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More Layoffs Coming to ESPN

JB

JB

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Interesting tidbits in this story from CNBC. What product would give viewers access to 10,000 live sporting events? This has to be international, right? The major sports don't combine for that many yearly.

Another round of layoffs is hitting ESPN, CNBC has learned.

ESPN plans to layoff more than 100 staffers after the Thanksgiving holidays, with SportsCenter in particular expected to lose jobs a source close to the situation told CNBC. The news was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

ESPN declined to comment.

The company has gone through several rounds of layoffs over the past few years. In April it let 100 people go, including about 10 percent of ESPN's more front-facing employees including on-air talent and writers.

ESPN is going through changes as more people move away from cable and towards stand-alone streaming services. The company is preparing to launch an "add-on" digital service which will let people watch content on their mobile devices, CEO Bob Iger told CNBC in October. There will also be an additional product which will give viewers access to more than 10,000 live sporting events.

Parent company Disney reported earnings on Thursday. The company missed revenue and earnings estimates, causing shares to drop 4 percent in after-hours trading.
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If you count racing, all the golf events, all the college sports I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit close to 10k events a year.
 
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dazeedmonds said:
If you count racing, all the golf events, all the college sports I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit close to 10k events a year.
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Yeah you could get there with amateur athletics, but that is a lot of camera crews and announce teams if that is where they are headed.
 
That's a big number. I doubt they have rights to do it but by my quick math there are about 3700 MLB and NBA games. Add in every college football and hoops game and the number gets close.
 
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tequila4kapp said:
That's a big number. I doubt they have rights to do it but by my quick math there are about 3700 MLB and NBA games. Add in every college football and hoops game and the number gets close.
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Yeah I have a feeling its going in an odd direction with overseas stuff. Its the only way to explain it right?
Of by live sporting do they mean high school tennis, soccer games from Bangladesh and chipmunk races from who knows where?
 
More Layoffs Coming to ESPN

JB said:
Yeah I have a feeling its going in an odd direction with overseas stuff. Its the only way to explain it right?
Of by live sporting do they mean high school tennis, soccer games from Bangladesh and chipmunk races from who knows where?
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Don’t discount racing. 3 events every weekend, if you don’t count qualifying. That’s just nascar. If you add in all the dirt track stuff there’s a couple hundred events or more every year, add in motor cross, and motogp on the motorcycle side of the house you’re probably close to or over 1,000 events just in motorsports.
 
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dazeedmonds said:
Don’t discount racing. 3 events every weekend, if you don’t count qualifying. That’s just nascar. If you add in all the dirt track stuff there’s a couple hundred events or more every year, add in motor cross, and motogp on the motorcycle side of the house you’re probably close to or over 1,000 events just in motorsports.
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Im not discounting the amount of races. Im discounting the DIS CEO being excited enough about a racing schedule launch to put it out as major news during fiscal talks. They aren't exactly ratings darlings.
 
JB said:
Yeah you could get there with amateur athletics, but that is a lot of camera crews and announce teams if that is where they are headed.
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This was my initial thought. Either you are relying on other feeds that might not be up to espn standards or a lot of money will be spent on crews to cover the events.
 
JB said:
Im not discounting the amount of races. Im discounting the DIS CEO being excited enough about a racing schedule launch to put it out as major news during fiscal talks. They aren't exactly ratings darlings.
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Well. That’s a whole nuther story. I’ve got no idea what their goal is, but yeah they’ve got to have some sort of plan. Maybe they’ve landed a major contract for something in the Indian or Euro markets.
 
Wow. ESPN is pretty lame now. 100 less people? Going to podcast only? Jeez


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High School football as well. They already show 1 or 2 high school games on one of the ESPN's as is.
 
JB said:
Yeah I have a feeling its going in an odd direction with overseas stuff. Its the only way to explain it right?
Of by live sporting do they mean high school tennis, soccer games from Bangladesh and chipmunk races from who knows where?
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ba7f0a1507976e2bfc46b66c51d19f4b.jpg
the next ESPN live spot?




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The quality of the content/shows has already gone way down. SC is a joke. 30 for 30 is about the only watchable non-event on the channel.


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Honestly, how many soccer games are played worldwide on any given week?
 
After all of the crazy lefty crap I'm quite happy to see them going down the tubes. If they try to put out that many live events it will be more junk that nobody will watch and the downward spiral continues. Nice!
 
Forgetting about content/perceived politicization of the network, they need a new delivery model. They may be the most expensive network in terms of what cable companies have to pay. Anyone with a smartphone and a few drones can be a camera crew.
If I add up regular season games for MLB, NFL, FBS football, NHL, NBA, and Div I men's and women's basketball*, I'm already over 15,000 events. And that's not counting pre- and post-season, Canadian football, horse and auto racing, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, golf, track and field, gymnastics, figure skating, Alpine and Nordic sports,high school sports, soccer, cricket, poker, Calvinball . . . .

* there are something like 351 Div I hoops programs. If we assume they play 27 regular season games only against other Div I programs, that's 9.450 college basketball games right there. And we know that a Duke will play at least one game against Slippery Rock or Lower Northwest South Dakota State, so that 9k+ number is low.
 
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Reframmellator said:
Forgetting about content/perceived politicization of the network, they need a new delivery model. They may be the most expensive network in terms of what cable companies have to pay. Anyone with a smartphone and a few drones can be a camera crew.
If I add up regular season games for MLB, NFL, FBS football, NHL, NBA, and Div I men's and women's basketball*, I'm already over 15,000 events. And that's not counting pre- and post-season, Canadian football, horse and auto racing, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, golf, track and field, gymnastics, figure skating, Alpine and Nordic sports,high school sports, soccer, cricket, poker, Calvinball . . . .

* there are something like 351 Div I hoops programs. If we assume they play 27 regular season games only against other Div I programs, that's 9.450 college basketball games right there. And we know that a Duke will play at least one game against Slippery Rock or Lower Northwest South Dakota State, so that 9k+ number is low.
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It would be impossible to get the rights to all of those amateur athletics.
 
As a cord cutter myself this is not surprising. You add that to the fact that the network has been loosing on air talent and market share to other sports outlets.

Additionally things are cyclical. Newspapers and payphones are obsolete. MTV doesn't air music. Sears/Kmart is going under. If ESPN doesn't adapt or reinvent themselves the slide will continue.
 
I like the idea of them going to a streaming type platform. The problem I see is that if every network creates a streaming service that cost $7-$10 a month, while you truly only pay for what you watch the overall price will slowly creep up beyond where cable currently is. That defeats the purpose of cutting the cord in the first place. Instead of creating there own streaming thing I wish they would partner with existing services and think about the consumer a bit. If they'd just provide good content people would still be watching anyway.
 
10K isn't _that_ crazy, if we're talking international

There just under 5000 MLB games a year, and 2500 NBA games. That said, they don't have rights to all of these - I'm guessing international soccer leagues is probably good for a large number.

Also the "World Extreme Dodgeball Championships" were on last week, so there's always something they can televise. The question is, will people pay to watch it?
 
dazeedmonds said:
Don’t discount racing. 3 events every weekend, if you don’t count qualifying. That’s just nascar. If you add in all the dirt track stuff there’s a couple hundred events or more every year, add in motor cross, and motogp on the motorcycle side of the house you’re probably close to or over 1,000 events just in motorsports.
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NASCAR is with NBC sports and FOX .Indy car is with NBC, except the INDY 500,along with Formula 1.ESPN did pick up the rights to Formula 1 again starting next year.
 
I haven't watched ESPN in a few years. It used to be part of my standard morning ritual, coffee, check email and Sportscenter. I started to get really annoyed with the 2 idiots on First Take and ESPN's politically charged double standards. If I wanted politics, I would watch Fox news or CNN. Good luck ESPN, you're going to need it....
 
Once Fox Sports gets a Sportscenter type show that's any good at all, they will really be rolling. I already listen/watch The Herd, Skip and Shannon is better than First Take, and First Things First is pretty good now that Mike and Mike is going away. ESPN better be worried if they aren't already!
 
objxtn said:
Once Fox Sports gets a Sportscenter type show that's any good at all, they will really be rolling. I already listen/watch The Herd, Skip and Shannon is better than First Take, and First Things First is pretty good now that Mike and Mike is going away. ESPN better be worried if they aren't already!
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FOX doesnt even know what it wants with FS1
 
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