04/20/24
September 27, 2005
ESPN Cellphone?: Cpt. Offwing asked earlier this week whether ESPN is losing it. With the release of the business plans for the future, I'd say there is no turning back, asking for directions, using a compass, or navigating by the stars back to relevancy, in a way that ESPN was once relevant to this multi-sport fan.
OLN isn't the answer. They've done plenty of their own soft-focus coverage and inane studio commentary with the Tour de France. They're not even close to the level of noise that is ESPN, but they're heading that way. I used to think Tivo was the answer, but they're getting kneecapped more each day (and besides, sports NEED to be watched live). I finally just got rid of my TV and now watch only the best/most important games in bars and restaurants. You can't hear over the noise, and that's a good thing.
posted by dusted at 12:57 PM on September 27, 2005
In some respects, I'm a big fan of the multi-dimensional sports universe these days. I love that on a Sunday I can watch football, baseball, formula 1, golf or any other event - including poker. I find the options to be good. However, the journalistic side of the sports media is a whole other ball of wax. I can't stand the constant hype and controversial-attitude about covering sports. I honestly don't care what T.O. said last Thursday in practice. I don't care that Favre gave millions to charity. I don't care about any of these cult of personality crapfests that dominate the sports scene and lead the days broadcast. So I don't watch.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:03 PM on September 27, 2005
Obviously, ESPN does exactly what will result in the greatest profit margin. It's business. You can't fault them for soap-opera programming if it increases their ratings. You can only fault the people who watch it and get wrapped up in what Karl Malone said to Kobe's wife. And I don't think there's much "room in the wake" for anybody else. ESPN is providing what the mainstream wants to watch.
posted by mayerkyl at 01:16 PM on September 27, 2005
Agreed. I was in heaven when I discovered ESPN Radio. Now it's just so much garbage: The Mike & Mike Show: Listen in this morning as Mike accuses Mike of being a metrosexual, and Mike cracks wise about how fat Mike is. There will be love for Chad Pennington and Notre Dame, and at the end of the show they will tell TO to "Just Shup Up." The Herd: Colin Cowherd will say something meant to be edgy and controversial ("I don't care about Yankees/Red Sox! Can you believe that folks?!"). He'll take that "edgy" topic farther than it should ever be taken, and put down callers who disagree with him. The Daaan Patrick Show, starring Daaan Patrick: Daaan Patrick will be smug and self-absorbed in a variety of monologues, interviews with non-sports-related guests, and listener calls. At some point in the show he will replay an excerpt from his notorious interview with Tonya Harding. Any of these shows' content may be replaced at any time with nasal shout-monger Eric Kuselias yapping about something we don't care about, but for some reason he repeats ad nauseum, we absolutely should. The oasis in this vast wasteland of crap is our local call-in show, hosted by a moderately knowledgable reporter who talks mostly about football.
posted by rocketman at 01:18 PM on September 27, 2005
I'm listening to more and more games on the radio and enjoying them, as well as watching in the bar where you can't hear the idjits and where the commentary from your fellow barflies is, at worst, no more inane than what's coming out of the speakers. When I watch at home, I spend way too much time saying, "The game, you morons, what's happening with the game???" As for ESPN, they're just doing what MTV did. Does MTV even show music videos any more?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:35 PM on September 27, 2005
However, the journalistic side of the sports media is a whole other ball of wax. I can't stand the constant hype and controversial-attitude about covering sports. I honestly don't care what T.O. said last Thursday in practice. I don't care that Favre gave millions to charity. I don't care about any of these cult of personality crapfests that dominate the sports scene and lead the days broadcast. Preach it, broheim!
posted by NoMich at 01:44 PM on September 27, 2005
... sports NEED to be watched live I would have agreed with you, but a Sunday softball league has kept me from Jags games this year. I've been using Tivo and the fast-forward button to only watch the plays, and I'm getting hooked. Live football is glacial. I was in heaven when I discovered ESPN Radio. Now it's just so much garbage I listen to Sporting News Radio more than ESPN. It's not as flashy, but most of the shows talk sports instead of mixing sports and "guy talk."
posted by rcade at 02:21 PM on September 27, 2005
So ESPN has a lot of crap to go along with the good stuff. So does ABC, CBS, FOX etc. Unless your set is broken, you can probably figure out a way to change the freaking channel.
posted by drevl at 03:08 PM on September 27, 2005
Until ESPN realizes that Chris Berman is about ten times more annoying than fingernails on a chalkboard the station will suffer. Less Berman, more sports, less smug egotists, more sports, less stupid filler, more sports. And please do not pre-empt playoff baseball for some huge football school to pound the snot out of some dinky school 88-6. And please someone fire Stuart Scott, his ego and mannerisms are just too freaking irritating for this universe. In fact, let's take up a collection to shoot him into the sun. And since KNBR fired Larry Kroeger over Alou-Gate, I don't listen to that station anymore (except for Giants games) so I get my sports radio from the BBC which keeps me up on top of the latest cricket news and that's fine by me because there ain't no Berman on the oval. Yet.
posted by fenriq at 05:03 PM on September 27, 2005
I've been using Tivo and the fast-forward button to only watch the plays, and I'm getting hooked. Live football is glacial. I taped (oh God no, lame-- DVR'd, I meant DVR'd) the Notre Dame game this weekend because we were out. I came home halfway through and was caught up in 30 minutes or so. I got almost nothing out of it. I think there's a danger in the way we've come to consume media nowadays. Part of the beauty of a sport you love is the pacing. Part of baseball's charm is that I can do a crossword during it, can read, can code, etc. If I start watching those MLB mainline, plays-only streams without having the action stepped on by commercials, delays, batters stepping out, etc. -- I'd be "watching" baseball in a manner that would create a much larger disconnect than any steroid influence on stats. Does that make sense? A game populated with hulking linebackers who hit 50 home runs a year is still baseball. Watching just the highlights is something else. Maybe I'm just paranoid because I broke my music tastebuds by downloading every album I could find and listening to them all once. But I don't think so.
posted by yerfatma at 05:10 PM on September 27, 2005
Wasn't the whole concept of ESPN2 to allow ESPN to focus on mainstream sports coverage, while continuing to cover the niche sports on a sister station. Now what do we have - the mainstream sports coverage split between two stations, niche sports almost completely cut out - save the Great Outdoor Games - and a day full of talking jarheads discussing the same topics in 30-minute segments. The only intellegent thing I have seen from ESPN coverage is continuing the NFL Films segements in the afternoon. ESPN Hollywood? You've got to be kidding me! This is a sports channel who still targets males between 18 and 45 right? So to sum it up - ESPN programming gets continually worse and my cable bill goes up exponentially as a result.
posted by bigrobbieb at 05:17 PM on September 27, 2005
As for ESPN, they're just doing what MTV did. Does MTV even show music videos any more? I'll just stay up a bit longer until they show a good one...
posted by owlhouse at 05:25 PM on September 27, 2005
I used to say the same things, yerfatma, but watching the Jags play in 90 minutes is more fun than watching them play in 90 minutes spread out over four hours of huddles, replays, and commercials.
posted by rcade at 05:26 PM on September 27, 2005
I know that my wife will actually sit and watch baseball with me now if I'm doing it Tivo style rather than the pitch, chat, replay, chat and then pitch again old school way. Though I admit that I do miss the chatter between Kruk and Kuip.
posted by fenriq at 05:55 PM on September 27, 2005
This shows how far cell phones have come. I remember my first Nokia, it had terrible service, no games, no 3D display, no anything- just a phone that barely made local calls. Now we can do anything on phones- internet, games, ring tones, weather, stocks, cameras, I think we forget that phones are supposed to be used to call people. But who cares- ill be on that phone all day at work!
posted by redsoxrgay at 06:00 PM on September 27, 2005
I think having more networks is the answer to the crap and dreck that surround the live events, just switch off and surely someone else has got a game or match on. Otherwise turn on the computer and drop some cracks here. redsoxr, on you cell tangent, just wait because in a few years your phone or something like it may replace the "personal" part of your computing environment: http://philip.greenspun.com/business/mobile-phone-as-home-computer.
posted by billsaysthis at 06:53 PM on September 27, 2005
Wow, you read Greenspun, too? Most times I want to choke him, but every once in a great while he writes something interesting.
posted by dusted at 08:45 PM on September 27, 2005
Billysays...showing my geekness..there was a scifi book (the name escapes me) several years back where all of the information the people had came through what they called satelite hooked in tablets. Basically they were PDA's or what phones soon will be. They were tied to huge libraries and all news and such came from them. They were also video phone communicators. I think not to many years down the road we will hae basically the same things available.
posted by scottypup at 09:07 AM on September 28, 2005
Scotty, I don't believe I read that book but from an SF angle you're right that this is no new concept. What's new is that we may actually get real ones soon.
posted by billsaysthis at 02:52 PM on September 28, 2005
Come to think of it, you could almost do it today with a Tablet PC, an EVDO card, video Skype and a USB webcam.
posted by billsaysthis at 02:55 PM on September 28, 2005
ESPN has outgrown all that. They lost that focus a long time ago. They don't care, that's not their focus, don't distract them with the successes of the past. IBM used to make clocks. Don't mean anything now. On the upside, though: ESPN has been so incredibly successful that there's room in their wake for another network (and lord, let it be Comcast/OLN) to fill the gap that ESPN once filled before they became the the Disney Megacorporation's active leisure arm. One can hope.