• The KillerFrogs

ESPN Hemorrhaging

TxFrog1999

The Man Behind The Curtain
Just signed up for a Vue account after seeing a PS4 on Amazon for $200 during Cyber Monday (should be arriving today). I already tested it with my PS3 and it works great; going to cut my DTV bill down 70%.
 

Klaw

Active Member
TxFrog1999 said:
Just signed up for a Vue account after seeing a PS4 on Amazon for $200 during Cyber Monday (should be arriving today). I already tested it with my PS3 and it works great; going to cut my DTV bill down 70%.
How do you like Vue so far? Is the performance comparable to cable? Thinking about cutting DTV as well
 

frognutz

Active Member
TxFrog1999 said:
Just signed up for a Vue account after seeing a PS4 on Amazon for $200 during Cyber Monday (should be arriving today). I already tested it with my PS3 and it works great; going to cut my DTV bill down 70%.
 
 
So can you get ESPN on Vue?  No way I could get rid of ESPN.  I think TCU has 16 or 17 basketball games on ESPN.  Almost all conference play.
 

TxFrog1999

The Man Behind The Curtain
Yes ESPN and FSSW are available on Vue. In the few days I've been using it the quality is similar to DTV as are the features. So far I'm quite happy. Vue is also available through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV (is 10+) and you can even buy standalone Vue boxes on Amazon for around $45
 

Fred Garvin

I service the entire Quad Cities Area
frognutz said:
So, I'm assuming everyone will be tuned into the 4 hour college football selection show starting at 11:00?
 
I would rather watch a 4 hour long graduation ceremony for people I don't know, performed in a different language where I was required to take notes and document the event.
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
Hmmmm.

 

Disney without ESPN? An idea some thought improbable, if not crazy, is now catching on.
 
Last month, billionaire John Malone -- the dealmaker of all media dealmakers -- speculated that Disney may spin off or sell ESPN, along with maybe ABC.
 
Now, RBC Capital Markets analyst Steven Cahall is jumping on the bandwagon. In a report Monday, Cahall wrote that ESPN "has almost single-handedly de-rated Disney by about 3.5 to 4 turns" of its Ebitda multiple.
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-12-05/disney-can-remove-espn-discount-with-breakup
 

Wexahu

Full Member
It's going to be interesting what happens when this sports bubble breaks.  Coaches salaries and rights fees cannot continue to go up 20-25% per year, there's just no way its sustainable.
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
The $5.6 billion New Year’s Eve nightmare continued for ESPN, with Saturday’s games averaging only a 10.4 rating, down 32 percent from the 15.4 rating just two years ago.
 
The Sporting News tried to put the best face on the debacle, noting it was not quite as bad as the 9.8 in 2015, which was a 36 percent drop from 2014.
ESPN can now only hope the title game next week between Alabama and Clemson goes better than when the same two teams met last year
 
http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/01/02/espn-5-6b-debacle-football-semifinal-ratings-32-2014/
 

FBallFan123

Active Member
Aside from the date/time of the semifinal playoff games, the games just weren't good..both were over by halftime.

Bad semifinal games is becoming a trend with the CFP.
 

rifram09

Active Member
Pharm Frog said:
The $5.6 billion New Years Eve nightmare continued for ESPN, with Saturdays games averaging only a 10.4 rating, down 32 percent from the 15.4 rating just two years ago.
 
The Sporting News tried to put the best face on the debacle, noting it was not quite as bad as the 9.8 in 2015, which was a 36 percent drop from 2014.

ESPN can now only hope the title game next week between Alabama and Clemson goes better than when the same two teams met last year

 

http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/01/02/espn-5-6b-debacle-football-semifinal-ratings-32-2014/
That's interesting. Breitbart attributes the decline to ESPN's increasing tendency to drive leftist policies through their sports coverage. That may be one factor, but I don't think it's the only factor--or even the largest.

I think the biggest issue is the cord cutting trend, but I hope at least some of it is that people are fed up with the bias in college football. Fair competition and level playing field is what makes sports fun to watch--not simply the two biggest brands. The committee system is non-sense, and they only exist to justify the selection of the biggest brands.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
Rifram09 said:
That's interesting. Breitbart attributes the decline to ESPN's increasing tendency to drive leftist policies through their sports coverage. That may be one factor, but I don't think it's the only factor--or even the largest.

I think the biggest issue is the cord cutting trend, but I hope at least some of it is that people are fed up with the bias in college football. Fair competition and level playing field is what makes sports fun to watch--not simply the two biggest brands. The committee system is non-sense, and they only exist to justify the selection of the biggest brands.
That last sentence, man it just drives me nuts. What "small brand" team got screwed this year by the committee? Penn State? Michigan? Are those not big brands?

Tell me what small brand got hosed. In case you're wondering, Penn State is a HUGE school with a HUGE east coast following, right in ESPNs backyard.

What was the committee supposed to do to prove that last sentence of yours is BS?
 

Zubaz

Member
Interesting spin from Breitbart. Ratings were up a pretty good amount from last year, that's a success, but they insist on comparing to two years ago, when the games were on New Year's Day as opposed to NYE the past two years. That's probably more due to the fact that NYE was a Saturday this year instead off wekday last year than any attribution to game or teams.

Fact is NYE isn't a great day for college football because people are doing other things. If memory serves, this is the last year they are doing NYE games, instead shifting to either New Years Day or last Saturday of the year.
 

Froggy Bottom

Active Member
Be careful what you ask for. Streaming means less money for all providers which leads to cost cutting

If it comes down to it, networks aren't going to sacrifice their B1G and SEC programming.

Now a small conference in flyover country that got zero top 10 ratings performances this year? Pretty easy to decide that conference is worth cutting to preserve payments to the B1G and SEC

As for it effecting realignment?

It won't. The only thing that brings back the small regional conferences some ofvyou are pining for is a reversal of the SCOTUS case that took control of TV money away from the NCAA OR the idea Chip Brown and other whorn writers are pushing of trying to get the other conferences to save the Big 12 by pooling everyone's TV rights and equally distributing them (except for UT of course who still gets LHN, it's only fair)

Of course the other conferences, especially the B1G and SEC have no reason to do this at all so it's just a pipe dream
 

Hoosierfrog

Tier 1
Wexahu said:
That last sentence, man it just drives me nuts. What "small brand" team got screwed this year by the committee? Penn State? Michigan? Are those not big brands?

Tell me what small brand got hosed. In case you're wondering, Penn State is a HUGE school with a HUGE east coast following, right in ESPNs backyard.

What was the committee supposed to do to prove that last sentence of yours is BS?
State College is not near anywhere, much less Bristol, Ct.
 
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