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Message: [QUOTE="Stern, post: 4699464, member: 527"] 1) TV Viewership has been down overall in recent years due to cord-cutting and streaming, and it's affecting all of television. Look at the cuts at WBD, it's worse than what ESPN is going through, but got less attention because less high profile names. WBD (which owns TNT) is telling the NBA we may be out or we may only want 1 day a week in the next deal, hence why Barkley got his CNN show since he is on payroll and they don't want to lose him and they want to maximize him across their platforms. 2) Showbuzz Daily the platform/outlet that delivers the ratings, went out of business this week due to these factors in the television industry and unreliable Neilsen ratings now with streaming. 3) In the next round of NBA TV rights talks (which is going on now or will in the near future) TNT and ESPN are losing games, NBC and AMAZON are getting some, hence less need for NBA talent for ESPN and why Van Gundy, Rose, and other ESPN NBA talent is getting axed. 4) ESPN (which this is not really ESPN making this call, this is all coming from Disney) is cutting costs across the board, and their goal with ESPN is to gut the radio division (hence Max/Keyshawn...Jay Williams's contract expires in a month so that won't be renewed) and shift to Video content (Hence McAfee)...AND they want to get rid of talent who, for the most part, are one-trick ponies (ie Steve Young and Suzy Kolber only work NFL. Laphonso Ellis only does College Basketball) and offer little to no versatility. They want to maximize talent like McAfee who will do 1 hour on TV, give them 4 hours of YouTube each day, and be a part of their Radio, plus do the Manning-Cast for College games. Or Stephen A Smith who does First Take, the NBA Pre-Game shows, and other projects for ESPN, Wilbon who does NBA pre-game and PTI. SVP does his SportsCenter, Golf, and a few other events. The people getting let go, are really (for the most part, but not in all cases) people who just do one sport, make over a million or more, and are just part-time for the "season" their sport is active. 5) Shows like FIRST TAKE, PTI, Around the Horn...etc are cheap to produce typically and draw the biggest ratings, and get a ton of eyeballs. Because anyone can watch highlights if you have a smartphone these days, hence why SportsCenter is outdated. But people want to hear opinions. And being louder and more outrageous means more ratings and more attention. Whether you agree or disagree with the opinion, whether you like or don't like those types of shows...from a business standpoint, they draw RATINGS and bring in REVENUE! I do watch those shows because hearing people debate is more entertaining than watching highlights I can watch on my own time. 6) This gutting of talent and reducing the workforce is really Phase 1 of what ESPN is looking at in the next 3-5 years. They are preparing a DTC (Direct to Consumer) model streaming service which is their future. They are calling their streaming service "FLAGSHIP," and all eyes, money, and attention is on that. In order to make that profitable, they had to trim the fat of their talent roster. Today (and for the last few months) that has begun. In 2011 ESPN had over 100 million cable subscribers. Today they are down to 74 million and that number will continue to drop, hence ESPN is going DTC and it needs to cut talent and reduce costs to make that a financially feasible business. In Q1 of this year, 2.3 million people cut the cord and got rid of the cable, the most of any quarter in recent history. The number of American households with cable TV is the lowest it has been in over 30 years. That is what this is all about in the big picture, ESPN's shift to a DTC streaming service that is coming. [/QUOTE]

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