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ESPN Firing 100 People Today

Seriously, if they flush a turd like Berman or Vitale they save enough to keep like 10 of the axed reporters
 
wsc8521s;2821247[B said:
]It seems like the people they're getting rid of is an indicator of going more in the direction of showing live sports content, rather than supporting content?[/B]

Of course sports rights are super expensive and other entities aren't necessarily run like a business to the degree that Disney is
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This is a solid point. The real question is whether ESPN really is viable as anything other than a broadcasting location for the actual games. Do people really want all that additionally crappy talk content? ESPN wants to have enough money to continue to maintain and win contracts for the broadcasting of sports. Beyond that, they have 24 hour channels and there aren't games all the time. So they need to fill it with bloviating fools like Stephen A. Otherwise, they would just fill the hours with re-runs of actual games.
 
Stormfury said:
Totally agree. Just now I turned on ESPN while eating lunch to see if by chance they were mentioning the cuts and the content was 'breaking down the NBA playoffs with an etch a sketch'...
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13 Etch A Sketch Drawings Of Russell Westbrook That Will Make You Say Wow! You Won't Believe Number Seven.
 
MichDeac25 said:
ESPN wants to have enough money to continue to maintain and win contracts for the broadcasting of sports. Beyond that, they have 24 hour channels and there aren't games all the time. So they need to fill it with bloviating fools like Stephen A.
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Or fairly in-depth shows that are sport specific, which I think generally do pretty well
 
Or re-runs of their award winning 30 for 30 documentaries.
 
bobknightfan said:
And here are some excellent comments from readers on why ESPN has come to this sorry state:


liv2ski 1 hour ago
When you've become a liberal cesspool - this is what you end up with, a dying company. See ya.

DavidF 2 hours ago
news flash for the media- When you merge politics with sports/entertainment/news or anything else, you #$%$ off half of your audience. And eventually lay off half your employees.

tom 2 hours ago
Please remove Stephen A Smith, Jamelle Hill, and Michael Smith. ESPN went downhill starting with the Caitlyn Jenner award nonsense. Now they mascarade as an alt left opinion based talk show. Every new launch has a liberal backing behind it, if I could remove ESPN from my programming I would, someday I will be able to, and that's when ESPN will faulter

Shore105 1 hour ago
Maybe another story on transgender bathrooms delivered by another social justice warrior snowflake will help ESPN.

creepy 1 hour ago
What they meant to say was their audience got tired of ESPN injecting politics into sports, and they can't afford to pay all the snowflakes now.

RC 1 hour ago
Get out of politics and stick to sports.

wildcrzy 1 hour ago
When they started voicing their political opinions, the lost me and many other viewers

Seleric 1 hour ago
Talent? That being generous, hopefully Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith are part of the "no talent" cuts.

R 1 hour ago
what don't businesses understand? Target stores said they would allow transgender people into the other restroom. Their business fell off big time. ESPN pushes Bruce Jenner ( refuse to call him by anything else) and viewership dropped. Main Street, middle america doesn't want that...Comprehend????

Almost Retired 1 hour ago
When your reporters are liberals and regular sports loving Americans suddenly find themselves exposed to the liberal's political opinions - America changes channels. Profits decline. So Walt Disney thins-out the liberals. In the end, all liberals end up broke and unemployed - usually on welfare.

BobbyDe 1 hour ago
That's what you get when you go political. I used to watch ESPN for sports. Then they got into politics, Catlin Jenner, Tom Brady witch hunt, Kaepernick taking a knee, etc. ESPN is now unwatchable.

john 1 hour ago
who wants to watch this liberal agenda posing as sports news!

Millerbarber 1 hour ago
If they would move from the ultra liberal view to a more middle of the road view they could win back viewers. I stopped watching ESPN other than sporting events

Chris 1 hour ago
Hope Stephen A Smith gets the axe! I quit watching ESPN two years ago because of that jerk.

(There are a couple of thousand more in that same general vein.)
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Some interesting takes here.

I also like "mascarade."
 
you guys are like coroners performing an autopsy on a body with a gunshot wound to the head, and determining cause of death was high blood pressure.

ESPN clearly needs to figure out ways to adapt to a new landscape, but their downtrend up to this point has been largely outside of their control
 
There are a lot of different routes that they could go that would cater to actual sports fans.

Unfortunately it is pretty clear that the model that they have been utilizing with the entertainment and (liberal agenda!!!) is working. Otherwise they would have axed the Stephen A. Smiths, the Max Kellermans, etc.

They are just trying to free up funds by cutting what they deem to be excess. That sucks for sports fans, but they are doing what is necessary.
 
MichDeac25 said:
So they need to fill it with bloviating fools like Stephen A. Otherwise, they would just fill the hours with re-runs of actual games.
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I would love re-runs of actual games. Much happier watching last night's game at the gym, even knowing the final, than a broadcast of two clowns yelling at each other.
 
Guys like Stuart Scott, Kenny Mayne and Barry Melrose should be the ones who set the bar between entertaining and informative. Anything more entertaining is likely over the top, and anything lower risks being too boring/stat based. Personally, if they have to choose, I'd strongly prefer they hedge towards too informative. Unfortunately, it's clear they'd rather go big on personality and hot takes. Ironically, the rubes who are raging about the state of ESPN in the comments are likely the ones that thrive on similar hot takes elsewhere (cough, Limbaugh, cough cough). They're cool with hot takes in general, but they seemingly got pushed over the edge with ESPN when they started reporting on Kaep and Jenner. Strange.

Also, with regard to Melrose, he's a case example of a guy who is informative, but ESPN forces him into ridiculously showy skits that detract from his hockey takes.
 
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bobknightfan said:
To tell you the truth, I try to think about Caitlyn Jenner as little as possible. How Caitlyn Jenner is referred to is not among the top 10,000 things that concern me. That's just more of the PC bullshit that I mentioned earlier.
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Isn't complaining about and/or being offended about "Jesus Christ" more PC bullshit? It's "PC bullshit" until it offends you, snowflake. Also God is fake.
 
Sad to see Danny Kanell go. Really enjoyed R&K in the afternoons.
 
CL Brown, too

Just cutting out all of the college bball writers
 
If 375K viewers or less is "working" then I guess ESPN is just fine. Just seems like they have plenty of room for an hour or two of actual sports highlights without all the filler / bull crap to go with it. Plenty of other programming slots to fill with bloviating, pontificating and TMZ-esque athletes as heroes\tragic figure slant.
 
Dilfer gone! Gonna legit miss Dilfer's dimes.
 
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