I think the viewership has dwindled due to the lack of sports content on ESPN. Far too often do we hear about racism (which sometimes it should be an issue, like Donald Sterling and others like him) and people like LaVar Ball. Way too many opinion shows run by non-athletes, debate shows that are 5-6 years past their prime.
I think it's the same reason why MTV is a joke these days. We don't need to go to ESPN to get highlights. In fact, their highlights are terrible. If you want Blazer highlights, where do you go? I go to Youtube because there's awesome highlights posted that evening that can contain every single point scored by Dame, or Nurk, or CJ. The growth of the internet has killed broadcasting companies. Would people really watch MTV for music videos these days? No. You can go to Youtube and watch them on-demand. The landscape of media is changing rapidly, and ESPN has to change with it.
This is exactly why I drastically reduced the amount of time I spend/spent watching ESPN. It all started back with Michael Vick and the dog thing. I'm a huge NFL fan. NFL Live used to be a bad ass show. It was actual FOOTBALL content. Then Michael Vick happened and ESPN discovered they can garner more viewers by being a tabloid. It's only gotten worse. Their product is now garbage.
As soon as some company like Amazon Prime or Netflix gets a package of first rate sports events then ESPN is toast. You can already subscribe to online streaming services based from Europe with a VPN.... and Comcast is already giving lower deals for sports packages. I mean I think it sucks when anybody loses their jobs.... but innovation crushes old technology.
This is seriously why Net Neutrality is soooooooooooooo important. If we let Trump and his gutted FCC do away with Net Neutrality, you will start to see packages offered by ISPs (like Comcast) which will restrict your access to the internet and charge you extra to visit the sites that you like to visit. It will be no different than what you see with Dish, and it's a way for companies like ESPN to finally force people to pay for their content.
Speaking of the NFL, seems like ESPN hasn't even been hyping the draft that much and it's right around the corner...
Net Neutrality.....hmm. This will get me some backlash but oh well. One side: ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN....... The Other side: Fox Doesn't seem very neutral to me....lol.
I mean, does anybody even really watch any espn programming that isn't actual live sports? I can't think of the last time I actually watched one of their talking/arguing programs, maybe in a dentist waiting room?
It's funny, I love Bomani's radio show but don't like any of the ESPN personalities in the "Around The Horn" style discussion. I can't take that much hot air being released at once! But sports radio still hold my interest from time to time. Just nothing local, because the Portland radio personalities suck.
I do. And since all of those are available on the Net and in some cases, have tried to be banned or had access controlled, that is part of the overall equation and some of the bigger names in news on the Net. Of course there is a lot more that goes into it but as always, I appreciate those with a better understanding of what I think.
