ESPN Profit Plummets As Network Turns Left

#576
#576
djohnnyg said:
CNN gets hammered by Fox in the ratings. Granted...Fox is the only non-left media outlet so if you combine all the left outlets....which is EVERYTHING not Fox...then you have more consuming left wing bias than right. But still. Shows like SNL have had lower ratings...and many outlets have alienated the more right leaning folks out there. I respect a non biased sports and news outlet when I can find em. ESPN serves a purpose with the games they cover...but their "outside the lines" stuff gets political and definitely leans left.
Click to expand...
A lot of Fox's dominance of their cable news rivals is demographically-driven too. Fox is conservative. Conservative people skew older. Older people are also more likely to watch cable TV. Lefties consume their political news too, just not as much through cable TV. It's the same reason why liberal talk radio never worked out. Statistically and demographically speaking, that's not how liberals consume content. For example, the political podcast scene appears to have a greater presence of liberals than conservatives, as does a social media platform like Twitter generally speaking. It's because the demographic that prefers to consume content that way is younger and skews more liberal.

The reason why ESPN went left is because the politics of their target demographic (males 18-35) leans left. Not dramatically so, but it is more liberal than conservative. The really interesting thing is that I think ESPN got too focused on trying to cater to their target market and lost sight of the fact that sports fans, by and large, are either politically moderate or even lean conservative, especially college sports fans. And of course there's the notion that people are watching sports as a diversion from more serious topics like politics.
 
Last edited:
#577
#577
05_never_again said:
A lot of Fox's dominance of their cable news rivals is demographically-driven too. Fox is conservative. Conservative people skew older. Older people are also more likely to watch cable TV. Lefties consume their political news too, just not as much through cable TV. It's the same reason why liberal talk radio never worked out. Statistically and demographically speaking, that's not how liberals consume content. For example, the political podcast scene appears to have a greater presence of liberals than conservatives, as does a social media platform like Twitter generally speaking. It's because the demographic that prefers to consume content that way is younger and skews more liberal.

The reason why ESPN went left is because the politics of their target demographic (males 18-35) leans left. Not dramatically so, but it is more liberal than conservative. The really interesting thing is that I think ESPN got too focused on trying to cater to their target market and lost sight of the fact that sports fans, by and large, are either politically moderate or even lean conservative, especially college sports fans. And of course there's the notion that people are watching sports as a diversion from more serious topics like politics.
Click to expand...

It’s true, sports fan lean to the right. To cater so blatantly to the left as well as have hypocritical standards (firing right leaning pundits for liking memes on FB vs protecting left leaning pundits who call for violence against republicans on Twitter), that is where they showed their true colors.

Bottom line, I think the majority of sports fan be them left or right, just want to see sports on ESPN and not politics.
 
  • Like
Reactions: volgrad500, Smallvol#1 and RDU VOL#14
#578
#578
Nerwen Aldarion said:
It’s true, sports fan lean to the right. To cater so blatantly to the left as well as have hypocritical standards (firing right leaning pundits for liking memes on FB vs protecting left leaning pundits who call for violence against republicans on Twitter), that is where they showed their true colors.

Bottom line, I think the majority of sports fan be them left or right, just want to see sports on ESPN and not politics.
Click to expand...

I think they were losing a lot of viewers due to cord cutting and the fact that there are so many different formats to find highlights, scores, etc. I think that, along with already moving left slightly they decided to go all in Left to give them more edge as well already way overpaying for the NBA and they had let go of lots people.
Who watches the NBA? Younger people, especially a large black demographic who are largely left leaning. So they promote the hell out of that, the best player in the World is LeBron who in investing in all these different ventures and is now a media circus in LA. He’s also a very outspoken left wing proponent and SJW and cater to that. Hell they even had an ESPN push notification about LeBron having Taco Tuesday. It’s 2 days from the Finals and the Lakers didn’t even make the Playoffs.
 
#579
#579
RDU VOL#14 said:
I think they were losing a lot of viewers due to cord cutting and the fact that there are so many different formats to find highlights, scores, etc. I think that, along with already moving left slightly they decided to go all in Left to give them more edge as well already way overpaying for the NBA and they had let go of lots people. Who watches the NBA? Younger people, especially a large black demographic who are largely left leaning. So they promote the hell out of that, the best player in the World is LeBron who in investing in all these different ventures and is now a media circus in LA. He’s also a very outspoken left wing proponent and SJW and cater to that. Hell they even had an ESPN push notification about LeBron having Taco Tuesday. It’s 2 days from the Finals and the Lakers didn’t even make the Playoffs.
Click to expand...
 
#580
#580
RDU VOL#14 said:
Who watches the NBA? Younger people, especially a large black demographic who are largely left leaning. So they promote the hell out of that, the best player in the World is LeBron who in investing in all these different ventures and is now a media circus in LA. He’s also a very outspoken left wing proponent and SJW and cater to that. Hell they even had an ESPN push notification about LeBron having Taco Tuesday. It’s 2 days from the Finals and the Lakers didn’t even make the Playoffs.
Click to expand...
Yep.

Their NBA coverage is driven by 2 things - 1) they way overpaid for NBA broadcast rights, so their incessant, inane coverage of it is an attempt to protect their investment and 2) the NBA is very popular on social media and among younger fans (18-35), their target demo. The left-leaning politics NBAers espouse (LeBron, Kerr, Popovich, Warriors not going to the WH, etc.) also fit in nicely to their narrative.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RDU VOL#14
#582
#582
Rasputin_Vol said:
Get woke, go broke...
Click to expand...

I’ve never understood these companies that think it’s a good idea to piss off at least half of their customers.

It’s like, there is absolutely no benefit to wading into petty politics. Just not saying anything means keeping the vast majority of the base happy, yeah a few yahoos on twitter might complain about not taking a stand but then they’ll just turn around and complain if you do take a stand and don’t go as far as they’d like.

Seriously, I don’t understand it. Just shut up and sell your products
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Smallvol#1, Obsessed, BUBear and 2 others
#583
#583
Lawrence Wright said:
If you look hard enough for something, chances are you’ll find it.

I can’t recall the last time watching a game on ESPN when out of nowhere a discussion on liberal politics broke out.
Click to expand...

I’ll give you an example, but this wasn’t a broadcast.

I went to espn’s website one day and saw a headline about a boycott of women’s hockey players from a professional women’s hockey league.

I have never seen a story about women’s hockey outside the olympics. I did not even know there was a professional women’s hockey league and I am a hockey fan.

But, they made it one of their top stories of the day. A sport literally no one in country cares about received coverage. Why?

Because it was about a minority group (in this case women) fighting for something (in this case pay).

It was all politics and it was all slanted. Anyone with half a brain and the least little bit of knowledge about economics knows exactly why these players can’t make a living in their sport. They don’t have an audience.

But, the story was slanted to make it seem like these women were being treated unfairly. Like they had a right to a certain wage regardless of the fact that there is no revenue to pay them.

It went further to also blame men (in the form of the NHL) for not subsidizing their league like the NBA does for the WNBA.

The whole thing was political and absurd
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smallvol#1, Obsessed, RDU VOL#14 and 6 others
#585
#585
DaddyChad said:
HBO had tried to extend them for more seasons. They declined bc of the Star Wars opportunity.
Click to expand...
Yeah that would be a no. From the very beginning, Weiss and Benioff targeted 70-75 episodes. Them wrapping up the show after 73 episodes had nothing to do with their Star Wars deal.
 
#586
#586
Nerwen Aldarion said:
I’ve never understood these companies that think it’s a good idea to piss off at least half of their customers.

It’s like, there is absolutely no benefit to wading into petty politics. Just not saying anything means keeping the vast majority of the base happy, yeah a few yahoos on twitter might complain about not taking a stand but then they’ll just turn around and complain if you do take a stand and don’t go as far as they’d like.

Seriously, I don’t understand it. Just shut up and sell your products
Click to expand...
ESPN has a little bit of a problem - their product outside of live sports is irrelevant. Hence the political angles they started taking.
 
#588
#588
Nerwen Aldarion said:
But that only accomplished shrinking their fan base even further
Click to expand...
I know it did. But it isn't as simple as "shut up and sell your products" if your products are irrelevant and not selling due to the industry having changed. It isn't like they had a great thing going with SportsCenter and then screwed it up by talking politics. Subscribers started leaving and their costs were/are bloated, so they had to try something different. The ideas they came up with weren't good and didn't work, but I don't think there were any good ways at all for them to pick from.

There really isn't an obvious great idea to increase the relevancy of their non-live sports shows. There really isn't a use for SportsCenter or most other shows in their old, classic form anymore. That's why those shows have changed a lot over the years. The insertion of leftist politics was just one part of the strategy. They also incessantly talk about what's going on on social media, try to insert non-sports pop culture to make it appeal to a broader group of people, etc. None of it worked.
 
#589
#589
05_never_again said:
I know it did. But it isn't as simple as "shut up and sell your products" if your products are irrelevant and not selling due to the industry having changed. It isn't like they had a great thing going with SportsCenter and then screwed it up by talking politics. Subscribers started leaving and their costs were/are bloated, so they had to try something different. The ideas they came up with weren't good and didn't work, but I don't think there were any good ways at all for them to pick froshows.There really isn't an obvious great idea to increase the relevancy of their non-live sports shows. There really isn't a use for SportsCenter or most other shows in their old, classic form anymore. That's why those shows have changed a lot over the years. The insertion of leftist politics was just one part of the strategy. They also incessantly talk about what's going on on social media, try to insert non-sports pop culture to make it appeal to a broader group of people, etc. None of it worked.
Click to expand...
Have they tried ship lap???

Chip Gaines on Instagram: “What is going on!?? This is like a Twilight zone of hot people. Then there's me, looking as usual.. disheveled. Thanks for coming to town…”

 
Last edited by a moderator:
#592
#592
spikesglaring said:
More garbage from Clay Travis. They're losing viewers for a lot of reasons, but dragging politics into the mix is the moron reaching for something to write. If anything, ESPN has not really changed as much as the country is becoming more polarized and each side cannot stand to think they're getting the other sides view. Travis is as guilty of that as anyone. Twitter has been so much more bearable since unfollowing him.
Click to expand...
Actually, NO, he is not. It has absolutely hurt their ratings and that has been proven time after time. Same goes for the NFL and National Anthem, ratings plummeted. Stick your head in the sand all you want.

Cord cutting is partial, yes, but they’ve shown most cord cutters still pay for sports access, they just don’t want ESPN for anything other than live sports.

Why is that? Because people JUST want to watch sports, they watch sports to get Away from the daily life grind and the media drivel. ESPN doesn’t get it, we don’t care what they think, outside of sports. They need to stay in their lane.

Last two polls I saw where telling, one mentioned the night ESPN had Jenner winning the ESPY. Did you know that since that night, they’ve lost 54% viewership. Do you know how many millions and millions that is? Did the stunt work for that one night? Yep, got people to watch ESPN that normally wouldn’t. They also cut off their nose to spite their face.

Second poll WAS asked if politics in sports had bearing on if they watch the talk shows, majority said yes and a whopping 86% said they watch the shows Without politics.

IOW, stick to what you know ESPN.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BUBear and Smallvol#1
#593
#593
secking said:
Cord cutting is partial, yes, but they’ve shown most cord cutters still pay for sports access, they just don’t want ESPN for anything other than live sports.
Click to expand...

Explain this. How are they paying for sports access after cutting the cord?
 
#598
#598
bamawriter said:
That's not really cord cutting in ESPN's mind. They still get subscriber fees from those services.
Click to expand...
Yes, they do. They get $9/month from every cable subscriber whether they watch or not. That’s why I said cord cutters was a small portion, I said viewership is what has killed them. No one watches except the games, no one wants politics in their sports, regardless from which side. Just sports.

Their ratings is the iceberg.
 
#599
#599
secking said:
Yes, they do. They get $9/month from every cable subscriber whether they watch or not. That’s why I said cord cutters was a small portion, I said viewership is what has killed them. No one watches except the games, no one wants politics in their sports, regardless from which side. Just sports.

Their ratings is the iceberg.
Click to expand...

Well, no. The cord cutting killed them. They've lost a ton of subscribers that didn't switch to a Sling or DTV Now. That's lost revenue. Ratings for Sportscenter started dropping long before they started injecting politics and pop culture. In fact, that injection was an attempt to boost those already sagging ratings. It didn't work, but it only furthered the decline; it didn't cause it.

But their studio ad buys were never their bread and butter. They could sacrifice 80 to 90 percent of their ad revenue on Sportscenter if they kept subscribers and live sports ratings. But non-sports fans are dropping out entirely, and stuff like MNF has tanked because of awful matchups. College sports are still killing it, though, which is why ESPN keeps signing up the conferences.
 
#600
#600
Just when you think ESPN can’t be any dumber, they go and totally redeem themselves.
Stephen Jackson is not having it and the 2 white ladies are convincing him (obviously a black man) why the term owner is racist. Just stop already.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top