Monday ESPNU podcast & ESPN's decline

[armory]

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=8705551

Talked to SDSU coach Steve Fisher, said a lot of nice things about SU, sounds like a great guy. Cool things going on in that program, lot of fandom.

Lot of talk about Majerus, but embarrassingly way to much ranting about his weight & his appetite. Ugh.

Then in his usual foot-in-mouth fashion, Andy Katz tossed the straw onto the camels back to break any doubt that he has completely sold out his opinions to his producers and his ratings. I've been casually documenting ESPN's awkward obsession with Kentucky spin lately, particularly this podcast, and Andy Katz is doing an especially terrible job hiding it this year:

Around the 40m mark he finally gets around to talking general college bball and begins with railing off who he thinks are the best teams; "IU, Duke, and Michigan ... and maybe Florida" ... immediately both guest and co-host jump on him with, "what? why not Syracuse". Katz reluctantly concedes.

Then he immediately diverts to talking about how "its hurts the game of college basketball when teams like UCLA, Kentucky, and UNC are struggling" ... again, knee-jerk reaction from Greenberg (who does a great job keeping Katz grounded) who says, "wait, why does that hurt the game?"... Katz's response? A seemingly accidental Freudian slip of an answer: "maybe because I've been listening to our programming people" *laughs*.

We saw first hand last year the lengths they will go to chase ratings. Then again during Gottlieb's outing of their Tebow spin-doctoring during his farewell broadcast. Sports is taking a back seat to business @ ESPN these days. Tis a shame.

 

[Rocco]

I wish there were another powerful outlet that wouldn't be driven by it's producers. ESPN literally blows.

 

[moqui]

A seemingly accidental Fraudian slip of an answer

speaking of Freudian slips . . .

 

[armory]

speaking of Freudian slips . . .

gold!

 

[cusetown1]

gold!

I kind of like Fraudian it sounds right for the situation. Too bad it's made up, you could have Andy Katz as the definition of this new word.

 

[RF2044]

I think Marsh01 said it best the other day when he described ESPN as a necessary evil. As a huge college sports fan for a team who plays a ton on the mothership network, I'm locked into watching games on their stations, but I don't like them.

 

[cusetown1]

Is it me or does it sound like Fisher had a couple to drink before the interview?

 

[tee1222]

I think Marsh01 said it best the other day when he described ESPN as a necessary evil. As a huge college sports fan for a team who plays a ton on the mothership network, I'm locked into watching games on their stations, but I don't like them.

That is, until a competitor comes along. You know, one who isn't biased? I know, pipe dreams, but for now, I like whoever made the suggestion's idea to turn put it on mute.

 

[Marsh01]

I think Marsh01 said it best the other day when he described ESPN as a necessary evil. As a huge college sports fan for a team who plays a ton on the mothership network, I'm locked into watching games on their stations, but I don't like them.

Bingo dude. It kills me to have to flip back and forth between ESPN/ESPN2 and ESPNU to watch college hoops games. Its to the point where I cant even watch NFL countdown or NFL Monday night pre-game anymore because its turned into a side show. They will always pound away on the hot topics over and over and over and over again just to keep the ratings up. They are a sham as Armory said and its too bad because 20 years ago I would have never thought or felt this way.

Tom Mees would be rolling over in his grave if he were alive today.

Its all Uconns fault. F them.

 

[Marsh01]

We saw first hand last year the lengths they will go to chase ratings. Then again during Gottlieb's outing of their Tebow spin-doctoring during his farewell broadcast. Sports is taking a back seat to business @ ESPN these days. Tis a shame.[/quote]

I'm shocked they havent contacted the Jets and demanded that Tebow be activated and in consideration for next weeks game. It must have KILLED them ti have him deactivated last week when Rex finally pulled Sanchez out. Killed them! Can you imagine if he played and won the game last week how much they would have talked about him this week? Yeesh!

 

[jimsonjunction]

Thought I read something a while back about some plans by NBC to challenge the ESPN sports monopoly.

I know they renamed Versus the NBC Sports Network and I believe they were going to make some serious offers to the major sports leagues once their TV contracts were up (specifically for playoff games). It's a shame there is no hockey season because I believe they had the rights to all those games and I'm sure that's stunting their growth a bit.

Granted, there isn't much to stop NBC from following the footsteps of ESPN. Sunday Night Football is already tainted by Rodney Harrison's homerism and general idiocy. However, I do enjoy getting some sports news from the NBC sports blogs (ProfootballTalk, CollegeBasketballTalk, HardballTalk, etc.)

 

[armory]

I don't think you compete with ESPN by trying to beat ESPN at it's own game like what NBC said it tried or is trying (and failing miserably) to do. The only solution IMO is to just provide small, better 'niche' sports coverage and erode its base over time by exploiting the one thing everyone hates about ESPN - its overgeneralized coverage and disgraceful prioritization of drama over sports.

There's plenty of 'niche' competition popping up here and there. e.g. - NFL network has grown to become a fantastically run network and a lot more people are just watching that for any/all NFL news instead of ESPN. Personally I pretty much exclusively watch the NFL network for NFL coverage now; they have a pretty good analyst lineup, 24/7 NFL news, & NFLRedZone is friggin awesome. Same could be said to some degree with golf and the Golf Channel (while ESPN will still only make an effort to cover golf if Tiger is winning). Also, all this conference consolidation is predicated on TV deals that can include conference-only channels that people would much rather watch on gamedays instead of 58 minutes of every hour spent discussing 3 or 4 games.

And then there's the inevitability of internet TV which will certainly be much more 'social media-esque' & tailored to short attention spans beyond simple channel surfing.

 

[chlywtr]

Thought I read something a while back about some plans by NBC to challenge the ESPN sports monopoly.

I know they renamed Versus the NBC Sports Network and I believe they were going to make some serious offers to the major sports leagues once their TV contracts were up (specifically for playoff games). It's a shame there is no hockey season because I believe they had the rights to all those games and I'm sure that's stunting their growth a bit.

Granted, there isn't much to stop NBC from following the footsteps of ESPN. Sunday Night Football is already tainted by Rodney Harrison's homerism and general idiocy. However, I do enjoy getting some sports news from the NBC sports blogs (ProfootballTalk, CollegeBasketballTalk, HardballTalk, etc.)

don't forget Costas

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

I love to hate ESPN too, but...its a business. If more people keep the tv remote out of their hand when stories about Lebron, Tebow and UK are coming up...well, ratings is what drives advertising dollars. Blame society...

I hate ESPN for their schotty journalism, but I can't kill them for running stories about teams and players the world wants to hear about.

 

[armory]

Granted, there isn't much to stop NBC from following the footsteps of ESPN. Sunday Night Football is already tainted by Rodney Harrison's homerism and general idiocy. However, I do enjoy getting some sports news from the NBC sports blogs (ProfootballTalk, CollegeBasketballTalk, HardballTalk, etc.)

Rodney Harrison is insufferable. Even Tony Dungy ... great in the coaches booth, great in a locker room ... terrible TV analyst.

There seems to be this recent & growing myth in the sportscasting world that the only people allowed to discuss sports are former players and coaches... what's worse is that even that restriction is shrinking to only include famous, recognizable celebrity players ... meanwhile, fans who can spend half their lives watching and analyzing a sport are now treated as intellectually inferior to, say, Jay Williams. I guess we shouldn't be surprised coming from the network that continues to hand Dick Vitale a microphone and put Dennis Miller in an NFL broadcasting booth.

I believe people are finally beginning to get tired of "the TMZ of sports" act. ESPN has now put themselves in the position of either continuing to sell out, losing all of its intelligent, true-sports-fan viewer base and praying nobody can compete (or competing The American Way™ and lobbying competitors out of business)... or pull a 180 by dedicating itself to rediscovering objective, intelligent, rational coverage of everything we love about ALL sports, but at the cost of losing the juicy ratings that comes with being 'The Jersey Sports'.

 

[longtimefan]

don't forget Costas

If that's a politcal statement--there is at least one other thread where it belongs.

If it isn't--just slap me with a flounder.

 

[djcon57]

I think the key is to understand what ESPN and Sports Radio is doing.

This is what they want. They want you to sit there and watch Skip Bayless or listen to Colin Cowherd and get all mad and type up threads online

"OMG what a hypocrite this Skip Bayless is!: Yep, he is...and he and they doing it on purpose.

They know people love/hate Kentucky. They are trying to get a reaction.

 

[br801]

I hate ESPN for their schotty journalism, but I can't kill them for running stories about teams and players the world wants to hear about.

There's nothing worse than schotty journalism.

 

[MSOrange]

Tom Mees would be rolling over in his grave if he were alive today.
Its all Uconns fault. F them.

I agree with your overall point but not sure this part makes any sense. With all due respect to Mr Mees (RIP - that was such a horrible tragedy), why would he be in his grave if he were alive?

 

[Marsh01]

I agree with your overall point but not sure this part makes any sense. With all due respect to Mr Mees (RIP - that was such a horrible tragedy), why would he be in his grave if he were alive?

Heh that really makes no sense. Im a dolt.

 

[CuseinNYC]

I think Yahoo Sports does a tremendous job as one of the better sources of objective sports journalism out there. They're not in bed with any of the leagues (unlike everyone else), and they have some great journalists on their staff.

Bryant Gumbel's HBO show is also a nice example of actual sports news, without the biased league agenda.

And then there's everyone else.

 

[moqui]

I think Yahoo Sports does a tremendous job as one of the better sources of objective sports journalism out there. They're not in bed with any of the leagues (unlike everyone else), and they have some great journalists on their staff.

yeah, Pat Forde is a pillar of integrity

 

[djcon57]

yeah, Pat Forde is a pillar of integrity

I remember when he tweeted "BOOM!!!" or something when someone at yahoo reported about the Auburn point shaving. Totally made me hate his guts. It's one thing to report a story. Another to celebrate breaking a story that could lead to some kid's possible demise.

Actually, now that I think of it...what happened about that? Kind of like the whole ESPN story on "wiretapping with the Saints" deal that quietly went away when it was declared untrue...or that Bernie Fine thing.

 

[djcon57]

WOW...speak of the devil...if you want to get where ESPN is at right now.
Read this piece just released on Deadspin: http://deadspin.com/5966070

This is the ESPN Vice President. Not some shmoe

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Tom Mees would be rolling over in his grave if he were alive today.
Why would he be in a grave if he were alive?

And if he WERE in a grave alive, he would soon be dead and in an appropriate spot anyway.