ESPN Layoffs

[viverlibre]

They have to make room for that Pat McAfee $85M contract.

I vaguely know who he is, it seems like ESPN bids against itself.

[coachnorm]

The contact hasn't changed, so the SEC's revenue isn't going to decrease. The only real complaint of the with one perm rival schedule would be getting rid of yearly games like Bama/Tenn, but replacing that game with Bama vs Texas, would probably draw the same.

If ESPN becomes a liability to Disney, the contract will change in the future if ESPN is divested from its parent company. You talked about one permanent rival when the name of the game is all SEC time slots throughout the football season. IF ESPN continues to bleed subscribers, as it is doing currently, the Disney shareholders are going to go for the jugular vein of ESPN and demand an explanation for so many scrub games on its docket. In short order if Disney looses money so will the SEC in the long game. That is why I question the viability of the current SEC contract.

[SpaceWranglerDawg]

I miss the days when Sportscenter was an absolute necessity on a daily basis. Those were the days, and they were filled with talent. They'll never come close to the lineup that they had in the 90s.

[coachnorm]

Here is some recent corporate thinking about ESPN by Disney and its shareholders. It appears Disney wants out. If the corporate mindset prevails, who is going to afford the SEC contract? That is the pretext to my statement that the SEC is putting itself at risk with SCRUB content during too many time slots. There could be a huge money fight between the SEC, ESPN, and Disney. The SCRUB slots could be seen as not acting in good standing with Disney by the SEC as part of legal mitigation? The signing of contracts before the damages might not shield the SEC.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/19/di...aming-service/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/di...ct-11671566566

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...fargo-predicts

[The Federalist Engineer]

They have to make room for that Pat McAfee $85M contract.

I had no idea myself. He's an ex punter that comments college football. Fall is soccer season for me, so can't imagine how somebody is worth 85M when College Football covers itself. ESPN could just have reality USC cheerleader trials between games. The games are all that matters. To me at least, apparently some people want watch the talking heads too.

[viverlibre]

I had no idea myself. He's an ex punter that comments college football. Fall is soccer season for me, so can't imagine how somebody is worth 85M when College Football covers itself. ESPN could just have reality USC cheerleader trials between games. The games are all that matters. To me at least, apparently some people want watch the talking heads too.

It just makes no sense. ESPN was built on live action sporting events, they should revert back and focus on that. Leave the "wild and whacky" stuff and hot takes to Barstool, etc.