Is Internet Responsible for Sports TV layoffs?

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Keyshawn Johnson let go by ESPN during the summer. 
He's now co-anchor, UNDISPUTED. Photo Credit: online pic.

The June layoffs at ESPN, the giant sports television network are a sign of the times: internet casualties because we are all basketball, baseball and football analysts now, thanks to cellphones. We don’t have to listen to three or four guys in suits on television. We watch the game, comment on the spot and share, and what was shared is re-cycled.

It’s possible the proliferation of podcasts that analyze sports, is partly the reason for the layoffs. Podcasts have two main advantages over on-air commentators that were given the boot.

- Production costs.

- Content.

1. PRODUCTION COSTS

ESPN released names of on-air staff that will be affected, but not the cable guys. Cable guys because of those thick cables they connect to electrical outlets, steel boxes and cameras so that we can see the game and faces of on-air staff. There are about eight or more people behind cameras starting with control room staff, producers, directors of photography (DOP), audio, tech coordinators and all the workers Shannon Sharpe thanked on his last day on UNDISPUTED, the Fox show he co-anchored with Skip Bayless. This is where ESPN intends to cut costs. Podcasts? Mounting a podcast is much cheaper than that. Most podcast guests volunteer their services. They are not paid like former ESPN commentator Jalen Rose, for example.

2. CONTENT

Podcasts are free style, loose, use language television networks pruned so that shows could reach a wider audience. Guests are guys who have nothing to lose, so they divulge secrets that used to reside in agents' laptops, NBA and NFL vaults. Television hosts on the other hand, work within a structure that decides what is in the script, how long it will be, how co-anchors interact with each other and of course, advertising.

Will podcasts also affect shows like The View? Only ad revenue will tell.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

 

 

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