ESPN Layoffs

Fryowa said:
None of these people are making less than mid six figures and most are more than that, and many were millionaires before getting hired . They’ll be fine and they’ll all find new jobs if they want. If this puts them in a financial pinch then they shouldn’t have been stupid enough to have 7 figure mortgages and Lambos.

No one here has taken this stance, but there are people out in the Twitterverse and beyond acting like ESPN is Ebeneezer Scrooge putting a bunch of fuckin’ orphans in the gutter. Do not feel sorry for these folks. Be upset about losing your favorite announcers or be upset with ESPN for doing something you think is stupid, but no one should feel bad or rage about the “humanity” of this situation.

These people are all absurdist caricatures of real people with real jobs and bills.
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I don’t believe you’re correct on earnings. If you can source, appreciated.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Well said. At this point of my life, the only thing I truly care about sports-wise is Iowa football, but I have a morbid curiosity about the rest of the Big Ten and the SEC as well. That's it. Nothing else. I will watch some basketball come late Franuary, but I haven't watched a single tournament game after the first weekend in years (probably coincides with Iowa basketball sucking for decades now).

The younger generations care far less about sports than the Boomers or Gen X did. And with population growth driven by immigration vast swaths of the new population only care about boxing or soccer and ESPN ain't got the content those folks are looking for.

I think ESPN is finally wising up to the fact that three people sitting at a desk and talking about LeBron's latest tweet is not of interest to anyone.

I saw that Keyshawn reportedly got paid $18 million on a 5 year deal. I mean come the hell on, how bad of a manager do you have to be to sign off on that? Most of these people don't really have any talent as TV personalities and the value of that skillset is worth a fraction of what it was years ago. Video killed the radio star and internet killed the TV star. I think it's hilarious that the "sit on your butt for 13 hours a day eating hydrogenated oil fried carbs and drinking swill high fructose corn syrup crap sold by our advertisers" model is shattering right before our eyes. It gives me hope for the future of our society.
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Where did you see this?
 
Fryowa said:
Don’t give a shit if you believe I’m correct or not. You have google, use it. Make sure you source, appreciated.
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FWIW- I work with people brokering deals for people like this. The $ you referenced is rarified air it that profession. The ones you listed, not rarified air
 
cecilB said:
FWIW- I work with people brokering deals for people like this. The $ you referenced is rarified air it that profession. The ones you listed, not rarified air
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1) I didn’t list anyone. Some other poster did.

2) Todd McShay out of the ones I did google was the lowest, made $400,000 per year with ESPN according to the horse’s mouth.
 
Fryowa said:
1) I didn’t list anyone. Some other poster did.

2) Todd McShay out of the ones I did google was the lowest, made $400,000 per year with ESPN according to the horse’s mouth.
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Todds salary kinda surprises me. He'd been doing that longer then I probably think he has. If you'd have told me he made 1 to 2 million a yr I'd have believed it. But I have zero to base my thoughts on. Just figured those guys make big bucks that are known faces like he is.
 
cecilB said:
FWIW- I work with people brokering deals for people like this. The $ you referenced is rarified air it that profession. The ones you listed, not rarified air
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Here is a NY Post article referencing the Keyshawn dollar amount: https://nypost.com/2023/07/05/keysh...ut-becoming-an-influencer-after-espn-layoffs/

I find it hard to believe that they were that high, but I do believe there is a bubble that formed when NBC and Fox went in hard for their own sports networks and ESPN wildly overspent on content rights and "talent" to try to stave off those challenges. This is now the bloodletting following that stupidity, so I can't dismiss the eye popping numbers totally offhand. The one clear thing is that the market is totally resetting and those deals will not happen again.
 
The head of Disney just committed to the job through 2026. He mentioned that they would take a hard look at the legacy television properties that they own and whether they were a good fit going forward. So ESPN may we be sold in the near future, even after the latest round of layoffs.
 
haydensly said:
The head of Disney just committed to the job through 2026. He mentioned that they would take a hard look at the legacy television properties that they own and whether they were a good fit going forward. So ESPN may we be sold in the near future, even after the latest round of layoffs.
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Plan on forming a consortium to make a play?
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Todds salary kinda surprises me. He'd been doing that longer then I probably think he has. If you'd have told me he made 1 to 2 million a yr I'd have believed it. But I have zero to base my thoughts on. Just figured those guys make big bucks that are known faces like he is.
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You’re not alone. People think the make more than they do. Most make a good living, but like most professions….few are rich. And job security is a more precarious than many other professions. However, travel and no admission to some awesome events are good perks.
 
haydensly said:
The head of Disney just committed to the job through 2026. He mentioned that they would take a hard look at the legacy television properties that they own and whether they were a good fit going forward. So ESPN may we be sold in the near future, even after the latest round of layoffs.
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The sale of ESPN has been a rumored possibility for years. It ain't saleable. The bubble is over and just like in 2001 no one is going to buy based on eyeballs or viewers, they want to see profit and ESPN ain't got any. And their prospects are terrible.
 
spliff45 said:
ESPN is having conversations with the NFL and other leagues to take equity positions in the network.

www.nbcsports.com

Report: ESPN has talked to NFL, other leagues about buying a stake in the company

For years, the NFL has been looking for someone to buy some (or all) of its in-house broadcast empire.
www.nbcsports.com www.nbcsports.com
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With leagues having their own networks and direct viewers the old model is dead, why would they want to carry the dead weight. Can't see any of the leagues going for it except the WNBA or leagues that can't stand on their own.
 
dahlhawk said:
With leagues having their own networks and direct viewers the old model is dead, why would they want to carry the dead weight. Can't see any of the leagues going for it except the WNBA or leagues that can't stand on their own.
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Yeah that sort of move (especially now ESPN has been around for quite awhile) reeks of desperation. The NFL may have interest if they had a path to easy significant $ with no risk. But I doubt that ESPN can come to terms with whatever the NFL would want.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Yeah that sort of move (especially now ESPN has been around for quite awhile) reeks of desperation. The NFL may have interest if they had a path to easy significant $ with no risk. But I doubt that ESPN can come to terms with whatever the NFL would want.
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Content is king. The NFL owns the hottest content brand in the country. They can sign a deal to air it anywhere and they will make money. ESPN has nothing except a few contracts for carriage with cable providers and a few contracts for people to license them content. The contracts for carriage are declining in value every year. The contracts to license content are going up in expense every year.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Content is king. The NFL owns the hottest content brand in the country. They can sign a deal to air it anywhere and they will make money. ESPN has nothing except a few contracts for carriage with cable providers and a few contracts for people to license them content. The contracts for carriage are declining in value every year. The contracts to license content are going up in expense every year.
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Amen the Dish Networks and Direct TVs are dying. They shoulda seen the writing on the wall awhile ago. They are trying to pivot to the internet world side of things but if they wanted to remain TV relevant they shoulda just went to a straight of ala cart mode and make it affordable. The problem with that I suppose is all the different contracts they have with the channels individually timing wise makes that tough.

The days of people getting some 'package' of channels and paying 80-100 plus bucks for dozens of them they don't want anyway are over. We all only have so much time and we want to watch what we want when we want with little to no commercials as possible. If it isn't a live sporting event you can bet your ass I'm not sitting through commercials nowadays. I can't be the only one..
 
Hawkfnntn said:
Amen the Dish Networks and Direct TVs are dying. They shoulda seen the writing on the wall awhile ago. They are trying to pivot to the internet world side of things but if they wanted to remain TV relevant they shoulda just went to a straight of ala cart mode and make it affordable. The problem with that I suppose is all the different contracts they have with the channels individually timing wise makes that tough.

The days of people getting some 'package' of channels and paying 80-100 plus bucks for dozens of them they don't want anyway are over. We all only have so much time and we want to watch what we want when we want with little to no commercials as possible. If it isn't a live sporting event you can bet your ass I'm not sitting through commercials nowadays. I can't be the only one..
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I had the privilege of taking antitrust with Herb Hovenkamp when he taught at Iowa. Herb taught us the concept of a "tying arrangement." In order to get the product you want, you have to buy a product you don't want. When cable first came out it was impracticable to provide channels on a one-off basis, it was a take it or leave it package. For the past decade plus that has not been true but the aggregate cable content bundle drives so much revenue through the legacy media that they absolutely cannot abandon it but they have no idea what to do as the revenue stays flat or falls every year.

IMHO, I believe that ESPN could have been saved had they ponied up and taken the Big Ten rights and then consolidated a package for a direct to consumer model where they would have had 90%+ of the tier one CFB content. Once they bowed out of the Big Ten negotiation it was clear that they had no idea where the market is going.

Sports in general will go the way of boxing. Smaller fan bases, more expensive access to PPV content. The long term ramifications will be really bad for the leagues. The NFL will likely be fine given its desire to maintain popularity by placing games OTA, but every sports league that has gotten fat and happy off cable is in gargantuan trouble. NASCAR and the PAC 10 are the canaries in the coal mine and they both stopped chirping a few weeks ago because both need deals for next season really badly.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I had the privilege of taking antitrust with Herb Hovenkamp when he taught at Iowa. Herb taught us the concept of a "tying arrangement." In order to get the product you want, you have to buy a product you don't want. When cable first came out it was impracticable to provide channels on a one-off basis, it was a take it or leave it package. For the past decade plus that has not been true but the aggregate cable content bundle drives so much revenue through the legacy media that they absolutely cannot abandon it but they have no idea what to do as the revenue stays flat or falls every year.

IMHO, I believe that ESPN could have been saved had they ponied up and taken the Big Ten rights and then consolidated a package for a direct to consumer model where they would have had 90%+ of the tier one CFB content. Once they bowed out of the Big Ten negotiation it was clear that they had no idea where the market is going.

Sports in general will go the way of boxing. Smaller fan bases, more expensive access to PPV content. The long term ramifications will be really bad for the leagues. The NFL will likely be fine given its desire to maintain popularity by placing games OTA, but every sports league that has gotten fat and happy off cable is in gargantuan trouble. NASCAR and the PAC 10 are the canaries in the coal mine and they both stopped chirping a few weeks ago because both need deals for next season really badly.
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Most definitely and that sucks.... We aren't done seeing changes. Those fringe sports do seem to be in trouble cause TV is what matters. You can raise prices sell tickets all you want but TV is the endgame cause the $ is so skewed.
 
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