ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

[Cerebus]

OKTC: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

Quote

What’s a deteriorating business look like? In the month of October ESPN lost over 15,000 subscribers a day in October per the latest Nielson estimates.

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Another way to put this would be as follows: ESPN’s business is collapsing so rapidly that they are now trying to figure out which would be more destructive — losing billions on the NFL or losing billions in cable and satellite revenue because they don’t have the NFL.

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ESPN is the sports version of Blockbuster Video.

Because, ultimately, what is ESPN’s business otherwise? Just like Blockbuster Video it takes the content that other people create and rents them to viewers. The only real assets it has are sports rights agreements. And none of those are permanent. ESPN is just a middle man like Blockbuster. HBO can make money off “Game of Thrones” forever, Netflix can do the same with “Stranger Things,” but once the NFL leaves ESPN, the network retains nothing at all. That’s because ESPN doesn’t actually make anything of lasting value.

It’s MTV when music videos went to YouTube, Blockbuster when movies went to streaming.

 

[Hunter Green]

Let the chips fall where they may.

[Venson]

ESPN dug that hole themselves when they started getting all PC instead of sticking to sports.

[Withers940]

Bwahaha hahahaha 

 

[drex]

Yep, injection of politics, coupled with their obvious lack of understanding of their market costs them greatly.

[oldguystudent]

Curious where this will eventually lead on the college football fronts.  No more rich ESPN contracts and will ESPN continue to control every bowl game?  Will there be a reduction in number of bowls? 

[THOR]

clay Travis is fabulous. ESPN has screwed themselves with what they have decided to pilitize and the direction that they took their network

[oldguystudent]

11 minutes ago, THOR said:

 what they have decided to pilitize and the direction that they took their network

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Thor, molder of tomorrow's young minds. 

[KingDL1]

20 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Curious where this will eventually lead on the college football fronts.  No more rich ESPN contracts and will ESPN continue to control every bowl game?  Will there be a reduction in number of bowls? 

It should be interesting I hate when sporting events I want to watch are on ESPN. I like anybody but them better. I like Fox sports but it seems there are many regional networks that can fill in. Less greed and less politics 

[Wag Tag]

ESPN needs to change name to SEARS! Their programming is crap!

[THOR]

56 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Thor, molder of tomorrow's young minds. 

i teach world geography and cultures...eff spelling!

[BTG_Fan1]

1 hour ago, oldguystudent said:

Curious where this will eventually lead on the college football fronts.  No more rich ESPN contracts and will ESPN continue to control every bowl game?  Will there be a reduction in number of bowls? 

Most of these bowls, the cities want them because of the $ they bring in.. 

Some could go to the wayside, but others will not.. UNT is in a good position because of the # of local bowls from SA, Shreveport, ABQ, to the local games in DFW and the alumni base as well. 

[Rudy]

Serves them right.  Sucks that ESPN is getting F1 next year.  They're probably going to screw that up.

[UNTexas]

2 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

It should be interesting I hate when sporting events I want to watch are on ESPN. I like anybody but them better. I like Fox sports but it seems there are many regional networks that can fill in. Less greed and less politics 

The local channel 33 did an amazing job the last time they had it. ESPN has sucked.

IMO, they basically created the P5 G5 divide and if you aren't P5 they just don't care. So, bye...

[meangreenlax]

I'd be interested to see how more nimble platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter would be able to fill the impending void.  Conference level streaming agreements with online focused platforms wouldn't bring in the same levels of revenue, but I think its fair to assume it'd be more stable and would fit more in line with the current trends in cord cutting. 

This is all going to hit around the time of the next round of realignment. I'm worried about the implications to the G5

[aztecskin]

I agree with his basic underlying economic argument because he is not really saying much new here. TV has been hemorrhaging subscribers to the internet for years. As people have migrated toward a-la-carte services it has been good for smaller, alternative entertainment options to get money and attention.

In Sports, this has happened too. Look at NT and all of CUSA and Stadium/ESPN3/CUSA.tv. 

The issue is that it is still expensive to produce a quality broadcast and without the money generated via an ESPN/Fox/Other network you have to watch less talented people produce a show.

Eventually, like in journalism, there won't be enough resources -- money, mentors, opportunity, interest -- to sustain this. Alabama is popular in part because people can see them easily on TV on Saturdays. If you have to purchase a sports-tier internet (it could happen if we completely deregulate the internet here and require service tiers) for SEC football I can tell you I will not be buying that. That means a whole generation of folks simply may not grow up as college football fans.

I made this point about soccer here, as the game becomes more available in the US it has also increased the fanbase. It only makes sense -- I grew up a basketball, football, baseball fan because I saw the games on TV. 

 

(ESPN does a great job with cfb. CBS, too. Fox does a great job with the NFL, baseball.) 

[BTG_Fan1]

C-USA needs to develop an app and pair with other G5 conferences, similar to MLB.TV or NHL.TV.. Have it on Xbox, PS4, and on Android/IOS.. 

Hell, maybe even do something with Netflix/Hulu or even Amazon.. We have seen at times how bad CUSA.TV and using platforms like these would greatly increase viewship

[Rudy]

23 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

C-USA needs to develop an app and pair with other G5 conferences, similar to MLB.TV or NHL.TV.. Have it on Xbox, PS4, and on Android/IOS.. 

Hell, maybe even do something with Netflix/Hulu or even Amazon.. We have seen at times how bad CUSA.TV and using platforms like these would greatly increase viewship

Gagree, but we also need a TV broadcast so the games can be played in sports bars.

[FirefightnRick]

BeIn Sports would be fine with me.

 

Rick

[BTG_Fan1]

3 minutes ago, Rudy said:

Gagree, but we also need a TV broadcast so the games can be played in sports bars.

UNT needs to be doing watch parties on campus as well in the Fuzzys..  

1 minute ago, FirefightnRick said:

BeIn Sports would be fine with me.

 

Rick

Problem is that they are not well known, and on limited providers..

[untjim1995]

In the end, the national content will still be for the top 40 program in the country, just like it always is. ESPN is in trouble because people stop paying for cable, got tired of their Social justice crap instead of focusing on sports and how it made its way up in the national conscience, and they are slow to the point that paying for content that few watch (see LHN). 

The G5s are at a crossroads. The Upper G5’s in the AAC and the MWC May find a way to still get some scraps, but the rest of the G5 is just biding team until it’s all going to change. The Big XII’s GOR expires in 2025 and Texas and Oklahoma aren’t interested in signing up for anything further. When that happens, the Power Leagues will be made up of 4 conferences and probably allow OOC games against teams in the MWC and AAC. Since the AAC has SMU, that is blocked for us, so you look west and they will probably add some combo of the Big XII leftovers, which will feature TCU and Baylor, so we won’t get to go there either. 

We at UNT just started trying to be serious at college football about 3 decades too late. We will still play these schools in CUSA, but it will basically be at a level that will cover the lower G5’s and the top end of the FCS. But it will give teams like us a chance to win a national championship again, which no G5 program will ever be allowed to earn.

[meangreendork]

9 hours ago, aztecskin said:

I agree with his basic underlying economic argument because he is not really saying much new here. TV has been hemorrhaging subscribers to the internet for years. As people have migrated toward a-la-carte services it has been good for smaller, alternative entertainment options to get money and attention.

In Sports, this has happened too. Look at NT and all of CUSA and Stadium/ESPN3/CUSA.tv. 

The issue is that it is still expensive to produce a quality broadcast and without the money generated via an ESPN/Fox/Other network you have to watch less talented people produce a show.

Eventually, like in journalism, there won't be enough resources -- money, mentors, opportunity, interest -- to sustain this. Alabama is popular in part because people can see them easily on TV on Saturdays. If you have to purchase a sports-tier internet (it could happen if we completely deregulate the internet here and require service tiers) for SEC football I can tell you I will not be buying that. That means a whole generation of folks simply may not grow up as college football fans.

I made this point about soccer here, as the game becomes more available in the US it has also increased the fanbase. It only makes sense -- I grew up a basketball, football, baseball fan because I saw the games on TV. 

 

(ESPN does a great job with cfb. CBS, too. Fox does a great job with the NFL, baseball.) 

A lot of viewers, especially in the under-30 market are dropping their cable/satellite TV services in favor of streaming. Truth is, ESPN et al, need to find a new way to offer game viewing to fans that's more flexible and/or creates more demand.

[Aldo]

9 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

BeIn Sports would be fine with me.

 

Rick

That service has been fantastic and much better quality than the ESPN streaming services.

[oldguystudent]

ESPN3 has changed its terms and conditions so many damn times.  It works on my computer (big bulky desktop), but even though I have the app on my TV, I can't for the life of me get it to log in correctly anymore.  Too f'ing hard.  Pass. 

[meangreenthirteen]

ESPN's business model has been trash for a decade. Stop acting like it was social issues that brought them down.