Critics, leagues, advertisers malign ESPN
Don Day March 17th, 2008
SportsBusiness Journal has a fascinating look at the many criticisms that are thrown at ESPN - including weak ratings, arrogance, a heavy reliance on its multi-platform strategy, the news/programming dividing line and more. A PowerPoint presentation has apparently been floating around that lodges many of those complaints - and the SportsBusiness Journal looked at each of the claims from an independent lens. Some league officials regularly express frustration at the decisions made by ESPN’s news operation — especially when it casts a negative light on a sport or player. NBA commissioner David Stern was upset about a piece in ESPN The Magazine leading up to this year’s All Star Game: “We’re having a great year, so ESPN decided that what you should do if you’re a magazine is you write an article going into All-Star about how terrible things are,” Stern told the Oregonion. “Maybe its because (the game) was on TNT.” At the same time, an unnamed executives for Versus was said to be upset because a parade of ESPN hosts spent the day of the NHL All Star game last year dumping on the league and Versus itself.
ESPN currently brings home nearly a third of Disney’s annual revenue — but some see a major threat on the horizon as leagues increasingly work to start their own leagues and take control of their content. The story even outlines criticism against ESPN’s production value, saying some feel “ESPN’s offering has the look and feel of coming off an assembly line, with little creativity or personality to distinguish them.”
4 Comments Add your own
1. Gorman | March 17th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
They greatly overvalue their product.
Aside from simply having multiple networks, their coverage really doesn’t offer anything different than other major network’s sports coverage.
TNT’s NBA coverage is better. ESPN’s NHL coverage is not that great. Not to mention ESPN’s east coast bias. I’m sure some may scoff, but intentionally or unintentionally, it’s there.
And their website doesn’t offer enough extra coverage to warrant a subscription model.
With local newspaper and TV sites, along with local cable sports channels, I’ve had little need for SportsCenter and anything else on ESPN that wasn’t an actual sporting event.
About the only thing worthwhile on that network are it’s SportsCenter promos.
2. Allen | March 18th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Say what you want, but no one can cover a spelling bee like the four letter SPORTS network.
3. El Dangeroso | March 18th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Fire Woody Paige and Stephen A. Smith and I’ll take you back, ESPN.
4. wtf ESPN? | March 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am
the thing that made ESPN great is they covered the sports (a) when networks didn’t [nhl, nascar] and (b) covered them more often.
they’ve tapped out on growth, their niche was invaded by Fox Sports and other networks, and now MLB, NFL are saying thanks for the memories, but we can do this ourselves
(PS: does this sound familiar to anyone @ an affiliate?)
I do disagree about personality, their anchors show more personality than any other out there (other than those at Fox who really overdo it with the fake smack talk). But it does seem to have been lessened on-air as of late.
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