Hey, here is your Worldwide Leader in Sports

[jms493]

This. 110% this. Especially in the offseason.. they could run so many classic games to pass the time.

do they have the rights to run them again?

 

[Blade]

do they have the rights to run them again?

I think the TV networks only get live broadcast rights. So the NFL should retain the rights on their product to re-broadcast it on it's own network no problem.

 

[FedEx227]

Great network sure - but its a league operated network, it should be great.

I agree the Tebow shit is way over the top and so force fed its sickening.. however, the NFL is the most popular sport in the country, ESPN would be foolish not to run with that.

Run with it and take up 75% of their coverage are different things.

Also, again, it's a self full-filling prophecy most of the time. If you only present the NFL as important and all other sports as shit, then of course the NFL and football are going to seem to be best. I have no issue with NFL coverage... during the NFL season but do we need live look-ins of Jets camp in early August? Get fucked.

 

[ralaw]

Run with it and take up 75% of their coverage are different things.

Also, again, it's a self full-filling prophecy most of the time. If you only present the NFL as important and all other sports as shit, then of course the NFL and football are going to seem to be best. I have no issue with NFL coverage... during the NFL season but do we need live look-ins of Jets camp in early August? Get fucked.

The sad part is that ESPN has a lot of smart people working for them that do research on this sort of thing and their ratings are great when they cover Tebow and these e-entertainment type of stories.

 

[FirstTimer]

I have officially switched over to watching NBCSports in the morning. The 'Lights is a great show.

 

[FedEx227]

The sad part is that ESPN has a lot of smart people working for them that do research on this sort of thing and their ratings are great when they cover Tebow and these e-entertainment type of stories.

Which is completely fine, but intelligent sports fans should distance themselves from that then. It's obvious they want to be the E! Network of sports, cool, cater to the casual fans but I hope smart fans (the ones that built the network into an empire) leave in droves.

 

[ram29jackson]

Which is completely fine, but intelligent sports fans should distance themselves from that then. It's obvious they want to be the E! Network of sports, cool, cater to the casual fans but I hope smart fans (the ones that built the network into an empire) leave in droves.

the so called smart fan is still the small market and no one cares if they leave.
I like sports, i'm more than a casual fan...but I dont give a fuck about a guys batting average against a certain left handed pitcher during night games as opposed to day games etc..you cant put that on tv like some public access channel jr college night class lecture LOL . By and large no one cares. And its cool to have a hobby and all but no one cares what you really know about the inner/under workings of a sport/team..you turn on your tv and watch guys sweat and win. Thats what sports is for unless you actually are employeed by a team......really not sure where i'm going with this.....

 

[NAHSTE]

you turn on your tv and watch guys sweat

:wtf2:

 

[ram29jackson]

:wtf2:

sure, on high definition tv :locker:

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Great network sure - but its a league operated network, it should be great.

I agree the Tebow shit is way over the top and so force fed its sickening.. however, the NFL is the most popular sport in the country, ESPN would be foolish not to run with that.

I don't think anybody can reasonably disagree with that. However, there is no question ESPN pounds the NFL coverage to death. Despite how popular the NFL is, there is no way a preseason game should be the lead story on the same day that Rory McIlroy crushes a major & Team USA wins a gold medal in hoops. You can't convince me that more people care. This isn't Week 1 regular season we are talking about.

You can't convince me that sports fans at large come home from work, plop down on the couch, and need to know immediately what happened at Jets camp today.

OMG JETS RAN WILD CAT AT PRACTICE TODAY

That was actually a MAJOR STORY on ESPN the other day. Sal Pal "We are not allowed to report the personnel that was on the field, but the Jets did, in fact, run wild cat today!" Nobody gives a fuck, and if you do, you have mental issues. It's niche news, stuff that I can see being reported on NFL Network or in NY papers or being mentioned in passing. Even NFL Network doesn't bang these drums as hard, and well, it's the NFL Network and it's their product and nobody would even complain if they did. It's absurd.

And honestly, while the NFL is the most popular sports league, I think the idea that it is so much more popular than anything else is sort of blown out of proportion. Yes, the SB does a gigantic number, but that has little to do with the sport (completely different topic). Yes, the payoff do enormous numbers. Yes, regular season games do bigger numbers than any other sport. But this idea that every sports argument these days ends with "Pfffft, it's the N-F-L! How dare you compare (anything) to the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE!" is to me a product of the constant pounding into our brains that the NFL somehow matters more than anything else. It's not that large of a gap. Here's the dirty little secret ESPN doesn't want told - people do care about other things! Even things other than Tiger Woods & Lebron! It's true. But ESPN paid billions for he Monday Night Football package, so you can bet your ass they are going to push the NFL like nothing else matters.

The fact is, ESPN fears NFL Network. The ESPN fascination with the NFL has less to do with this supposed NFL domination of the sports market as people may think. It's also fear of the niche networks stealing market share. ESPN tried the same thing (on a smaller scale) when MLB Network rolled out. But MLB Network coverage kicked their ass, they did studies, determined that they lost baseball fans to the new guys, Baseball Tonight ratings dipped, and they decided to throw in the towel and drastically cut back their own baseball coverage rather than fight back. They are determined to not let this happen with the NFL, so, what you have, is essentially two NFL Networks.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Let me be clear, that i'm not saying the NFL isn't a big deal. It is. But ESPN clearly is agenda driven.

Exhibit A - ESPN loses NHL contract, fires entire NHL staff except for Melrose & Barnaby (Barnaby ended up getting canned anyway for stalking Michelle Beadle), and essentially stops covering the sport.

Exhibit B - ESPN is negotiating with UFC, starts to cover UFC like never before. UFC signs with FOX, and all of a sudden UFC isn't important anymore and they stop giving it coverage beyond the "bottom line" scroll.

I mean, it's so transparent.

 

[ram29jackson]

(Barnaby ended up getting canned anyway for stalking Michelle Beadle),

huh?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

huh?

They were dating, they broke up, he stalked her, got arrested I think, ESPN fired him.

Some of that may be slightly inaccurate, but you get the idea.

 

[NAHSTE]

Let me be clear, that i'm not saying the NFL isn't a big deal. It is. But ESPN clearly is agenda driven.

Exhibit A - ESPN loses NHL contract, fires entire NHL staff except for Melrose & Barnaby (Barnaby ended up getting canned anyway for stalking Michelle Beadle), and essentially stops covering the sport.

Exhibit B - ESPN is negotiating with UFC, starts to cover UFC like never before. UFC signs with FOX, and all of a sudden UFC isn't important anymore and they stop giving it coverage beyond the "bottom line" scroll.

I mean, it's so transparent.

Exhibit C - ESPN inks 10 year contract with SEC before 2011 season. Three months later, the night before the final BCS rankings are unveiled, rankings which will determine the pair of teams that will play in a made-for-TV championship game on ESPN, the network buries #2 Oklahoma State's game, downgrading it from national to regional coverage, while also allowing Nick Saban 20 minutes of air time on its marque CFB morning program so that he can stump for #3 Alabama.

There are countless other examples, but yeah, ESPN covers ESPN now. It doesn't cover sports. It's corporate synergy, aimed at the lowest common denominator who they bank on being too stupid to notice or too apathetic to care.

 

[Senser81]

the so called smart fan is still the small market and no one cares if they leave...

I would think the "smart fan" would have more loyalty to the network than the casual fan. If all you are doing is trying to bring in casual fans to watch Sportscenter, then your network is going to consist entirely of Sportscenter. The casual fan isn't going to be watcing a 30 for 30 show or a College Gameday. I think if the "smart fan" leaves ESPN, then all they will show is Sportscenter...which might be just as well.

 

[FirstTimer]

Exhibit C - ESPN inks 10 year contract with SEC before 2011 season. Three months later, the night before the final BCS rankings are unveiled, rankings which will determine the pair of teams that will play in a made-for-TV championship game on ESPN, the network buries #2 Oklahoma State's game, downgrading it from national to regional coverage, while also allowing Nick Saban 20 minutes of air time on its marque CFB morning program so that he can stump for #3 Alabama.

There are countless other examples, but yeah, ESPN covers ESPN now. It doesn't cover sports. It's corporate synergy, aimed at the lowest common denominator who they bank on being too stupid to notice or too apathetic to care.

Don't forget either that they now have the SEC Stories Series or whatever running on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU as well.

I've been wtaching nothing the NBCSports Network for the last 2-3 days and I'm hooked.


Even NBCSports Talk was great last night. They had Phil Steele on for a really good interview.
Fuck ESPN

 

[FedEx227]

That's what I mean, it's not effective in the long term.

 

[Senser81]

Don't forget either that they now have the SEC Stories Series or whatever running on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU as well.

I've been wtaching nothing the NBCSports Network for the last 2-3 days and I'm hooked.


Even NBCSports Talk was great last night. They had Phil Steele on for a really good interview.
Fuck ESPN

The SEC stories series is terrible. Of the three I've seen, the only entertaining portion was the 5 minutes of Herschel Walker high school footage that they showed. The interviews are terrible, the shows themselves have no point, the premise of the shows are retarded (the SEC Championship game changed college football forever!!!!). It could be so much better.

 

[FirstTimer]

The SEC stories series is terrible. Of the three I've seen, the only entertaining portion was the 5 minutes of Herschel Walker high school footage that they showed. The interviews are terrible, the shows themselves have no point, the premise of the shows are retarded (the SEC Championship game changed college football forever!!!!). It could be so much better.

Yeah, I watched this one because I'm a junkie for early 90's shit and the entire premise seemed odd. I think at one point they claimed that had Alabama not gotten that pick 6 that Conference Championship games would have died on the vine and we wouldn't have had them anymore.

Wut?

 

[ralaw]

Don't forget either that they now have the SEC Stories Series or whatever running on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU as well.

I've been wtaching nothing the NBCSports Network for the last 2-3 days and I'm hooked.


Even NBCSports Talk was great last night. They had Phil Steele on for a really good interview.
Fuck ESPN

I need to start watching NBC sports......is Beadle up there? This morning I was hoping to watch some stuff, but they had some tummy tuck infomertials until 7am for their morning show. However, I leave the house before 7am, so that won't do me any good. Now the big story is Sanchez telling reporters that "this is my huddle and if you don't like it get out" LOL, let's see what you do when you have your actual teammates in the huddle. Sanchez trying to force this leadership thing and that isn't a natural position for him.

_________
My thing with ESPN is why are they making the Jets such a huge story this year? I understand the Tebow thing, but come on. They air Jets stuff on all of their TV shows and then all of their radio shows talk the Jets...........it's just annoying. I like Tim Tebow, but I can't wait for the day when he retires. The Giants just won the SB and we hear nothing about them....