ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

Christopher Walker · November 2, 2017

16 minutes ago, meangreenthirteen said:

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

Hear, hear.

UNTFan23 · November 2, 2017

26 minutes ago, meangreenthirteen said:

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

Social Issues just threw gas on the already burning dumpster fire.

untjim1995 · November 2, 2017

1 hour ago, UNTFan23 said:

Social Issues just threw gas on the already burning dumpster fire.

This.

They've alienated a lot of viewers, just like the NFL has. These people have long memories and don't come back real easily. Look at Mizzou, as another example. They handled the BLM issues very poorly from almost every angle and now their enrollment and donations dropped by over 33%, to the point of having to close 7 dorms. Just as we saw here from the I-aa fiasco, memories don't fade away for a long time--its not just the viewers, fans, and donors that you lose immediately, but its their family members and friends who also stay away for a long time. ESPN is finding it out, as will the NFL. You cannot alienate the majority and not think there won't be repercussions, no matter how much the vocal minority wants to make others believe it.

MeanGreen01 · November 2, 2017

Bein Sports broadcast for the NT games have been impressive. Would like to see Bein take even more marketshare away from ESPN. It was great seeing their logo on the Conference USA media day banners.

Edited November 2, 2017 by MeanGreen01

aztecskin · November 2, 2017

2 hours ago, Aldo said:

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

Also it is on TV, which most of us already have. It is much easier to get that on at a bar than it is to set up facebook streaming.

2 hours ago, meangreendork said:

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.

Right, which was part of my point. If NFL, MLB, NBA can produce their own broadcasts and do not need ESPN -- where does that leave smaller entertainment providers like NT Football? We are left to produce it all on our own.

Again, much like all we have is amateurs and part-timers producing the 'journalism' for the rest of the teams -- sbnation, my stupid site, etc -- we are going to have to rely on less qualified people.

I'm saying everyone should learn from newspaper's fall. ESPN dying is the same situation (also has nothing to do with social justice 'crap').

meangreenlax · November 2, 2017

10 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

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.

1

People don't want to hear this, but its spot on.

I think we all know the broad strokes of what is going to happen. As you allude to, the sh** is going to hit the fan, and the media landscape is going to be a huge driver of what is to come out of it all. The AAC and MW are the absolute best any G5 can hope for. Houston did it. Other G5 teams like USF did it too. UNT... well... "tried"

KingDL1 · November 2, 2017

1 hour ago, aztecskin said:

Also it is on TV, which most of us already have. It is much easier to get that on at a bar than it is to set up facebook streaming.

Right, which was part of my point. If NFL, MLB, NBA can produce their own broadcasts and do not need ESPN -- where does that leave smaller entertainment providers like NT Football? We are left to produce it all on our own.

Again, much like all we have is amateurs and part-timers producing the 'journalism' for the rest of the teams -- sbnation, my stupid site, etc -- we are going to have to rely on less qualified people.

I'm saying everyone should learn from newspaper's fall. ESPN dying is the same situation (also has nothing to do with social justice 'crap').

Is ESPN dying of the same situation? Did you ever read the price that ESPN charged the cable/satellite companies and demanded that they were in at one point nearly a 100% of all packages. Basically $10 from any paid TV subscription. That is a something that is going away, but man that is a lot of money that was forced on consumers Cable/Satellite consumers, that kind of budget of obscene blind basically monopoly share money never forced ESPN to be competitive. They ran with whatever directives they wished. ESPN is still part of my DTV contract and I can not get the package I want without ESPN. But I would get rid of them and work around when they have something I want to see.

For me it was forcing politics and personal life problems on me. I don't want to see nothing but sports, the rest can be on the news or TMZ or whatever else is worried about it.

TIgreen01 · November 2, 2017

2 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

Is ESPN dying of the same situation? Did you ever read the price that ESPN charged the cable/satellite companies and demanded that they were in at one point nearly a 100% of all packages. Basically $10 from any paid TV subscription. That is a something that is going away, but man that is a lot of money that was forced on consumers Cable/Satellite consumers, that kind of budget of obscene blind basically monopoly share money never forced ESPN to be competitive. They ran with whatever directives they wished. ESPN is still part of my DTV contract and I can not get the package I want without ESPN. But I would get rid of them and work around when they have something I want to see.

For me it was forcing politics and personal life problems on me. I don't want to see nothing but sports, the rest can be on the news or TMZ or whatever else is worried about it.

Good post.

For me, I still have fond memories of getting up every morning in HS and watching Sportscenter back when Dan & Keith were calling the replays. I used to just keep the channel tuned to ESPN during college because when games weren't on the programming was at least funny and/or not offensive.

That all started to slide off course when they lost their damn minds on the Duke Lacrosse thing and pretty much ran that story around the clock from a day after it happened and helped ruin those kids lives by reporting as fact what could only be conjecture so early into the investigation. From that point on they continued to push politics and personal problems to the point that I stopped watching anything other than sports---and maybe the occasional 30 for 30 that looks interesting.

Having said that, it's still a must subscribe channel, for me, due to the fact that they show SO MANY SPORTING EVENTS. I love WatchESPN since it lets me watch replays of entire games. Yes, there are others that let you watch live events and some replays, but I've always found the sheer amount of games available and functionality/stability of their online applications to be solid.

I'm also not looking forward to the day when I have to pay 3 or 4 separate providers to watch all the content I get today on ESPN. An Amazon subscription for NFL, selling my soul to facebook for CUSA and whoever else college football, and how many other ways this stuff gets split up by leagues or individual entities and get charged for them all. I seriously doubt that model is going to be cheaper for consumers in the long run. It certainly won't be convenient.

So, it'll be a bittersweet day for me when ESPN dies...

Edited November 2, 2017 by TIgreen01

oldguystudent · November 2, 2017

4 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

For me it was forcing politics and personal life problems on me. I don't want to see nothing but sports, the rest can be on the news or TMZ or whatever else is worried about it.

I was thinking about this last night.

First, a disclaimer: I cut ESPN almost ten years ago, so honestly have no idea what political stuff they've been doing .

Now then, you and I grew up in an era after Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Black glove olympic dudes, Billy Jean King, etc.

When we were kids, the "special stories" in sports were more along the lines of Scott Hamilton was sick and became an olympic skater anyway. Feel good warm fuzzy stories.

I never associated sports with politics in any way, shape, or form.

For me, likely on a very different spot on the political spectrum from you, the first time I noticed politics in sports was after 9/11 when we started doing God Bless America at everything, then the military started sponsoring flyovers and all kind of patriotic pomp and circumstance. I found that pretty jarring.

For you, ESPN started doing whatever they've been doing, Kaepernick started kneeling, and you found it jarring.

I am completely with you. Let's go back to the Scott Hamilton stories and get politics out of sports entirely. It's a game, not a political grandstand, left, right, or center.

Just in case internet tone isn't coming across correctly, I intend no snark or antagonism in this. I just want to watch a game.

VideoEagle · November 2, 2017

I can't find a link to the story, but Disney is planning on launching it's own streaming service in 2019/2020. Some level of ESPN is planned to be a part of that service. The article that I wish I could find discussed Disney's fear of cannibalizing their cable/SAT TV revenue stream. This article show that revenue stream might already be greatly reduced by 2020.

southsideguy · November 3, 2017

i do like when they run the smut story leading to the death penalty.

aztecskin · November 3, 2017

An addendum -- NBC Sports offering a $35 package of Blazer games http://awfulannouncing.com/local-networks/nbc-sports-northwest-offer-15-blazers-games-top-34-99.html

This is cool and I would totally pay for this if I were a portland cord-cutter but . . . this is exactly what I mean when I say this stuff is limited. We all gain some efficiencies when these things are bundled and even if $10 was too much in ESPN's pocket I don't know that I want a totally a-la-carte option because of the negative externalities

UNT 90 Grad · November 3, 2017

25 minutes ago, aztecskin said:

An addendum -- NBC Sports offering a $35 package of Blazer games http://awfulannouncing.com/local-networks/nbc-sports-northwest-offer-15-blazers-games-top-34-99.html

Ha. I thought this was regarding UAB games at first.

Cerebus · November 3, 2017

I think the service that comes closest, but still is well short, is MLB.TV. For a little over a $100/yr you can stream every single MLB game... except for the blackout rules.

For example if you live anywhere in Texas, Astros and Rangers games are blacked out. So a Rangers fan in El Paso, or an Astros fan in Denton, can't stream the game even though they have zero local affiliates.

aztecskin · November 3, 2017

41 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

I think the service that comes closest, but still is well short, is MLB.TV. For a little over a $100/yr you can stream every single MLB game... except for the blackout rules.
For example if you live anywhere in Texas, Astros and Rangers games are blacked out. So a Rangers fan in El Paso, or an Astros fan in Denton, can't stream the game even though they have zero local affiliates.

I agree.

For me, my exposure to baseball / basketball /football was watching the championship games (WS, Finals, SB) then asking my dad if 'we' had a team. Then I sought out those games on TV.

I wonder if a dedicated streaming package is just a little too much effort (vs changing the channel to the game) that these sports will miss some of that. Maybe that is already happening.

BTG_Fan1 · November 3, 2017

46 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

I think the service that comes closest, but still is well short, is MLB.TV. For a little over a $100/yr you can stream every single MLB game... except for the blackout rules.

For example if you live anywhere in Texas, Astros and Rangers games are blacked out. So a Rangers fan in El Paso, or an Astros fan in Denton, can't stream the game even though they have zero local affiliates.

ESPN3 does not have any local blackouts does it?

Asking because if not, then it likely will not have a major affect on the crowds at Apogee.

dmaxel · November 3, 2017

30 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

ESPN3 does not have any local blackouts does it?

Asking because if not, then it likely will not have a major affect on the crowds at Apogee.

Our game against UTSA was blacked out on ESPN3 as it was being aired by local stations in both DFW and San Antonio.

Edited November 3, 2017 by dmaxel

southsideguy · November 3, 2017

I stop watching when they stopped televising the indoor horse shoe tournaments that looked like they were in a marriott ballroom. I always hated the off season between football and baseball. I liked ESPN when they actually were showing games instead of all the talking heads. That started with Dan Patrick and has gone own hill ever since. I only watch when they have a college game that i have interest in.

untjim1995 · November 3, 2017

As for G5 college football coverage for the future, look at the current MACtion on ESPN. They had 5 games on Tuesday, wednesday, and Thursday. That’s the future of our level of play. These networks will pay a G5 league for national coverage if it doesn’t compete against the P4 in the future.

UNTFan23 · November 4, 2017

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

As for G5 college football coverage for the future, look at the current MACtion on ESPN. They had 5 games on Tuesday, wednesday, and Thursday. That’s the future of our level of play. These networks will pay a G5 league for national coverage if it doesn’t compete against the P4 in the future.

This assumes CUSA schools want to play games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Right now, the only days games have been played on are a few on Friday nights and the typical Saturday when it comes to conference match-ups. CUSA schools have played on non-traditional days (TWTh) but those were OOC games.