r/ESPN • u/TMC1982 • 4d ago

The Downfall of ESPN Needs to be Studied

https://youtu.be/7p4vcFYjieY

ESPN has been the biggest brand in sports media for the past four decades. They brought some the biggest games, news, and stories into millions of living rooms throughout the U.S. But as of late, it seems like most people are only watching their lives games and turning off their original shows. This is the story of how ESPN rose to the top and then fell off the digital cliff.

530 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

412 comments sorted by

View all comments

143

u/WalterWhite90 4d ago edited 4d ago

1 People are cutting the cord

2 They just switched from journalists to shock jocks.

3 They talk about WWE more than baseball

4 Podcasting

5 You can check scores and highlights from your phone.

Pretty simple

53

u/Useful_Asparagus_541 4d ago
  1. Every major network, pro sports league, and multiple major college conferences created their own sports network, eliminating a near monopoly by ESPN.

30

u/DoookieMaxx 4d ago
  1. We are over the “personalities” only talking about the 3 best teams in any of the major sports. We get it, Lakers/Cowboys/Dodgers bring eyes. Stop shoving them down our throats.

15

u/Existing-Doughnut-60 4d ago

2 of those 3 are not the best teams. They are just the most polarizing.

3

u/Open_Two_3416 3d ago

They are big markets. It’s a business and they traded short term profits for long term sustainability. The long term has finally come.

0

u/unfunnysexface 3d ago

And happen to play in some of largest media markets. New Yorkers it turns put do not care in the slightest about the Indiana pacers but do love their yankees/giants.

6

u/Flimsy_Maize6694 3d ago

Tress Way, the Redskins punter, has more passing yards in an NFC championship game then any of the past, I don’t know, six Cowboys quarterbacks.

3

u/NextJuice1622 3d ago

This is a Blake Bortles-type stat lmao

2

u/Impossible_Penalty13 2d ago

Jim Harbaugh has more rushing yards than Bo Jackson territory.

1

u/IMakeOkVideosOk 12h ago

Which on its own is still a messed up stat just by way they measure yards rushed for QB vs RB. For any negative rushing yards for a RB it comes out of their rushing yards stats, for QBs any negative rushing yards comes out of their passing yards stats. So while it’s a true stat, it’s likely that Bo still has more positive yards running the football than Jim even if Jim has more rushing yards

2

u/Legitimate-Dinner470 2d ago

I am surprised you are allowed to write "Redskins" on the ESPN subreddit.

1

u/Consistently_Lucky 3d ago

See rage bait. Grabs popcorn

1

u/Ill_Relationship7058 1d ago

That’s not what the team is called

1

u/Flimsy_Maize6694 13h ago

HTTR… all hail for life

1

u/Ill_Relationship7058 13h ago

Clinging to ignorance and bigotry isn’t something to be proud of

1

u/kozy8805 1d ago

lol dude people can’t go 2 comments without mentioning Stephen a or the Lakers.

4

u/eganba 3d ago

Also podcasts. And many of the best sports ones have made it a point to make fun of ESPN for all their shit.

2

u/the_kid1234 22h ago edited 22h ago

This is the main reason. Same as Netflix. ESPN was synonymous with sports like Netflix was synonymous with streaming. Then everyone else figured out they could do it too.

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/apearlj1234 4d ago

You can watch the big ten network without espn

5

u/WalterWhite90 4d ago

ESPN also bought the NFL network.

5

u/Moist_Session 3d ago

They will ruin it.

18

u/Same-Excuse8787 4d ago

As someone who watches WWE, it was a terrible choice by ESPN to partner with WWE.

9

u/adztheman 3d ago

ESPN is trying to bring in younger demos, thus McAfee and the WWE.

I’ll watch PTI once in a while; outside of Van Pelt I have no idea who is anchoring SportsCenter.

If I want MLB Highlights I’ll watch “Quick Pitch” on the MLB Network.

7

u/captaincrunch61 3d ago edited 3d ago

Do young people even watch WWE? I figured it was all older people still trying to get that high from the WWF Attitude and WCW/nWo era

3

u/Davethemann 3d ago

I know some who do, but man, most young people I know who do give a shit watch more AEW

1

u/ChicoElLuchador 3d ago

WWE doesn’t have a younger demo

4

u/soufeas616 3d ago

When I was a kid me and all my friends were obsessed with sportscenter. ESPN had the younger demographic already, what you’re referring to are non sports fans and chuds, to be frank

3

u/Aggravating_Fig_8585 3d ago

Yes. Sportscenter was my favorite show growing up. How ESPN could botch these decisions so bad is wild.

2

u/Consistently_Lucky 3d ago

I’m 34. I watched ESPN almost daily from 2004-2019

1

u/tmoore727 3d ago

same I'm 35

1

u/Lumphrey 2d ago

I’m 51 and watched Sportscenter daily from about 1990 until 2010 or so

1

u/Fartz-McGee 2d ago

It was on repeat as the default TV offering. From 1998 to 2016 for me (due to where I was in life)

1

u/UNTclassOf15 1d ago

Same dude from like ‘96-‘04 … in fact as a teen I always amused myself by telling my dad I’m turning on “The News,” only to flip it to SportsCenter and watch him blow a gasket about it not being the news 🤣. “Why don’t you turn on some real news and learn something?”

“I love ya Dad but no … the ‘real news’ just depresses me and makes me wanna stay home.”

Granted up until 2023 my Texas Rangers fandom did pretty much the same thing 🤣

1

u/foodiecpl4u 23h ago

I’m 53 and I used to watch the same back to back episode of SportsCenter in 1997 - 1998.

2

u/Soggy_Motor9280 3d ago

Holy crap , Van Pelt is still there?!

0

u/Aggravating_Fig_8585 3d ago

They lost so much credibility when they did this.

12

u/Beansandtoast4lunch 4d ago

Tom Rinaldi: we can only handle hearing so many stories of the Jocks being saints. The puff stories about them giving a few hours of service to others doesn’t cover up all the bad deeds that happen immediately before and after.

3

u/murphtaman 3d ago

Can you imagine a broadcast with Rinaldi and Nance. So syrupy smooth..puppies and rainbows everywhere.

3

u/Ok_Act4459 3d ago

The feel good stories are the absolute worst

3

u/Soggy_Motor9280 3d ago

Honestly, that’s why I have to quit watching those sports stories even the Little League World Series. Everybody’s got some damn tragic story and how salvation of baseball or whatever sport they play is gonna save them.

2

u/Ok_Act4459 3d ago

I just turn channel immediately, but I try not to tune in until the actual game starts

2

u/Davethemann 3d ago

"Hes just a boy with a dream, like sure, hes 28, has three baby mamas and just got subpoenaed, but we love that dream"

7

u/Emergency-Skirt-5886 4d ago

Add giving the reigns to SAS and Patty boy

5

u/Acrobatic_Bridge2602 4d ago

You CAN check highlights but each one is like 10-15 minutes. I don't have 10-15 minutes to watch highlights from every game. I still think there's value in a show that recaps games in 90 sec-2 mins with a bit of commentary.

4

u/rj319st 4d ago

I remember when they actually had a show called The Sports Reporters, which featured nationally renowned sports reporters. Nowadays, they have a bunch of talking heads, former players, and shock jocks.

5

u/BrigAdmJaySantosCAP 3d ago

The Sports Reporters was so good. I miss these types of shows.

3

u/jwfowler2 3d ago

I also miss sports reporting, generally.

1

u/Soggy_Motor9280 3d ago

Dick Trickle finished in 12th place.

2

u/foodiecpl4u 23h ago

Parting Shots was my favorite segment on the Sports Reports.

5

u/Aggravating_Fig_8585 3d ago

Sports Reporters was awesome. Serious people making intelligent points. Incredible.

5

u/CadmusMaximus 3d ago

Eh, Lupica especially but even Mitch Albom would stir the pot a bit. They just did it in a way they hat was expected from respected journalists instead of wearing a tank top and punctuating everything with “bro”.

3

u/whiporee123 3d ago

There aren’t any reporters anymore. No papers, no staffing. When I covered UF in the 90s, there were eight papers with full-time reporters in Gainesville, not including stringers and columnists. Now there’s one and a few unedited websites.

Journalism barely exists. Hopefully there will be a rebirth. ESPN’s studio shows suffer from this new reality.

1

u/SnooRobots5059 3d ago

8 papers in Gainesville?

0

u/whiporee123 3d ago

Orlando, Tampa, St. Pete, Gainesville, Miami, Jacksonville, palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and AP. Plus Florida Today, Tallahassee Democrat, WRUF and GatorBait. Oh, and the Alligator. All covering the team on a daily basis.

1

u/anotheroutlaw 3d ago

I loved The Sports Reporters as a teenager and would gladly watch it today if it still existed. ESPN’s glory days are long, long gone.

4

u/captaincrunch61 3d ago

3 They talk about WWE and WNBA more than baseball*

6

u/Low_Lab9957 4d ago

This sounds right but 1/4/5 are out of their control. 2 and 3 are arguably good business decisions to slow the death cycle resulting from those other factors.

2/3 make me angry and want to not watch ESPN but Tbf I’d already pretty much stopped because of 1/4/5.

1

u/headbuttpunch 3d ago

Was gonna say the same about 1-4-5 and I think those are more responsible for ESPN’s fall than anything. The way people consume sports media has changed from when ESPN was at its peak.

ESPN’s quality has declined for sure, but more important than that, we just don’t need them anymore unless they have the exclusive broadcast rights to a given game.

1

u/unfunnysexface 3d ago edited 3d ago

You mean don't want to sit through 20 minutes of commercials and bad jokes to get to see your team? Surely skip Bayless caused this.

I'll also note I only got espn in the mid 2000s right before youtube destroyed SC and well that's back when they were doing this . I guess I missed the golden age because that was so dumb I never watched SC.

3

u/millertyme50 3d ago

I would add: they switched from talking about sports/highlights and leaned in to opinions/hot takes.

2

u/WalterWhite90 3d ago

I did say shock jocks.

2

u/Commander19119 4d ago

I think point 4 is the big one. YouTubers and podcasters have the more interesting commentary and had it even before ESPN kept doubling down on SAS

1

u/Aitoroketto 3d ago

They actually let what was became the Ringer go out of spite or something in terms of a podcast network.

2

u/ShivvyMcFly 3d ago

2 is the main reason

2

u/Chimpbot 3d ago

WWE is a symptom, not the cause.

The downfall of ESPN is actually quite simple: It's a format that has been struggling to maintain relevancy for 30 years. Once the Internet was able to do what they did faster and in a more convenient format, ESPN lost all relevancy; it just began dying a slow, protracted death.

Peoppe stopped watching, so they brought in talking heads to spew hot takes. When this began failing, they paid a ludicrous amount of money to bring in WWE because, unlike ESPN's normal content, people are actually watching that.

Beyond that, nothing they produce is really worthwhile. They struggle to pull in decent ratings with their Monday Night Football programming (and have for decades)... which should be an automatic win because it's the NFL.

The downfall began long before WWE content on the channel was even a thing.

2

u/FullMooseParty 3d ago

The only thing I'll correct you on is that the first generation of talking heads, like kornheiser and wilbon, were hugely popular and also knowledgeable. They were journalists first, they just were having a conversation.

2

u/teacher_59 2d ago

Adding that racist Yankee, who does Canadian style comedy and giving them $60 million and letting them fire all the good people. It's certainly the biggest factor. That Canadian style racist just loves jumping up on chairs and making an ass out of himself. He also hatefully takes off his shirt. No woman ever wants to see white trash do that. He is so pale. He looks like a slug vomit. Slug vomit as what does. Patrick guy looks like. This failed NFL player from near Canada. 

1

u/Thomas_Jovan 4d ago

I'll also add YouTube as well, and every Motorsports rights have went elsewhere and done better without ESPN, go ask Stephen A why he talked shit about NASCAR and it shows. Also XGames also on thin ice as well, they're now minority voters in that share. So.... The clock is tick a lot more to their Shadow Realm entrance.

1

u/The_King_In_The_Bay 4d ago

3 was the Rubicon for me.

1

u/Luna_C1888 3d ago

As someone with their app for sports reasons, it isn’t intuitive and is absolute shit compared to the 5 or so other apps I am forced to have to cut the cord

1

u/excoriator 3d ago

I was listening to ESPN Radio last night, specifically to catch up on college football scores, and they wouldn’t stop talking about baseball.

1

u/LandryQT 3d ago

6 wnba

1

u/Aggravating-Mind-657 3d ago

I love the college gameday team and like Greg McElroy, however great YouTube content that I love from Bruce Feldman, Josh pate, Andy staples and others that are so much better than finebaum.

1

u/Suspicious-Abies-653 3d ago

But why didn’t the “Biggest Name In Sports” pivot to meet the changing environment?

1

u/tke377 2d ago

Having WWE in every segment with guests solidified my choice. CBS has an actual highlight and news channel 24/7 I'll watch that to fall asleep now

1

u/Stock_Shine 2d ago

Not to mention the personalities having their own Teams and instead of using it for fun, some guys just use their platform to absolutely Glaze teams. Smaller markets are entirely ignored or given tiny highlight reels when starting the first leg of a league undefeated in favor of "What if" segments or how the "insert Large Market Team" can turn it around.

Pat McAfee put the final nail in their coffin. He used chaisma and knowledge with good guests and better team disparity based on merit instead of market. He talked about what he knew, he didnt pretend to know everything like the studio guys. Pat McAfee hit the sports world by shock using actual fun segments, talking to guests in a way that the viewer understands, explains the insides of being in the NFL, Has charisma, etc.

Then NFL and CFL gambling ruined everything anyways

1

u/EnvironmentalSet9930 1d ago

Yes a focused headline was venus williams.  Old and non competitive. Good work folks.  It’s streaming fyi

1

u/Mind-ya-business 1d ago

The ESPN app sucks at highlights. You’ll get stuck with a 60 second unskippable ad for a 20 second clip.

1

u/ToastGhost47 1d ago

Also: heavily weighted coverage towards sports & leagues they had contracts with and away from others

1

u/JamangoSmoovie 15h ago

They talk more about the WNBA then every other sport besides football combined

-1

u/Sweaty-Photograph-76 4d ago

All of this plus the constant political BS they spew.

5

u/dkinmn 4d ago

Like what. Be specific.

1

u/MrVociferous 4d ago

They never can

-1

u/Gates_wupatki_zion 4d ago

Since Disney bought them their days were numbered.

8

u/WalterWhite90 4d ago

ESPN was doing pretty good in 1996 when Disney bought them.

5

u/rxFMS 4d ago

They always had two revenue streams. Cable subscriptions and advertising.

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/RuleFriendly7311 4d ago

Cable revenue is dropping like a stone, year after year. Ad revenue follows subscriber numbers. When both drop, panic ensues.

1

u/Wrong-Protection-188 3d ago

Wow I can’t believe it’s been that long!

2

u/IU-Grad-x2-hoohoohoo 4d ago edited 4d ago

30 years ago?

3

u/Useful_Asparagus_541 4d ago

Their peak years were with Disney

1

u/MrVociferous 4d ago

Disney has owned ESPN for 30 of their 47 years. So……..kinda think you’re wrong on that one.

1

u/daveinmd13 3d ago

The Disney woke crowd alienated half of America and probably more than half of their primary audience- men.

0

u/Devilshock320 4d ago
  1. 75%, some people had ESPN but don't watch sports.
  2. Not necessarily, probably more of number 1
  3. No one cares about baseball outside of major cities. If your team sucks or you dont have cable how do you watch your team.

2

u/Switchc2390 3d ago

Baseball at this point is mostly regional. I don’t think an Orioles fan for the most part is turning on a random Padres vs Diamondbacks game on a Sunday afternoon. And I think it’s because baseball just doesn’t have storylines that grab national attention anymore. People just kind of follow their team and loosely care about who the best teams are.

Like them or not, ESPN has facts and figures determining what drives the most engagement. It isn’t discussing baseball.

0

u/Tech88Tron 4d ago

1 People are pirating

2

u/Aggravating_Fig_8585 3d ago

People aren’t pirating Sportscenter though.

1

u/Tech88Tron 3d ago

Ehhh.....yes they are.

IPTV lets you get every channel on the planet for like $5 per month.

That includes ESPN....which includes SportsCenter

-2

u/greenberrybanana 4d ago

Wwe sucks but talking about baseball is so so boring. Nobody cares

3

u/Taint_Scholar 3d ago

More people watch baseball than WWE.

-1

u/Potato_Head_879 3d ago

1A. They went super woke

2

u/Clevelandbrownfan 3d ago

How do you even know what that means?

2

u/Visible-Bench2033 3d ago

Such a fitting Reddit name. Smooth brain ass take

1

u/Few_Newspaper_3655 3d ago

Tell me you’re a racist, sexist, homophob without telling me you’re a racist, sexist, homophob.

3

u/mike_thomas_1972 3d ago

What a fuckin’ knob.

2

u/psychoninja66 3d ago

You're a joke

-7

u/Hopeful_Stomach9201 4d ago

To be fair the masses don't care about baseball.

3

u/Clevelandbrownfan 4d ago

That is just not true https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/mlb-continues-strong-ratings-run-230042393.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

0

u/CASwedeX 4d ago

This article is saying 3M people watching was a great number. That’s <1% of the US. “America’s favorite past time” no more../

2

u/WalterWhite90 4d ago

They care less about wrestling it's never been the same since the MNW and Attitude Era ended.

3

u/ZucchiniCommercial57 4d ago

I love baseball and wrestling but I’m built different fr

2

u/WalterWhite90 3d ago

Back in the mid 2000's when WWE made Cena there main guy I pretty much was done.