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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 01 2017, @11:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the American-game-of-FOOTball-which-is-played-using-your-HANDs dept.

Is ESPN done for?

ESPN pays $2 billion a year to the NFL for Monday Night Football and one NFL wild card playoff game. I've written for the past couple of years that as ESPN's business collapses that ESPN's decision on whether or not to bid to keep Monday Night Football would be the first big test of how rapidly that business is deteriorating.

What's a deteriorating business look like? In the month of October ESPN lost over 15,000 subscribers a day in October per the latest Nielson estimates.

15,000 a day!

Losing 15,000 subscribers per day is a lot, but is that because of the NFL anthem protests or because cord-cutting has finally reached a tipping point?


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 01 2017, @12:51PM (18 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @12:51PM (#590532) Homepage Journal

    More and more Americans are DISGUSTED by the unpatriotic NFL players who #TakeAKnee and by ESPN's very disrespectful .@JemeleHill. Apologize! Football rights will get cheaper and cheaper. While ESPN gets poorer and poorer. Both failing big time! NFL merchandise sales also tanking massively. pic.twitter.com/bQ9Wo7Fnsa [t.co] #BoycottNFL #NFLBoycott #WorldSeries 🚫🏈🇺🇸

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Troll=2, Insightful=2, Funny=3, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=9
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:26PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:26PM (#590546) Journal

    pic.twitter.com/bQ9Wo7Fnsa

    Oh, God!!
    At least a footballer will take some good years of head bashing before they get to that much an idiot.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:42PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:42PM (#590551)

    Why did the owners start playing the anthem at every game? Not everyone goes for rah-rah patriotism. And the players disagree with the propaganda. Free speech!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:47PM (6 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:47PM (#590566) Homepage Journal

      My military, my Department of Defense, pays for it. Pays the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, MLB, NASCAR and Major League Soccer. Because it's great for recruiting. When they do it, it works great. And a lot of that money comes from our taxpayers. If you think about it, a lot of it comes from taxes in the end. They're taking the money and not doing the work. Which I hate. Which I hate. It's a disaster. But we have a law, it's called USC Section 301. A law they're breaking when they don't stand. Folks, I think maybe I should start enforcing that law. Send in my FBI to enforce that. Respect for Flag, Anthem and Country. #MAGA 🇺🇸

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by captain normal on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:59PM (5 children)

        by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:59PM (#590657)

        It's actually 36 U.S. Code § 301 - National anthem. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/36/301)
        And when you read it you may notice that the operative words are "should" and "may" not "must" or "required".

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:38PM (3 children)

          by isostatic (365) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:38PM (#590675) Journal

          Oh my word, that's an actual law?

          Hilarious. If I'm ever hunted down by the US military I'll ensure I have a speaker and a copy of the star spangled banner on my phone.

          (A) individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note;

          I'll play it on repeat, and get simply walk away :D

          • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday November 01 2017, @10:11PM (2 children)

            by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 01 2017, @10:11PM (#590789)

            If the soldier is armed then a lot of that stuff goes out the window. Don't have to salute. Don't have to remove your hat/helmet. Just a warning to you before you do something stupid : P

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            SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
            • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday November 02 2017, @10:34PM (1 child)

              by isostatic (365) on Thursday November 02 2017, @10:34PM (#591390) Journal

              Which law is that under?

              • (Score: 2) by tibman on Friday November 03 2017, @02:23AM

                by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 03 2017, @02:23AM (#591492)

                It won't be a law but a military regulation. The US Army for example: AR 670-1, section 3-7, l (lowercase L) 2

                (2) Soldiers will not wear headgear indoors, unless under arms in an official capacity, or when directed by the
                commander, such as for indoor ceremonial activities.

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                SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
        • (Score: 0, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:13PM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:13PM (#590703) Homepage Journal

          That's it. Long & complicated way to say: respect Flag, Anthem and Country. Nobody knew that could be so complicated. #MAGA 🇺🇸

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:05PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:05PM (#590661)

      It raised attendance [espn.com].
      So ... money, as usual.

    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:10PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:10PM (#590662)

      Look, what kind of person watches football? It's not a low-T soy-boy sitting at Starbucks. It's not a hateful lady in a Burqa. It's not an illegal immigrant.

      Perhaps excluding black people, football audiences overwhelmingly support: the police, the military, Trump, Boy Scouts, the wall, stuff made in the USA, a Muslim ban...

      Know your audience. You aren't going to succeed if you piss off your audience. Feel free to piss off other people, but your paying customers are not to be offended.

      A couple similar examples are killer whale shows and circus elephants. The people protesting those things weren't part of the audience. They didn't buy tickets, and they still won't buy tickets. The audience loved those things; take them away and your business dies. The big circuses did just that: ditched the elephants due to protesters, and then promptly went out of business. Sea World is next, having agreed to phase out the killer whale shows. Sea World's first mistake was actually to start using the scientific name "orca" instead of the English name "killer whale". Once the show is gone, Sea World will quickly go out of business.

      Another great example is a company called "84 Lumbar". They aired a superbowl ad that essentially supported illegal immigration. (with people crossing a wall even) Business took a hit. See why? The paying customers are not a bunch of liberal apartment dwellers.

      Another one is USAA. They sell insurance and other financial products mainly to military veterans. They dropped advertising from Hannity in support of a liberal cause. Immediately, a huge portion of their customer base lit up the phones at USAA to cancel all sorts of things. USAA got burned pretty badly. After some excuses, they eventually had to cave. Recovery will be difficult.

      Starbucks has a different audience. They can't piss off liberals. That would doom their business. That said, pissing off conservatives will still hurt them. Business took a big hit when Starbucks announced plans to intentionally hire immigrants. That was a tremendous help for a small competitor called Black Rifle Coffee.

      It should be obvious: don't piss off your customers or audience.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:38PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:38PM (#590717)

        Yeah, don't piss off your employees either. The leagues have enough trouble with players unions. By not playing the anthem, they could have avoided these problems. Maybe it made sense in the aftermath of 9/11, but that was a long time ago.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:29PM (#590740)

          Yeah, don't piss off your employees either. The leagues have enough trouble with players unions. By not playing the anthem, they could have avoided these problems. Maybe it made sense in the aftermath of 9/11, but that was a long time ago.

          When your employees are disrespectful of your customers, you need new employees. Without customers, you have no business, especially when your business is a leisure item.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:39AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:39AM (#590816)

          The players aren't protesting the anthem. They're protesting police brutality during the anthem.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by isostatic on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:10PM (2 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:10PM (#590663) Journal

    You realise realDonaldTrump (6614) isn't really Donald Trump right - far too coherent and knowledgable.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:13PM (#590666)

      wait, which one?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:40PM (#590742)

      Fake news!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:55PM (#590732)

    How are those bone spurs doing? Did they move to your head?