ESPN Finally Admits "Fans Do Not Want Us Covering Politics"

THWG

THWG

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LibertyTurns

LibertyTurns

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ESPN really screwed the pooch. Very few people had an issue with athletes promoting political causes, but many got turned off by it while you're wanting to be entertained watching a game. Just like you wouldn’t put up with people emailing political crap on your business email or wouldn’t permit a political rally in the middle of your work day on company property (unless you owned your own business), nobody wanted to listen to some drivel you’d hear on a cable news channel being regurgitated in the middle of a freaking game. It’s a free country. When you’re not on company time, it’s absolutely a right to express your opinion and that right needs to be protected from the thought police that want to only say what they want you to say.
 
RonJohn

RonJohn

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I don't think that the political issues have affected ESPN's number of subscribers. They are by far the most expensive set of channels in standard cable/sat packages. People who cut the cord in general do so to get away from paying for channels that they don't want.(Or pricing that they don't want to pay) Does anyone on GTSwarm have zero access to ESPN? Even if you use SonyVUE, Sling, or YoutubeTV you are paying for ESPN. If you don't have ESPN, then how do you watch GT football games? Surely there aren't a lot of fans who are excited about GT football enough to frequent a GT forum that wait until the games are on Youtube to watch them.

Where it has hurt them is in viewership of things that aren't live sports events.(At least I believe. I haven't looked for any actual numbers) A few years ago, ESPN's revenue was about 80% from subscriber fees and 20% from advertising. They were pretty much tapped out at subscribers, because they had forced their way into just about every pay TV package available. They have a stable viewership base that won't leave because they watch live sports. They have tried to broaden their appeal to non-sports fans by increasing entertainment and political content in their programming that is not live sports. There have been several examples of niche channels who try to broaden their content and fail.(Not just to broaden, but outright fail) ESPN is in a better position because the live-sports fans can't leave. They are in a bad position because: Their core viewer no longer watches normally produced programming and even with the loss of millions of subscribers they still have a large subscriber base who has zero interest in the channel. I made a prediction long ago that they would eventually fail, solely based on their business model. I haven't looked at their financial information in a while, but I still predict that they will eventually fail. Their subscriber count will continue to decline. They have contracts with sports leagues/conferences that are extremely expensive. Now, at least I assume, they are receiving less advertising income for their normally produced programming. It isn't a situation that I would want to be in charge of resolving. They grew an incredibly large business using a stack of cards and it is about to tumble down.
 
Whiskey_Clear

Whiskey_Clear

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RonJohn said:
I don't think that the political issues have affected ESPN's number of subscribers. They are by far the most expensive set of channels in standard cable/sat packages. People who cut the cord in general do so to get away from paying for channels that they don't want.(Or pricing that they don't want to pay) Does anyone on GTSwarm have zero access to ESPN? Even if you use SonyVUE, Sling, or YoutubeTV you are paying for ESPN. If you don't have ESPN, then how do you watch GT football games? Surely there aren't a lot of fans who are excited about GT football enough to frequent a GT forum that wait until the games are on Youtube to watch them.

Where it has hurt them is in viewership of things that aren't live sports events.(At least I believe. I haven't looked for any actual numbers) A few years ago, ESPN's revenue was about 80% from subscriber fees and 20% from advertising. They were pretty much tapped out at subscribers, because they had forced their way into just about every pay TV package available. They have a stable viewership base that won't leave because they watch live sports. They have tried to broaden their appeal to non-sports fans by increasing entertainment and political content in their programming that is not live sports. There have been several examples of niche channels who try to broaden their content and fail.(Not just to broaden, but outright fail) ESPN is in a better position because the live-sports fans can't leave. They are in a bad position because: Their core viewer no longer watches normally produced programming and even with the loss of millions of subscribers they still have a large subscriber base who has zero interest in the channel. I made a prediction long ago that they would eventually fail, solely based on their business model. I haven't looked at their financial information in a while, but I still predict that they will eventually fail. Their subscriber count will continue to decline. They have contracts with sports leagues/conferences that are extremely expensive. Now, at least I assume, they are receiving less advertising income for their normally produced programming. It isn't a situation that I would want to be in charge of resolving. They grew an incredibly large business using a stack of cards and it is about to tumble down.
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Zero.

I either go to the games, go to a bar, or watch at someone else’s place. (There used to be an overseas web site I could catch games at but didn’t have luck there last year) Honestly radio works good enough for me and I’ll watch replays after. College football is the only thing ESPN has offered in the last decade that draws me. Damn sure not enough to pay for.
 
Peacone36

Peacone36

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Right now I have zero access to ESPN in my home. I will up my PSVue subscription in October to include ESPN and FSS so I can watch College basketball until my eyes bleed. I currently have HBO Now, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix and an Antenna that picks up about 25-30 channels. BTW, started watching Night Court reruns the other day, laughed....my....***...off.

For those in need, if you have a roku, apple TV or whatever I would recommend CBS Sports HQ, its completely free and they just talk sports all day. And when i say talk, they actually discuss things. Not holler and say outrages things in order to end up on twitter. There is no, Kawhi is more clutch than Kobe horse ****.
 
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