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ESPN, which laid off 100 people this week, has a multitude of problems, but the basic one is this: It pays too much for content and costs too much for consumers.
That didn't used to matter because, thanks to the way the cable industry "bundled" channels, cable customers were forced to pay for it even if they never watched it. Now, however, as the cable bundle slowly disintegrates, it matters a lot.
[...] But it's a pipe dream to think that ESPN will ever make the kind of profits ($6.4 billion in 2014) that it once did, for two reasons. First, as is the case with so many other industries, the internet has both shined a light on the flaws of the cable model and exploited them. What was the main flaw of the cable model? It was that consumers had to pay for channels they never watched.
And now they don't.
It turns out that there were lots of people, including sports fans, who resented having to pay for the most expensive channel in the bundle. The popularity of streaming led to "cord cutting," but it also caused cable companies to begin offering less expensive "skinny bundles," some of which don't include ESPN.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday May 02 2017, @03:31PM (1 child)
Many sports programs in the US (less so in Europe) don't actually show much in the way sports. Take the Olympics as the most extreme example: At a guess, about 1/4 of the coverage actually shows the competitions. We get to learn about the athlete's sister's boyfriend's ingrown toenail. We get to see huge numbers of commercials. We get to watch the commentators, as they blather on about nonsense. We see cute childhood pictures of the athletes. What we don't see, is any actual sports. In the end, it's a waste of time, so I go find a streaming option from some other country.
Classic example, possibly discussed here previously, my family and I enjoy watching "Ninja Warrior" imported from Japan with subtitles (or without). That show is enjoyable light entertainment. We absolutely cannot tolerate the Americanized version of the same show, its simply unwatchable. Apparently 311 million americans agree with my family, its a free show that holds negative value so we won't watch it. Which is kind of unbelievable. Imagine if a restaurant were issuing free hamburgers that were so disgusting that 311 million americans wouldn't eat them for free. Imagine a beer so disgusting that 311 million people wouldn't drink it for free. That's how crappy our mass media is.
Note that viewership of pro sports has been collapsing for many years. Its possible that if narrowcasting is abandoned as a strategy, enormously larger audiences might exist. Maybe 30 million people would watch a professionally produced baseball game, even if its also true that only 700K or so watch american produced baseball games. The broadcasters are not trying to appeal to the most average americans but for example FOX is trying very hard to "out-ESPN" ESPN itself and thats reached cultural escape velocity such that ratings are collapsing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:45PM
You mean you don't like those walk-over advertisments that sit on the TV screen for about 2 minutes waving at you ? That's quality content, friend.