More layoffs hitting ESPN

[MarcB]

More layoffs are hitting ESPN.

http://www.bristolpress.com/BP-Bristol+News/356872/espn-announces-layoffs-of-over-30-employees

 

[Don CT]

I can see the ACC Network being a bust as well. That will lead to more problems for the mother ship.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I can see the ACC Network being a bust as well. That will lead to more problems for the mother ship.

I am in Pittsburgh where we're getting blitzed with ads featuring Pitt's athletic director telling us to call our
cable providers and DEMAND the ACC Network.

Frankly aside from basketball season I think there will be little interest locally.

ESPN's basic problem is that they bought broadcast rights at the top of the market and now
waves of cord-cutting are slashing their revenue. Eventually this could lead to a Chapter 11 filing
which would have trickle down effects on the various sports leagues and conferences.

 

[Don CT]

I am in Pittsburgh where we're getting blitzed with ads featuring Pitt's athletic director telling us to call our
cable providers and DEMAND the ACC Network.

Frankly aside from basketball season I think there will be little interest locally.

ESPN's basic problem is that they bought broadcast rights at the top of the market and now
waves of cord-cutting are slashing their revenue. Eventually this could lead to a Chapter 11 filing
which would have trickle down effects on the various sports leagues and conferences.

Disney would not allow them to go bankrupt. They might sell the division first but they won't allow them to go under.

I do wonder how much Disney could get for ESPN given how much of a hit they took on the sale of the RSN's.

 

[TheBigA]

Eventually this could lead to a Chapter 11 filing
which would have trickle down effects on the various sports leagues and conferences.

How would that happen given they're owned by Disney? Creditors know Mickey Mouse has pretty deep pockets, and the stock is over $100 a share.

 

[davideduardo]

I am in Pittsburgh where we're getting blitzed with ads featuring Pitt's athletic director telling us to call our
cable providers and DEMAND the ACC Network.

Frankly aside from basketball season I think there will be little interest locally.

ESPN's basic problem is that they bought broadcast rights at the top of the market and now
waves of cord-cutting are slashing their revenue. Eventually this could lead to a Chapter 11 filing
which would have trickle down effects on the various sports leagues and conferences.

Mostly they are reacting to cord cutting and alternate sources of sports programming. This is a question of scale. Disney is one of the wold’s most profitable companies.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Apparently Disney has stated that the ESPN layoffs was going to be about putting more funding to their international operations. But the cuts at Disney have been taking place since Disney took over 20th Century Fox though. Also for international viewers Disney have renamed their TV Networks and Sports channels as Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Sports during that time frame. In other words these Layoffs ESPN is facing may have been results of the Disney/20th Century Fox deal. Also ESPN+ and Disney+ were also underway and Disney was in the process of boosting their streaming outlets to go after Netflix though.

 

[CTListener]

I can see the ACC Network being a bust as well. That will lead to more problems for the mother ship.

One of the main reasons I was a charter subscriber to ESPN+ in March 2018 was that Syracuse University (my alma mater) sports would be available to a cord-cutter like me. Now, after one year, ACCN becomes a stand-alone network, still available on ESPN+ but only to those who can prove they have a cable TV subscription -- the same way ESPN's agreements with the SEC and Longhorn (Texas) networks work. It's not a deal breaker for me, as there are plenty of other sports events on ESPN+ that make the $5 a month I pay a very good deal, but the way ESPN gave us the ACC for a year and then made it cable subscribers-only leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Die, cable, die!

 

[CTListener]

Apparently Disney has stated that the ESPN layoffs was going to be about putting more funding to their international operations.

Yet they laid off many people in Bristol who worked on the international side. I believe that those people were doing commentary on live events in Spanish while watching a TV feed in Bristol, saving the company the expense of flying them all over Latin America but providing inferior quality play-by-play for the Spanish-speaking viewers. Now, those events will have commentary from people actually at the event doing the games for their domestic networks. I'm sure that whatever Disney winds up paying for this improvement -- and yes, it should please the viewers -- is considerably less than the salaries it was paying US citizens to sit and watch a raw feed in some studio in Connecticut and describe what they're seeing based solely on what that feed is showing them.

 

[TheBigA]

describe what they're seeing based solely on what that feed is showing them.

Sounds like the TV equivalent of voice tracking.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Yet they laid off many people in Bristol who worked on the international side. I believe that those people were doing commentary on live events in Spanish while watching a TV feed in Bristol, saving the company the expense of flying them all over Latin America but providing inferior quality play-by-play for the Spanish-speaking viewers. Now, those events will have commentary from people actually at the event doing the games for their domestic networks. I'm sure that whatever Disney winds up paying for this improvement -- and yes, it should please the viewers -- is considerably less than the salaries it was paying US citizens to sit and watch a raw feed in some studio in Connecticut and describe what they're seeing based solely on what that feed is showing them.

How much of this is that ESPN international is being rebranded as Fox Sports for viewers outside of the United States though.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Sports_International

 

[davideduardo]

Yet they laid off many people in Bristol who worked on the international side. I believe that those people were doing commentary on live events in Spanish while watching a TV feed in Bristol, saving the company the expense of flying them all over Latin America but providing inferior quality play-by-play for the Spanish-speaking viewers. Now, those events will have commentary from people actually at the event doing the games for their domestic networks. I'm sure that whatever Disney winds up paying for this improvement -- and yes, it should please the viewers -- is considerably less than the salaries it was paying US citizens to sit and watch a raw feed in some studio in Connecticut and describe what they're seeing based solely on what that feed is showing them.

Given the economies, the distances and the travel times between Latin American nations, narration using video has always been common in Latin America. In fact, in many cases both TV and radio get a raw feed from a station or pool source at the game location, and they insert both the TV anchors (blue screen against the actual video of the game) and narration without leaving town. Radio does the same, viewing the video feed also. In many cases where the video feed has multiple angles, the narration is better.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

NBC kind of pioneered this for the domestic audience with coverage of Olympic events announced from 30 Rock or Stamford through the years. Usually minor sports like fencing or preliminary heats in some of the race events, which might air in late nights or other off-prime slots.

ESPN has been using remote announce teams for minor college football and basketball. And this season, FS1 has been remotely announcing the NASCAR Truck Series races, particularly when the trucks are not at the same track as the other series.

 

[Syfy]

I can see the ACC Network being a bust as well. That will lead to more problems for the mother ship.

You dont know that. Acc has sports they can broadcast exclusively on ACC Network they have the televised rights to a lot of their sports. You must not know much about how exclusive networks for conferences work. They have some of the biggest colleges in the country in the acc exclusive to that network.

 

[Syfy]

I am in Pittsburgh where we're getting blitzed with ads featuring Pitt's athletic director telling us to call our
cable providers and DEMAND the ACC Network.

Frankly aside from basketball season I think there will be little interest locally.

ESPN's basic problem is that they bought broadcast rights at the top of the market and now
waves of cord-cutting are slashing their revenue. Eventually this could lead to a Chapter 11 filing
which would have trickle down effects on the various sports leagues and conferences.

Their not trying to appeal to the Pittsburgh market and just because your market doesnt have interest doesnt mean its not going to be a successful channel. I dont think when they set out to make the acc network their top priority was how are we going to get the Pittsburgh market to care about getting on their cable package.

 

[CTListener]

Their not trying to appeal to the Pittsburgh market and just because your market doesnt have interest doesnt mean its not going to be a successful channel. I dont think when they set out to make the acc network their top priority was how are we going to get the Pittsburgh market to care about getting on their cable package.

Pitt is an ACC school. So's Boston College. And Syracuse. It is absolutely in the ACC's interest to get its network on cable systems in those cities. The ACC expanded far from its traditional base in the coastal Southeast several years ago.

 

[Syfy]

Pitt is an ACC school. So's Boston College. And Syracuse. It is absolutely in the ACC's interest to get its network on cable systems in those cities. The ACC expanded far from its traditional base in the coastal Southeast several years ago.

Their going to be going after the bigger schools though pitt is not really on their top priorites probably.

 

[CTListener]

Their going to be going after the bigger schools though pitt is not really on their top priorites probably.

Let me explain yet again. The ACC expanded into nontraditional markets because it wanted to make more money. It can make more money by attracting advertisers who want to reach a wider range of potential customers than the ones in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida who've been following the ACC for years. It lost Maryland to the Big Ten, so that was even more incentive to reach for new territory to the north. Yes, Pitt is the No. 2 football school in Pennsylvania by a huge margin, but it's far better for the ACC to have some interest in the western part of the state than none at all should Pitt have affiliated elsewhere.

Likewise, Boston is a weak market for college sports, but clearing ACCN there puts it in a top 10 market. That's all that matters on Madison Avenue: clears. Why do you think the Big Ten just had to have Rutgers, a joke of a program in just about all sports but the only top-level football school in the New York metro area? A 0.4 in a top 10 market is likely worth much more to the advertisers than a 3.4 in Tallahassee or High Point.

Also, unless you are still in elementary school, you really should be farther along in all aspects of written English than you now seem to be. Google "capitalization," "there/their," and "What is the plural of priority?", please.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Whether Disney is a mega-corporation or not, the numbers are the numbers.

The next time rights fees negotiations take place they are likely to scale back.
This is going to trickle down into payroll budgets for teams, leading to potential work stoppages, etc.

The Mouse didn't get to be where it is by being stupid.

 

[Don CT]

NBC kind of pioneered this for the domestic audience with coverage of Olympic events announced from 30 Rock or Stamford through the years. Usually minor sports like fencing or preliminary heats in some of the race events, which might air in late nights or other off-prime slots.

ESPN has been using remote announce teams for minor college football and basketball. And this season, FS1 has been remotely announcing the NASCAR Truck Series races, particularly when the trucks are not at the same track as the other series.

Does NBC use remote announcers for their Premier League broadcasts.