As you all know by now, there have been massive layoffs by ESPN (owned by Disney) and it has caused a stir in the sports and media industry. Suzy Kolber, Steve Young, Todd McShay, Jalen Rose, Jeff Van Gundy, Keyshawn Johnson, Max Kellerman, LaPhonso Ellis and many others.
There are a myriad of reasons that have caused these massive layoffs. For starters, Disney is not making money, especially with their remade and agenda filled movies. No one is paying attention to these remade movies and no one really cares so a lot of movies are flopping. When other movies are doing better than Disney movies, that speaks volumes.
The next aspect of this, the NBA, NFL and NCAA want more money for access to their content. That is forcing ESPN by the hand to pay these leagues more money. Keep in mind, the NBA Finals are produced by ABC/ESPN. The college football season is predominantly on the ESPN networks along with the playoffs (that is set to expand in the next few years).
With the massive layoffs of on-air talent, production teams (behind the scenes) employees are next (if it hasn’t happened yet). No one is sticking around to watch Sportscenter (which has been the staple of ESPN since 1979). Sportscenter is no longer being watched. With the advancement of social media, people are watching highlights within minutes of it happening during live sporting events.
For me, living on the west coast, I can catch highlights of my favorite sports teams on the east coast on Instagram or YouTube. Everything is fast paced and there are plenty of sports podcasters who have been saying, the digital media space of ESPN is failing. They have failed to keep sports fans engaged which leads me to another reason ESPN is on a downturn.
The production space of ESPN is focused on television still and not focused enough on social media. Every sports team has their own media pages on social media platforms. Fans can engage there and get all of the relevant information they need in an instant. There’s no point in focusing on ESPN except for maybe a few TV shows (which people can now watch on YouTube).
With people going to YouTube to watch content, that has caused a decline in subscribers from 100 million in 2011 to now 70 million and the numbers are continuing to go down. There’s no incentive for people to have ESPN Plus when you have no access to live content unless you’re part of a TV network (cable provider, YouTube Live, Hulu Live, Fubo Sports).
There’s also less ESPN documentaries being produced and made. Shows like "Outside the Lines" have faded into the sunset which were staples of ESPN where the focus was on sports but also other issues. The dynamic of shows has shifted and fans have lost interest in the content being produced on ESPN.
There will be more layoffs coming in the foreseeable future so the question becomes, is anyone safe? If you look at on-air personalities on major networks, they’re branching off and doing their own podcasts and being paid by corporate sponsors (Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Rob Parker and Chris Broussard and many others), the media space is shifting into podcasts, short clips of content and building an audience.
Sports games will be broadcasted differently with Van Gundy and LaPhonso Ellis gone from the network. NBA Countdown will be different with Jalen Rose gone. NFL shows will take a huge hit with 27 year veteran and fan favorite Suzy Kolber gone along with analyst Todd McShay gone. With all that has changed at ESPN, it’s surely not going to bring subscribers back (probably not even me when college football starts).
How will Sportscenter change going forward with fans on the east coast not sticking around to watch at 11pm? Most fans have already seen highlights of their favorite teams by that point. What happens to the debate shows going forward? I can watch clips of First Take on YouTube and it doesn’t even have to be from ESPN’s page anymore.
Concerns loom and I wouldn’t be surprised if ESPN is sold to a different media platform down the road because Disney has dropped the ball in the past few years. If Scott Van Pelt, Stephen A. Smith, Stan Verrett, and Mike Breen get laid off, we can say goodbye to ESPN as “The Worldwide Leader In Sports.”
Showtime, Barstool, Fox Sports, FanDuel, Bleacher Report and many other sports media platforms are competing with ESPN, it’s only a matter of time before the culture shift happens. Disney is in trouble and there’s no turning back now, every company eventually has their downfall…
