I thought this was an interesting breakdown of issues facing ESPN that new President James Pitaro is going to have to deal with. There's a few nuggets in there about sports rights, RSNs, and conference realignment that I think you'll find interesting.

From Awful Announcing:

(03-23-2018 04:59 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I thought this was an interesting breakdown of issues facing ESPN that new President James Pitaro is going to have to deal with. There's a few nuggets in there about sports rights, RSNs, and conference realignment that I think you'll find interesting.

From Awful Announcing:

Anyone one of us could have come up with that list. The question I'd like to is what is the viewing split between portable devices and TV's. Because IMO, it doesn't make any sense to heavily invest in digital if no one is willing to pay it.

(03-23-2018 07:55 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 04:59 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I thought this was an interesting breakdown of issues facing ESPN that new President James Pitaro is going to have to deal with. There's a few nuggets in there about sports rights, RSNs, and conference realignment that I think you'll find interesting.

From Awful Announcing:

Anyone one of us could have come up with that list. The question I'd like to is what is the viewing split between portable devices and TV's. Because IMO, it doesn't make any sense to heavily invest in digital if no one is willing to pay it.

In the history of business one of the most common of mistakes is the investing in hardware and infrastructure that you didn't really need because of the fear that the competition having it somehow gave them an advantage.

Quality streaming is still years away from being universally available and the kids they are going after would rather play fantasy sports than watch real ones.

For the next 20 years there will probably still be more people watching TV than watching some portable device. After that all bets are off.

(03-23-2018 10:24 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 07:55 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 04:59 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I thought this was an interesting breakdown of issues facing ESPN that new President James Pitaro is going to have to deal with. There's a few nuggets in there about sports rights, RSNs, and conference realignment that I think you'll find interesting.

From Awful Announcing:

Anyone one of us could have come up with that list. The question I'd like to is what is the viewing split between portable devices and TV's. Because IMO, it doesn't make any sense to heavily invest in digital if no one is willing to pay it.

In the history of business one of the most common of mistakes is the investing in hardware and infrastructure that you didn't really need because of the fear that the competition having it somehow gave them an advantage.

Quality streaming is still years away from being universally available and the kids they are going after would rather play fantasy sports than watch real ones.

For the next 20 years there will probably still be more people watching TV than watching some portable device. After that all bets are off.

Concur. I think they are looking at the loss of cable subscriptions and the rise of Netflix and Amazon and are assuming that their demographic is moving in that direction. If that were they case then OU and a few other schools would be killing it on their digital service right? I'm just not seeing any data supporting that.

FWIW, I think ESPN desperately needed to upgrade it's streaming service. I've been traveling quite a lot this past year, both in and out of the country. In many places WatchESPN has been so slow as to be unwatchable... but even in those places I've never had trouble with Netflix. It just works.

The numbers I want you to see from WatchESPN app is the average number of viewers that watched a sporting event live on the app vs number of views after the live event ended.

How we consume content and what companies get that right will be the ones who shape the electronic landscape moving forward

I have no problems with my streaming service, and no contract. Anyone with Wi-Fi can cut the cord. You have to use a quality provider, which costs less than fifty bucks per month. Well worth it to me. My kids all stream and have no complaints. PS Vue, Direct TVNOW, and Sling work very well. I get all sports channels live, and RedZone for 10 bucks per month as well. Just my opinion. I doubt this takes years. Broadband is becoming faster all the time.