56% of viewers would drop ESPN

[dishcomm]

I'm a sports fan and I would drop it in the blink of an eye. ESPN has become a parody of itself. 20 years ago it was manned by professionals but look at the goofs on Sports Center today. Neil Everett and Stan Verrett are a couple of jerks, Jonathan Coachman's voice is to high and annoying. Kenny Mayne is totally worthless and talentless, and so on and so forth. As far as content goes ESPN has devolved into the lower reaches of yellow journalism. That started with Outside The Lines and has spread across the rest of ESPN like a virus. At least half of their reporting is now negative in emphasis. Then too their excessive self-promotion has grown to an extreme. Before ESPN signed a TV contract to carry soccer games did you ever see a soccer goal in the top 10? How about 7 of the top 10? This year they had the broadcast rights to the college football championship series. From Dec 6th when the four finalists were announced ESPN scrolled their schedule every 5 minutes on the bottom of the screen 24/7 every day until New Years, not to mention the promos that ran on screen every 10 minutes for a month. Now add to all this ESPN's over-the-top shilling for fantasy sports gambling. Imagine, in house on screen personalities telling you who you should bet your money on, based on their assessments, while at the same time people at the desk trying to tell you fantasy sports betting isn't gambling and all the while campaigning against Pete Rose because gambling is so terrible. Sadly the amateurs are in charge and I don't see things getting better in the near future. The only ray of sunshine is that Disney has put ESPN on notice to cut it's losses and even after all the firings last Fall ESPN is still in the soup. Don't hold your breath though.

I will make a bold prediction though, two years from now there will be about half of the ESPN channels being broadcast as there are today and there won't be a studio on each coast.

Save for live events, I do not watch ESPN.
The network has become a left wing biased, yellow journalism entity. ESPN's editorial staff will take a story, place on it a viewpoint and beat the living hell out of it. They will make a story last weeks.
Their shows about sports are usually this sappy drippy crap. I watch ESPN so seldom, I do not know the names of the Sports Center hosts or even the reporters.
For example. After football season, I would drop ESPN and then add it back maybe for the Baseball playoffs. Then keep it for the NFL and NCAA football.
I have lost interest in College hoops because I quit my offshore betting account due to a drastic change in banking rules which make it more difficult to withdraw winnings.

 

[dishcomm]

I don't usually bad mouth things, but wow, that Fox News is way out there. Obama could find a cure for cancer or achieve world peace and they would find something negative to say about it. And I have to pay for this?

"I don't usually bad mouth things"..
Then don't... And no politics allowed here.
BTW, i have to pay for left wing news too. So we're even....
Back on point. ESPN ....Remember?

 

[dishcomm]

I watch both CNN and MSNBC daily and never watch Fox ,unless someone ties me to a chair at my parents house during the holidays- which just happened a couple of weeks ago.

You were tied to a chair?

 

[dishcomm]

Not saying she ain't hot...but
Anna Kooiman

She used to be on Fox and Friends in Charlotte, NC...She was hired away by the network a couple years ago....I call her "girl next door hot"....

 

[dishcomm]

Sports prices are out of control.
Premiums have basically been stationary for the past 15 years.

Sports is so bad, company's are forced to add addtional fees just to pay for it.

So Yes I believe sports is more of the problem then all the other programming options out there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Sports in and of themselves are not the problem. That problem lies on the shoulders of programmers that get caught up in these ridiculous bidding wars. Sort of like how teams vie for top free agent players.
The dollar figures these networks are willing to pay sports leagues just to more or less keep another network from getting the rights are out of this Solar System...And who pays" The consumer.

 

[dishcomm]

Fox news is the #1 news network for a reason. I work for a cable provider and we sell dish too, but everyone wants fox.

These people that claim they don't watch Fox News because they don't care for the content. Well, how would they know whether or not they cared for the content if they didn't watch it in the first place?....
I think a lot of the people who claim they don't watch Fox News are full of baloney. They watch it. Or, they monitor it. They do this to have something about which to complain. LOL
In any event. Hannity,, The Five, and Cavuto over on Fox Bus Channel each get more viewers than MSNBC gets ALL DAY.....CNN"s rating are so low, the network cannot negotiate even the smallest of price increases. Last time CNN had a dispute with Dish, they wanted a 40% increase. The channels went dark. Charlie explained it like this. "Why should I pay 40% more for a channel that has seen a ratings decrease of over 30% since the last contract was signed?"
CNN came back at the same number or only slightly higher. A few cents per month.

 

[CoreyIllini]

Welcome to the real world.....It goes for nearly everything!....I dont like fighting a war for 14 years, yet I still pay my taxes...I dont drive a car, yet my local ,state and feds use my money for roads.....
For some reason people think this shared world just started a little while ago....

and PS...it will continue If you or I like it or not...kinda simple

Sorry, gas tax pays for your roads. If you don't drive, you don't pay...

 

[CoreyIllini]

It is CNN, MSNBC, and all these low rated channels that need to go. Don't we all have Internet to get our news. It is the sports channels that drive the revenue for all content providers to provide world class TV.

 

[dare2be]

It's either time to close this thread or do some major political cleanup on aisle 2.

 

[dare2be]

All I can say is if this ever happens where pro and college sports is forced to go PPV, it will become cost prohibitive and the average Joe/Jane will balk.

Good, true supply and demand and the sports leagues will be able to adjust their revenues/expenditures accordingly.

 

[Stargazer]

So if someone got rid of a handful of channels, you could get your pricepoint way the heck down?

 

[Ronnie-]

A reminder, politics is not allowed in the main forum, if you would like to discuss the political aspects of a channel, take it to the pit please.

So, lets get back on topic.

 

[MikeD-C05]

You were tied to a chair?

Not literally. It just felt that way ,since I had to be nice to my parents, brother and his drunken wife and not say anything while they watched Fox news at Christmas time. I didn't want any fights and kept my visit short and sweet before my drunken sister in law exploded with her usual tirade and my brother would join in. Politics at Christmas time. Isn't it great?

 

[AZ.]

Sorry, gas tax pays for your roads. If you don't drive, you don't pay...

Wrong...your building a straw man...its not that simple, and you ignore the other parts....

Face it people you cant always get what you want unless you pay.....
People spend so much time complaining about what they dont want......Give it up!
If we bought one channel at a time I will bet hard money we would pay more.....because they all have there proffit margins to meet for stock holders!

 

[Tampa8]

Sorry, gas tax pays for your roads. If you don't drive, you don't pay...

You don't really believe that do you? Everyone pays, like most anything some may pay more than others but if you never drive another mile you will continue to pay for roads.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/driving-true-costs/412237/

 

[Bobby]

You don't really believe that do you? Everyone pays, like most anything some may pay more than others but if you never drive another mile you will continue to pay for roads.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/driving-true-costs/412237/

And that is as it should be. Even if you don't drive I would bet that you ride. If you use the road in any way, you should help pay for it and its maintenance.

 

[jerryez]

Back to ESPN.I have it, but maybe watch one or two football games a year. If I had a choice, I would skip ESPN and those two games to save $6 per month.

 

[Yespage]

These people that claim they don't watch Fox News because they don't care for the content. Well, how would they know whether or not they cared for the content if they didn't watch it in the first place?....
I think a lot of the people who claim they don't watch Fox News are full of baloney. They watch it. Or, they monitor it. They do this to have something about which to complain. LOL
In any event. Hannity,, The Five, and Cavuto over on Fox Bus Channel each get more viewers than MSNBC gets ALL DAY.....CNN"s rating are so low, the network cannot negotiate even the smallest of price increases. Last time CNN had a dispute with Dish, they wanted a 40% increase. The channels went dark. Charlie explained it like this. "Why should I pay 40% more for a channel that has seen a ratings decrease of over 30% since the last contract was signed?"
CNN came back at the same number or only slightly higher. A few cents per month.

I presume that most people don't watch any news channel to begin with. It is just that those that want Fox News are very vocal about it. FNC has a very loyal following, something that CNN and MSNBC don't have for a number of off-topic reasons.

In the end FNC isn't nearly as expensive as ESPN. And for good reason, FNC didn't bid absurd money for MNF. Of course, MNF is one the most watched shows on cable, scoring over 10 million views. FNC typically has higher ratings than ESPN, but when a game is on, there are several millions more people watching ESPN than FNC. IE, when ESPN is showing something that matters, people are watching it in large numbers. FNC doesn't quite have that peak level of viewers.

 

[AZ.]

I presume that most people don't watch any news channel to begin with. It is just that those that want Fox News are very vocal about it. FNC has a very loyal following, something that CNN and MSNBC don't have for a number of off-topic reasons.

In the end FNC isn't nearly as expensive as ESPN. And for good reason, FNC didn't bid absurd money for MNF. Of course, MNF is one the most watched shows on cable, scoring over 10 million views. FNC typically has higher ratings than ESPN, but when a game is on, there are several millions more people watching ESPN than FNC. IE, when ESPN is showing something that matters, people are watching it in large numbers. FNC doesn't quite have that peak level of viewers.

Do you realize that Fonetwork) carries the NFC through the whole country? It cost them Billions?

 

[Yespage]

Do you realize that Fonetwork) carries the NFC through the whole country? It cost them Billions?

Correct, but we aren't talking about the Fox locals which are generally individually owned stations that negotiate individually with Dish for transmission agreements.