Hmmm…Ethan Strauss was essentially the Warriors beat reporter. Apparently even the writers for currently popular teams are taking hits.
That’s on him, IYAM. He should have diversified, like Windhorst did.
If ESPN keeps bleeding three million subscribers per year, that’s almost $200 million in annual revenue declines from subscriptions alone. Disney just made $1.3 billion in the last quarter so they’re ok for a while but the commitments to broadcast rights of live events is scheduled to continue to increase. At some point in time, this becomes a serious profitability problem. Ad revenues for games will decline, too, if cable eyeballs drop.
I don’t see how the current model can continue for substantially longer but I have no idea what will take its place. If leagues can’t command the types of ever-increasing fees to which they’ve become accustomed, however, we will be in for some very interesting times.
I think it was covered in another thread but the surprising ratings decline suffered by the NFL (and others) last year may also portend a general change of viewing habits by the American public.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratings decline is a part of everything, but, so far, it’s only a one year anomaly.
Let’s see how this NFL season pans out in the ratings before we put too much of a blame on that.
Another post from me…
You just don’t rebid when they come up again.
A) That’s still a few years in the future and doesn’t help now
B) If they did that, ESPN would be dead. It’d be committing suicide. Where do you think their money comes from?
Their only option is rebidding at a lower rate, but even then, there is plenty of competition (Fox for instance). If they lose too much, they will basically cease to exist.
Eh, I think that’s unfair. He’s a young guy and hasn’t been on the payroll that long. He was just starting to get wider exposure, so I don’t think he’d really had time to diversify. As been noted in a few places ( like here ) he was regarded as an up-and-comer, which makes layoffs like this kinda inexplicable. They’re not cutting dead weight in an objective sense, nor are they necessarily shedding big salaries. Instead they’re to some extent slashing cheaper journalists instead of far more expensive and utterly hollow “personalities” like Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless .
That’s not really cost-cutting. It’s restructuring in a rather depressing way.
ESPN was allegedly blowing the competition out of the water on their last bids, though. I read they paid over $500M more for MNF than the next highest offer. And their NBA bid was similarly way higher than the next highest.
ETA: Regarding Brian Windhorst, I’d argue he never diversified. All he does is report on LeBron, whether that was with the Plain Dealer, or in Miami, or back to Cleveland again.
Windy certainly STARTED by being the designated LeBron guy, and he’s probably still the go-to, but he’s changed to become one of the premiere NBA story breakers
Bayless is on Fox.
That breed of vacuous sports chatterer kinda all blend together in my head ;).
Can’t ESPN lay him off anyway? Pretty please? I’ll even become an “Insider”, whatever the hell that is.
Nothing fantastic about it, it’s a steaming pile of deceptive inflammatory shit.
Misclassifying employees as 1099s in order to dodge payroll taxes and other costs is against the law. Has been for a long time. Obamacare just gave the IRS a compelling reason to enforce it. If ESPN was operating illegally and they have to stop, that’s not Obamacare killing jobs, that’s just justice.
ESPN fires two more NFL reporters, Jaws and Merril Hoge
Hehe waited on firing Jaws until after the Draft in Philly was complete, coincidence?
I can’t believe that ESPN laid off Ed Werder … and then turned around and asked him to WORK THE FUCKING DRAFT! I’m glad that he declined their generous offer.
Really? I thought he was fired before the draft
Big Government Liberals Killed Sports Media! Is NASCAR Next? Five Steroidal Retirees Yell At You Until You Concur!
I mean, as long as ESPN’s looking for a business model…
ESPN overpaid for some of their programming.
First of all, let’s be clear; ESPN makes a lot of money. That “Demise of ESPN” headline is idiotic. Layoffs, schmayoffs; they’re raking in a lot of cabbage. It’s not as much as they used to, though, and they’re simply being smart with their money. They don’t need those people, so out they go. That’s just smart business, no matter what your bottom line says. Wasted money is wasted money.
The notion that this is the fault of Barack Obama or ESPN being a leftist outlet, as I’ve also read, is horseshit. They’re profitable but not as profitable as they once were for brutally obvious reasons everyone understands to be true:
- More competition, most notably from the leagues themselves being their own distributors
- Online streaming