I really think this still says more about ESPN itself than it does about the general state of sports. ESPN is now paying the price for its programming decisions, such as:
– Trying to become a football-only network
– Deciding to focus their programming around people talking about sports instead of sports themselves
– Trying to politicize/socialize sports
– Hitching their wagon to non-sports like poker and spelling bees
The sports world is fine. It’s ESPN that is having a day of reckoning here.
Yeah, should have went with Dodge Ball or Pinochle, instead. 😉
I suppose the other networks, not being exclusively sports, can absorb any short-term losses for sports rights in the name of using sports to promote its other shows.
The biggest reason ESPN is dying is because it has hitched its wagon to cable and satellite providers. They should create a package you can buy separate from them for a monthly fee. They have had this happen and now many other competitors for your eyeballs have come about as well with top notch sports programming. They used to be a monopoly in this space and now they are in big trouble.
I noted on another board that ESPN has in the past been getting lots of money from cable/satelite subscribers who watch little/no sports. Many of those people are moving over to netflix/hulu/etc now.
I think the Zoobs should be scared because this means they are very expendable by ESPN. I doubt they get near the money this time around because of this.
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