. My mornings are now MTV Classic.
So is adidas...
Truth be told, these folks are printing money. Here are the subscriber projections for ESPN (LINK), what Knuckles is talking about...
2017: 86 million
2018: 83 m
2019: 80 m
2020: 77 m
2021: 74 m
BUT ESPN's subscriber fees are going up by over 9% a year (LINK: $3.26 per month in 2007; $7.21 in 2016)...
2017: $677 million per month revenue
2018: $714 m
2019: $752 m
2020; $790 m
2021: $829 m
I like to say, you only worry about something that you can put in the bank. Both ESPN and adidas are bank. All of that "tough times" rhetoric from ESPN is just an excuse for them to drive a hard bargain in the marketplace...
How do you know demand for ESPN is going down? The subscriber numbers are the effect of cord cutting, which is a dish/cable TV phenomenon. If customers can buy JUST ESPN (a la carte) in the future, that may actually help ESPN...
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The ratings aren't really all that different. It's the subscriber base that's the issue. The underlying business model for cable TV in general is that we subsidize each other's viewing. Customers who never watch sports, but watch the Food Network, still pay for ESPN. Customers who only watch sports still pay for the Food Network. The monkeywrench in the the model is these streaming services. They offer these smaller packages, where someone who doesn't like sports can buy a package with no ESPN, FS1, etc. ESPN and all the other cable channels are going to have to adapt to the new market.
So is adidas...
Truth be told, these folks are printing money. Here are the subscriber projections for ESPN (LINK), what Knuckles is talking about...
2017: 86 million
2018: 83 m
2019: 80 m
2020: 77 m
2021: 74 m
BUT ESPN's subscriber fees are going up by over 9% a year (LINK: $3.26 per month in 2007; $7.21 in 2016)...
2017: $677 million per month revenue
2018: $714 m
2019: $752 m
2020; $790 m
2021: $829 m
I like to say, you only worry about something that you can put in the bank. Both ESPN and adidas are bank. All of that "tough times" rhetoric from ESPN is just an excuse for them to drive a hard bargain in the marketplace...
Obviously they are making a lot of money (just as Nike is making more money than Adidas). However, the stock market is concerned about growth and year-over-year performance. Both of those are tenuous for ESPN right now. The piece that you are missing is that in addition losing subscribers, they are also dealing with increasing programming costs. Despite cord cutting the bid costs for sports programming has continued higher (roughly 5% annually).
And ESPN's cutting their costs accordingly. But the content folks like U of L are in the catbird's seat. That's where the demand is. People will continue pay up for live sports programming until they don't.
It's entirely possible that a la carte platforms will drive MORE revenue ESPN's way. Speaking for myself, I'd drop about every other channel before the sports channels. Just give me the chance to drop the telemarketing, evangelical, news, etc. I can push a lot more money ESPN's way if I have to...
It's lame and aside from their sports programming there is not much to watch expect for PTI and some of the 30 for 30 docs.
Sports center is a shell of itself and it's now all about the hosts personalities and egos - they are always trying to be hip and cool and it simply looks awkward and phony.
Espn and sports in general are against a al carte platforms. Espn relies on those who want basic cable to be forced to pay their prices. Sports channels are the most expensive to the cable carriers. If it gets to the point that sports channel watchers only are forced to pay the entire cost themselves it will more than likely hurt espn as many will just choose to go without. Considering the pirating that is done online it could be very bad for espn to have to rely on online subscriptions.
More accurately, ESPN's afraid of the unknown. They like their revenue the way it is and favor whatever delivers that revenue to them. As I said, I have plenty of money to funnel ESPN when I can save it on other channels I don't want.
And what happens to their sports competition in that situation? Fox Sports and network TV? All of those "channels" go into play...
At the risk of quoting my own posts...
Not sure if anyone heard the announcement yesterday, but Amazon is paying the NFL $50 million next year to stream 10 Thursday nite games. They won't have exclusive broadcasting rights as I understand--games will still be shown on TV--just exclusivity for the internet stream. And that price is an incredible 400 percent more than Twitter paid for the rights last year! Also keep in mind that there were recent concerns about saturation of the market for NFL games and the midseason drop in TV ratings. (Amazon apparently didn't share that concern!...)
These are the numbers to watch if you're a U of L/ACC fan, not whether Amazon will have to strain or cut costs to pay it. The demand for quality live sports programming is evidently bound for the stratosphere. And old content providers like ESPN and new ones like Amazon and Twitter are willing to compete to pay for it. As a content source, U of L and the ACC can just work on improving their product and sit back and field offers.
Not a bad time IMO to start up the ACC Network and negotiate a new long-term, comprehensive media contract. Or have that adidas deal roll over...
But those programming costs bring with them advertising revenue, which is a huge hunk of revenue that many of the people citing cord cutters as a loss for ESPN, miss.
Sports programming delivers audiences that advertisers crave -- appointment viewers, in the right demographics. They will continue to deliver those audiences.
ESPN is going nowhere, despite their complete butchering of their flagship show, Sportscenter.
All I need is sports, AXS, AMC (for The Walking Dead), and all the kiddie channels for my 7 & 5 year olds. I threaten DTV to leave every year and am only paying $65/month for HD, the Genie wireless DVR, and a mid-tier programming package. All this cord-cutting has helped, this package would cost about $140 without all the discounts I negotiated. People are tired of paying for crap they never watch.
I have to subscribe (my package) to ESPN, but haven't watched anything but games in a couple years.
So they're getting a subscriber, but not a viewer. And they don't care apparently. This is why they can throw crap up there, and still get subscriptions. For games.
I did watch one 30 for 30 (??) about Randy Moss.
I remain happily ignorant about all things sports, except what's posted on here.
So, I pretty much stay ignorant about sports.
So they're getting a subscriber, but not a viewer. And they don't care apparently. This is why they can throw crap up there, and still get subscriptions. For games.
I did watch one 30 for 30 (??) about Randy Moss.
I remain happily ignorant about all things sports, except what's posted on here.
So, I pretty much stay ignorant about sports.
It may not always have been the case. But I think ESPN has a pretty good idea now where their money comes from, how they get it, the security of it continuing, and where they're gonna be spending more of it in the future.
What ESPN's doing now when a live game is NOT on is minimizing their costs. It's the last step before they start showing infomercials 20 hours a day...
What ESPN's doing now when a live game is NOT on is minimizing their costs. It's the last step before they start showing infomercials 20 hours a day...
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