Latest round of ESPN layoffs: How would you fix ESPN? Can it be fixed?

[dpberr]

In the churn of election news, ESPN announced it would lay off 300 employees and not fill 200 empty positions.  

 

https://apnews.com/article/espn-300-layoffs-amid-virus-8db87b34e7c74585b8920c584b282773

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/sports/espn-layoffs.html

[SCBills]

I don't know that it can be fixed.  

 

Live content can still work.. For all the grumbling about NBA/MLB/NHL ratings, the NFL is doing fine and Clemson/Notre Dame drew absurdly high ratings.

 

Everything else, meh.  If I want highlights, I can just go to youtube or twitter.  If I want sports talk, I can now stream non-local radio stations like WGR.  There are other options now in NFL Network and SEC/ACC/B1G Networks.

 

Also, they are far too political.  I'm not one who typically gets turned off by this stuff when it's once in a while, but they are over the top with it.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by SCBills

[thenorthremembers]

They need to scale back the amount of locations and channels they have.   When I see something like ESPN Vegas, or ESPN LA and they are laying off 500 jobs it makes me wonder why they are so global.   They also need to focus heavily on the history of sports, its something no one else is really doing.   Try hard to capture the older demographic who doesnt want to spend time on their phones, and laptops watching youtube and scrolling through twitter for news.  Cut back the production and length of the Pre-Games, and start focusing more on the post game aspects where you actually have something to talk about.   Also dont need a two hour pre game show, its overboard.   ESPN got bloated and boring.  It's just the same vomit everyday.  

 

Their 30 for 30 is one of the best sports programs on.   Go back to things like the Sport's Reporters, and NFL Matchup which focuses on insight in the game.   ESPN went wrong when they started paying blowhards like Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and Colin Cowherd tons of money, when they know absolutely nothing about the actual games. 

[DrDawkinstein]

Ignoring the controversies over content and politics.

 

It's a garbage station as far as production quality goes. You can tell they already laid off everyone who knows how to make a TV show run and function and have a bunch of amateurs behind the scenes. NFL Live is unwatchable. Rocko and Dino on 1990s Public Access had better production quality.

 

Whenever I do turn it on, it's all:

• the wrong highlights being played that dont match what the announcer is talking about. like, not even the right GAME.
• graphics being wrong or out of order
• cutting to the wrong person who is supposed to talk next
• mics not being turned on
• etc, etc

ESPN is done. It died when they took out Mike & Mike (imo). The only thing I turn it on for anymore is Pardon the Interruption, sometimes.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by DrDawkinstein

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

10 minutes ago, SCBills said:

I don't know that it can be fixed.  

 

Live content can still work.. For all the grumbling about NBA/MLB/NHL ratings, the NFL is doing fine and Clemson/Notre Dame drew absurdly high ratings.

 

Everything else, meh.  If I want highlights, I can just go to youtube or twitter.  If I want sports talk, I can now stream non-local radio stations like WGR.  There are other options now in NFL Network and SEC/ACC/B1G Networks.

 

Also, they are far too political.  I'm not one who typically gets turned off by this stuff when it's once in a while, but they are way to in your face with their obvious leanings.

 

I'd like to see them try and do something around regional sports somehow.  But I know its impossible because of all the revenue streams and sharing.  But like ESPN WNY instead of MSG WNY - You pay for a higher tier of ESPN+ and you can access the local networks.  I'd pay for that.

 

I just know I'm not paying an extra 25 a month for MSG so i can watch maybe 30 sabres games.  I can probably go to 15 games at that rate. 

 

I know MSG and PSE have some kinda co-ownership of that, but i'm waiting for a sport to just jump in with 2 feet into streaming their games online exclusively.  

 

NHL center ice doesn't let me watch games in my market, or on national tv.  NFL you have to have direct TV which - i think only exists because of sunday ticket.  NBA has a league pass.  MLB TV is probably the worst one - I live in buffalo and i can't watch tribe games because i'm in market.  

4 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Ignoring the controversies over content and politics.

 

It's a garbage station as far as production quality goes. You can tell they already laid off everyone who knows how to make a TV show run and function and have a bunch of amateurs behind the scenes. NFL Live is unwatchable.

 

Whenever I do turn it on, it's all:

• the wrong highlights being played that dont match what the announcer is talking about. like, not even the right GAME.
• graphics being wrong or out of order
• cutting to the wrong person who is supposed to talk next
• mics not being turned on
• etc, etc

ESPN is done. It died when they took out Mike & Mike (imo). The only thing I turn it on for anymore is Pardon the Interruption, sometimes.

 

Haven't watched in years.  They do some live sports, and they do a lot better than fox and NBC there.  But their original content has been lacking - and they're putting more and more stuff behind the ESPN+ paywall.  

Edited November 10, 2020 by dneveu

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

5 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

They need to scale back the amount of locations and channels they have.   When I see something like ESPN Vegas, or ESPN LA and they are laying off 500 jobs it makes me wonder why they are so global.   They also need to focus heavily on the history of sports, its something no one else is really doing.   Try hard to capture the older demographic who doesnt want to spend time on their phones, and laptops watching youtube and scrolling through twitter for news.  Cut back the production and length of the Pre-Games, and start focusing more on the post game aspects where you actually have something to talk about.   Also dont need a two hour pre game show, its overboard.   ESPN got bloated and boring.  It's just the same vomit everyday.  

 

Their 30 for 30 is one of the best sports programs on.   Go back to things like the Sport's Reporters, and NFL Matchup which focuses on insight in the game.   ESPN went wrong when they started paying blowhards like Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and Colin Cowherd tons of money, when they know absolutely nothing about the actual games. 

Really good post I agree with a lot of it especially the last paragraph. When they left the old 80s-90s platform and started going to the "Star" system of hiring big name ex-jocks and reporters it lost me. I remember when guys like Vitale, Raftery et al where no names and became stars on ESPN. Instead of grooming their own talent, they decided to hire the names. 30-30 is one of the best things on TV.

[DrDawkinstein]

4 minutes ago, dneveu said:

Haven't watched in years.  They do some live sports, and they do a lot better than fox and NBC there.  But their original content has been lacking - and they're putting more and more stuff behind the ESPN+ paywall.  

 

Good call, they do a good job on Monday Night Football. And College Football is the best thing they have left (Gameday still strong, for now).

 

I dont mind them putting stuff behind ESPN+ since I get it included with Disney+, haha. But there isnt a ton of stuff much better there. The Details series is ok. 30 for 30 produced some amazing documentaries, but the last few havent been up to par.

[HansLanda]

There is no way to fix it back to earlier days when ESPN made up 50% of ALL of Disney's profit. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

Just now, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Good call, they do a good job on Monday Night Football. And College Football is the best thing they have left (Gameday still strong, for now).

 

I dont mind them putting stuff behind ESPN+ since I get it included with Disney+, haha. But there isnt a ton of stuff much better there. The Details series is ok. 30 for 30 produced some amazing documentaries, but the last few havent been up to par.

 

I mentioned it above, but the only sports content I'd probably pay for at this point would be something regional.  Regional networks currently air old games and random radio shows throughout the offseasons of the respective sports.  They don't have budget or bandwidth to stream all that content, and their original content is usually garbage.  

 

Just let me watch live sports online - thats all i want! someone figure this out, it shouldn't be this hard!

[416BillsFan]

Since working from home I've been watching some of their daytime programming like NFL Live, which is pretty good (especially compared to TSN talking head shows in Canada). However, their business model of bilking cable operators to give them $5 a pop from every customer, even if they just want to watch Lifetime or whatever is screeching to a halt this isn't 1998 or even 2012 anymore. ESPN+ is a tough sell too as you can't be everything to everyone and expect people to pay for analysis that is widely available for free.

[Charles Romes]

It seems they have only one employee working there now any way, Scott van pelt.  I’ve been watching more free CBS sports desk on Pluto. Reminiscent of ESPN in the old days before all of the overproduction. 

[DrDawkinstein]

The one plus I will give ESPN is for their ESPN Streaming App.

 

From April to September, when there were no sports being played, they had 2-3 college football games on every night. Some classics from the 80s all the way to last season. It definitely helped get through the dark times this year.

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

To me it’s simple

-More live pro sports

-get more NFL live action. 

-get NHL and NBA on more
-move on from the copious amount of college sports. They don’t draw enough interest 

get off these redundant shows that repeat the same topic all day long
-punt on the assumption this country will ever care about soccer. Stop wasting time and resources on it

-bring back the names that built up the brand for sports center. Get familiar voices back on the air. Berman/Tom Jackson/Linda cone/Levy/etc 
-get people in the Monday night booth that are top shelf. It’s an institution in America. The guys they have had in the booth the past decade are terrible.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

I'm one of their many viewers who was going to ESPN for my escape from reality (why I love sports) only to find them talking about national politics instead of sports.  If I had wanted political programming I would have kept the channel on CNN or Fox.  Conservative or Liberal, it doesn't matter, I want to hear about sports on a sports network.  Seems like a simple concept that somehow got lost at ESPN.  I won't be back to ESPN until they get back to their roots.

[BuffaloRebound]

Kind of natural when something becomes so dominant for it to fall back to earth. They had a great run.  Hard to make everybody happy especially in country as polarized as this one.  It still has no serious national challenger.  So many ways for people to consume their sports content now.  ESPN still the dominant player.  Just a more fragmented market.  

[ogham26]

go woke go broke 

[Kwai San]

Who is ESPN?  Remind me again?

[MJS]

Guess I'm not nastalgic. I don't really care if ESPN goes away. Someone (or multiple someone's) will be there to fill the void if they haven't already.

 

[Mark80]

I would go back to a similar style of programming they did when they were at their peak. 

 

1.  Less Talk Shows - there used to be basically only one talk show, Up Close.  That was it. The weekends also had the Sports Reporters.  Now, they are running talk shows all day on multiple networks.  They all need their own sets, own on air and off air staff, and all the other expenses that come from doing a show....and they are mostly terrible.  Just put the 2am SportsCenter on Repeat on the morning.  Save a ton and be better programming.

2.  On the note of SportsCenter - More freakin highlights.  They used to play highlights of basically every game in every major sport.  At a minimum they would show the score.  Now, they talk about the same 1 or 2 teams per sport every f'n day all f'n year long.  I want to see action, not the same crap day after day after day.  Highlights, Stats, next game, highlights stats, next game, etc. Maybe a few player / coach interviews thrown in there.  Get rid of the freaking pundits talking for 75% of the show.

3.  More weird sports - Why cant they show some of the more obscure sports in the mid-afternoon?  How much would it really cost to show it?  Strongman, lumberjack games, scotland games, ping pong, badmitton, so much out there and there are amazing athletes doing stuff we never see.

4.  Get out of politics.  Enough already.  I am there for sports and sports alone.

5.  Stop force feeding me the WNBA and NCAAW.  They are terrible, no one cares, it is so freaking boring.   You give me these highlights but I can't get an NHL game, or F1 coverage, or decent soccer coverage???

[Alphadawg7]

ESPN+ was a mistake IMO.  

 

Why every network is trying to build out their own paywall is beyond me.  Its a turnoff to viewers, and sports content just isn't in demand enough due to wide spread availability to warrant a pay wall.  

 

Yes, they have 30 for 30, and excellent series.  But that series already has so many episodes now, its not enough to really command a pay wall.  The bulk of their exclusive stuff just isn't good enough to consume a lot of of it all the time and warrant the paywall.  

 

I pay for it in a bundle package with HULU, Disney+, and ESPN+.  But honestly, the ONLY reason I do is because I was already paying for HULU and the upgrade was not that much and I wanted to get the Disney+ for the Mandalorian.  Outside of Mandalorian and 30 for 30, I literally don't watch any other of the content behind the paywall.  There is just WAY too much content on all the other platforms I have like Netflix, HULU, Prime, HBOMAX to feel compelled to search ESPN+ or Disney content (I have no kids) for something else to engage in.  

 

If I was ESPN, I wold focus on going back to just being the sports network, scale down the endless amounts of additional ESPN's, and take away the pay wall.  Also, they need to get better sports shows, the Stephen A's and Skip Bayless type shows are mind numbingly stupid.  Its literally the same show every day.  First Take spend 2 hours on the air with an hour of it discussing the Cowboys almost every day of the year.  These shows barely discuss real sports news, its just loud noise every morning.  

 

30 for 30 should be a series on ESPN, not a VOD paywall for example.  I mean once they tucked it and other original behind the paywall, all that was left on ESPN were Sportscenter replays and garbage shows like First Take with some less watched sports peppered in through the day.