Does WalMart give management seminars in Bristol, Connecticut?: ESPN, the 800 lb. gorilla with attitude
Sure I love to watch three college bball games at once (ESPN,ESPN2, and ESPN Classic....four if I had access to ESPNU) during the frozen winter months. Having Chris Berman do his schtick has always been pretty funny. And Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick made SportsCenter into an psuedo art form during their run several years back. But enough is enough. Not that this is a news flash or anything, but ESPN has become something they themselves used to mock. Kind of like that one funny Wayans brother, a veteran of the groundbreaking "In Living Color" who now does some awful sitcom on ABC.
The sports world is vastly different now than a quarter century ago, and a large part of that can be credited to 24 hour cable channels like ESPN (if you consider the changes to be "good"). Today, we get multiple games on at the same time, streaming real scores at the bottom of the screen (which actually kinda irritate me, but I understand their purpose....mostly for betters). It is the Information Age, and to the forefront of the sports segment of that world has risen a channel that, in the beginning, rebroadcast Australian Rules Football tapes because they were cheap and featured real live blood, as well as pro wrestling (same deal: cheap, real live blood). Anything to fill the day. As years went by and financial backers realized schmoes (like me...most especially like me...) would watch this stuff, ESPN was able to acquire rights to NCAA bball and fball as well as some minor sports that had an affluent following, like tennis. Eventually Bristol landed their Great White Whale: the NFL. Once Americas's Sport was part of the family, the sky was the limit. And the network was a cash cow, being gobbled up by Disney in 1984.
During the decade of the 80s, due to its jam packed content, consumers began to demand that their cable provider include ESPN in its basic lineup, and not part of any separate, fee based package. Disney and ESPN, knowing that sports fans were willing to pay just about anything to watch Sunday Night NFL games and a plethora of Saturday college football contests, kept charging the nation's cable providers more and more fees per subscriber per month...and more...and more. Eventually, ESPN and its family of channels made up a large percentage of just about every consumer's cable bill, whether you watch it for 100 hours a month, or 0.
Today, ESPN has become a victim to its own success. As part of a huge multinational corporation run by suits (sorry Mickey, but Disney is as cutthroat a company as there is), with no thought given to substance or style the spark has died out of a once innovative company. And as this link shows (this one too), they've completely lost their sense of humor, if not the absurd as well.
To summarize, the very married Chris Berman was witnessed some years prior by a Deadspin reader (who was making an unsuccessful go of it with the babe in question at the time) picking up a hot, leather outfitted, cable groupie at a bar with simply a glance, a nod, and the line "You're with me, leather...". Deadspin.com had been trying to get someone on the network to use the line, in any context, at any hour. And apparently Neil Everett took the bait....and has been suspended for a week.
The King is dead.....
Edit 5/26/06: Um....apparently I jumped the gun a bit. Neil Everett has NOT been suspended, as of friday morning. Damn it, what a bummer when you found out your gloating and self righteousness is based on a false rumor. Damn it.
The sports world is vastly different now than a quarter century ago, and a large part of that can be credited to 24 hour cable channels like ESPN (if you consider the changes to be "good"). Today, we get multiple games on at the same time, streaming real scores at the bottom of the screen (which actually kinda irritate me, but I understand their purpose....mostly for betters). It is the Information Age, and to the forefront of the sports segment of that world has risen a channel that, in the beginning, rebroadcast Australian Rules Football tapes because they were cheap and featured real live blood, as well as pro wrestling (same deal: cheap, real live blood). Anything to fill the day. As years went by and financial backers realized schmoes (like me...most especially like me...) would watch this stuff, ESPN was able to acquire rights to NCAA bball and fball as well as some minor sports that had an affluent following, like tennis. Eventually Bristol landed their Great White Whale: the NFL. Once Americas's Sport was part of the family, the sky was the limit. And the network was a cash cow, being gobbled up by Disney in 1984.
During the decade of the 80s, due to its jam packed content, consumers began to demand that their cable provider include ESPN in its basic lineup, and not part of any separate, fee based package. Disney and ESPN, knowing that sports fans were willing to pay just about anything to watch Sunday Night NFL games and a plethora of Saturday college football contests, kept charging the nation's cable providers more and more fees per subscriber per month...and more...and more. Eventually, ESPN and its family of channels made up a large percentage of just about every consumer's cable bill, whether you watch it for 100 hours a month, or 0.
Today, ESPN has become a victim to its own success. As part of a huge multinational corporation run by suits (sorry Mickey, but Disney is as cutthroat a company as there is), with no thought given to substance or style the spark has died out of a once innovative company. And as this link shows (this one too), they've completely lost their sense of humor, if not the absurd as well.
To summarize, the very married Chris Berman was witnessed some years prior by a Deadspin reader (who was making an unsuccessful go of it with the babe in question at the time) picking up a hot, leather outfitted, cable groupie at a bar with simply a glance, a nod, and the line "You're with me, leather...". Deadspin.com had been trying to get someone on the network to use the line, in any context, at any hour. And apparently Neil Everett took the bait....and has been suspended for a week.
The King is dead.....
Edit 5/26/06: Um....apparently I jumped the gun a bit. Neil Everett has NOT been suspended, as of friday morning. Damn it, what a bummer when you found out your gloating and self righteousness is based on a false rumor. Damn it.
posted by joe sweeney at 5:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home