ESPN: An Association of Lolcows

[Music] you heard that theme you knew was going down oh how many times that I was glued to my television every morning to get my Sport specs it was one of the constants of life a well-blended mix of highlights great chemistry and some timely commentary to boot it was the king of extended cable for about two decades nowadays however I have to come to one cuff admission about something I used to love ESPN the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports the channels that I dreamed of working for when I was younger is a logo yes we can stop with the facade of nostalgia and reputation and finally admit it the once mighty ESPN has become a mere husk of its former glory completely shell-shocked by a changing media environment and that total lack of executive vision this has been a gradual process with ESPN struggling immensely over the past few years hemorrhaging reading and bleeding subscribers their parent company Disney is rumored to want nothing to do with them anymore sure some of this is due to external factors but the network itself hasn't helped matter paying immeasurable gobs of money for broadcasting rights handicaps bottom lines giving the NFL almost two billion dollars per year for one game a week is not good business sense what is truly killing the network though their reliance on personality it was what made their network but now is their downfall the simple fact of the matter is that ESPN is no longer about the sport it hasn't been for a long time it is now about supper and the ideological Pied Piper that has chosen to become the news instead of simply reporting on the sports world it's like getting endless pop-ups and trying to swat it away instead of accessing the scores and info you need they struck gold with some of their highest-rated shows like PTI and around the horn instead of maintaining the novelty they simply repeated the same formulas in different time frames to attract different audiences here's the talking head show the caters to the black community total genius here's a talking head show involving two of the most polarizing figures in sports media this will definitely get the views and what's this a talking head show that caters to the Hispanic community look out Mozart we have some new creative geniuses in there in Bristol Connecticut even SportsCenter their bread and butter program is caring less about the sports themselves and more about creating talking points every once in a while you'll get an NBA or MLB highlight from a major city but it's mostly endless gabbing anymore where are the sports if it weren't for the subject matter you think you were watching CNN people have responded by changing the channel this should obviously mean they should try to change their approach right oh you would be foolish the network chooses to triple down on the personality case in point the sakes they take the two hosts from his-and-hers and give them the prime 6 p.m. slot the issue here is that they don't really change much from their original formula what may have worked at 2:00 p.m. doesn't work at 6:00 when people expect information in a timely manner it's the same damn Talking Heads and personalities issues that have plagued ESPN for years now even worse they have been going way off the beaten path I mean come on skits nobody wants this in their sports programming just give me the goddamn information I need I don't need you to try and be controversial for the sake of it I don't need an 18 minute interview with Isaiah Thomas give us support there are a few things more polarizing than comedy and personality and you are violating a lot of these things with the 6 I'm sorry Michael Smith and Jamel Hill couldn't hold a candle to the likes of stewards God that man was not only effective and efficient but introduced sports programming to an urban audience these two dressed up and try way too hard at being the sport version of SNL is it any wonder why layoffs at ESPN are commonplace anymore we just had the big one a little bit ago and it wouldn't shock me if there are even more in the future the network went from something that I couldn't live without to something that I might just do answer that if I'm in a line from the dwindling subscriber numbers I seem to not be alone ESPN has failed to adapt to the Internet it is the new frontier a place where anyone can look up any take on any subject from any part of the world you don't have to be bogged down by commercials or talking points or meaningless flock it's where the average Joe can make videos discussing or engaging in the flow of ideas and concepts we can get what we need without a major Network anymore ESPN is still stuck in their 90s mindset where they can do no wrong and they're just one big personality away from gold it could be worse though they could be Fox Sports [Music] 100 [Music]

Channel: UrinatingTree

Views: 657,939

Rating: 4.937305 out of 5

Keywords: ESPN, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, ESPN Disney, ESPN Layoffs, Sportscenter, ESPN The Six, SC6, LOLESPN, Lolcow, An Association of Lolcows, ESPN Subscriber Losses, ESPN Financial Issues

Id: pYRs8-Fmtlk

Length: 5min 6sec (306 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2017