NFL in Talks with Disney for ESPN/NFL Network Alliance

[Jetsfan80]

24 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Well, that's "unusual" - lol.  Ugh!

I was more talking about his NFL points. 

When you sniff a female co-hosts shoe on air, your football points go out the window.  

[Jet_Engine1]

25 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Well, that's "unusual" - lol.  Ugh!

I was more talking about his NFL points.  How about SaS talking about a vibrating phone too, btw?!  (I had no idea about either of these incidents).  I do, however, remember seeing one of the guys try to get Molly to bend over to play center (video below).   There's nothing more idiotic then when they try to line up these guys in the studio as if they were on the field.  Though part of me gets a laugh of at how ridiculously stupid these shows are.

 

 

Yes, Molly is hot... but that sh*t is creepy 

[JetsFanatic]

2 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Disney is ESPN and ESPN is Disney.  

Disney is the parent company that owns ESPN

[peebag]

If you think games are rigged now just wait.

[jetsons]

disney … 🤮🤮🤮

[Bugg]

5 hours ago, Biggs said:

ESPN has always walked a fine line.  They own the broadcast rights to sports that they profit on.  They also cover sports from a jurnalistic perspective.  If they become a business partner with a league the jurnalistic integrity goes away completely.  

That's the thin line that seperates ESPN from NFL network when it comes to covering the NFL.   That line will now be obliterated.  ESPN will effectively be the publicist of the NFL corporation.  

 

Problem is the NFL and NCAAFB rights fees are eating into the profits. Only reason there's streaming is all these networks were hoping off Netflix taking off there would be room for some more PPV streaming. There isn't; Amazon, Disney (ESPN/ABC), CBS/Paramount, NBC/Peacock are all bleeding $. Tonight's  nonsense on Peacock is NBC trying to see if they can bleed us all even more.  

The NFL hoped to be able to stream their games directly. Now that look unlikely because it would eat into their rights fees, and Sunday Ticket and Red Zone. Would cannibalize all that. 

Where ESPN is dying is with cord cutting(and also cable customers cutting back; lots of little old ladies and others stopped buying channels they don't watch), they aren't getting nearly the subscribers they used to from cable providers. ESPN has a lot of overhead to keep garbage like Screaming A Smith and The Ocho going. All these networks; at a loss why you need pregame, halftime and postgame shows that feature enough paid personnel to have a bleachers filled with them, all saying really nothing. And Tony Gonzalez on Amazon games most egregiously says literally nothing. May be better than saying something and confirming you have nothing to say, though would be no different from anyone else. Hey, Tony, blink twice if you need to be rescued?

But even worse, the rights fees for the NFL and college football are approaching being loss leaders. The rest of the programming isn't paying for itself. To some degree the rights fees may level off in the NFLN is part of them. Whether it works, who knows? 

As an aside, MLB and the NHL know their lane. One's a niche sport, one is lucky to be the only thing on in summer. May not lose $, but isn't printing it either. Suspect the NBA though is looking at a serious haircut.

Think you could take 90% of ESPN's nonsports programming and have 2 podcasters who cover a specific sport with almost no overhead shoot the sheet. But the TV geniuses haven't figured that out yet. 

[RutgersJetFan]

I'm actually in favor of this. It would enable me to trick my daughter into thinking we're throwing on The Little Mermaid for the 549th time and what's that oh no it looks like the movie isn't working and this football game is all that's coming up sweetheart.

[Jetsfan80]

1 minute ago, RutgersJetFan said:

I'm actually in favor of this. It would enable me to trick my daughter into thinking we're throwing on The Little Mermaid for the 549th time and what's that oh no it looks like the movie isn't working and this football game is all that's coming up sweetheart.

More Toy Story games would help you in that endeavor even more.  

[Bugg]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Dude sniffed Molly Qerim’s shoe on air.  
 

 

If in 2024 you need to tune into ESPN to see pretty girls, you have to be braindead. And no idea why anyone would want to advertise to such an audience. But Craig Carton keeps having TV moron execs throw $ at him, so what do I know? 

[TBJ]

Sounds about right.

[bitonti]

5 hours ago, Adoni Beast said:

It’s no longer sports. It’s sports entertainment.

Always has been 

[Jetsfan80]

6 hours ago, Adoni Beast said:

It’s no longer sports. It’s sports entertainment.

 

20 minutes ago, bitonti said:

Always has been 

[Larz]

“Direct to consumer “ sounds like what, a paid subscription?

[Warfish]

6 hours ago, Biggs said:

ESPN has always walked a fine line.  They own the broadcast rights to sports that they profit on.  They also cover sports from a jurnalistic perspective.  If they become a business partner with a league the jurnalistic integrity goes away completely.  

That's the thin line that seperates ESPN from NFL network when it comes to covering the NFL.   That line will now be obliterated.  ESPN will effectively be the publicist of the NFL corporation.  

 

So what?

You want real journalism about the NFL, there plenty of real, actual, legit non-sport-aligned journalism sources out there to fill that gap.  

No one looks to ESPN for hard hitting critical journalism, lol.

[Bugg]

50 minutes ago, Larz said:

“Direct to consumer “ sounds like what, a paid subscription?

Problem with that is cable companies had no problem passing the ESPN carrier fees onto customers as part of their basic package. Forever. It's how ESPN took off. What happens when tons of people don't buy in? Personally like the NFL, college football and the NHL. Can probably figure out how to watch most of what I want to see over the air for the big stuff and the rest with either cable or some streaming stuff(or like I expect tonight's Fins/Chefs, "liberated"). Or could even cancel ESPN for months at a time. And you have tons of people who don't watch any sports at all that won't be paying the monthly fee they used to give their cable provider without even knowing it. Point being Disney/ABC/ESPN is making lots of assumptions about direct streaming that so far aren't borne out by any streaming service except Netflix, who had the benefit of being 1st.