I agree. Most sports talk is so bad. But I was talking about live sports. In particular, college football. I work on Saturday so I tried to listen to a lot of games. There was a college football radio app that worked about 50% of the time. The other 50%, I would be listening to a station that was advertising the game. But right before the opening kickoff, a message would come on. 'we are not authorized to broadcast this game....blah, blah blah....drove me crazy. I always thought ESPN was behind that, but I wasn't sure. Nobody ever talked much about it. Anyway, that was what it was like for a long time....but I recently found TuneIn radio premium, so it's all good. But yeah, I always thought ESPN f-----d that up.
AS ESPN GOT MORE POLITICAL IN 2016, IT LOST REPUBLICAN VIEWERS
Deep Root Analytics specializes in local television measurement by segmenting the population into political, advocacy and commercial groups and matching those segments into observed TV viewership data via set-top boxes and smart TV data. This allows Deep Root to produce customized ratings and indices for every program and daypart on broadcast and cable TV – including data on ESPN’s viewership among loyal Democrats and Republicans.
We analyzed viewership data in a large media market in a swing state (Cincinnati, OH) for the entirety of 2015 and 2016. Also, to control for any changes in partisan identification between 2015 and 2016, Deep Root Analytics analyzed viewership among the same audiences across both years.
In our analysis, a clear trend emerges: ESPN’s viewership in this key swing state market became less Republican during 2016.
Specifically, in 2015, the ESPN audience on average skewed Republican across all dayparts, ranging from 12% more Republican (Early News, Late Fringe, Overnight) to 21% more Republican than Democratic (Early Morning).
In 2016, every daypart on ESPN became less conservative, with Daytime being only 2% more Republican than Democratic, while Late Fringe and Overnight programming became 10% and 12% more Democratic than Republican – a 22 and 28 point shift, respectively.
The same is true across other ESPN properties. ESPN2 skewed Republican across most dayparts in 2015; in 2016 all dayparts skewed Democratic. Every daypart also switched on ESPN News from 2015 to 2016.
Deep Root Analytics specializes in local television measurement by segmenting the population into political, advocacy and commercial groups and matching those segments into observed TV viewership data via set-top boxes and smart TV data. This allows Deep Root to produce customized ratings and indices for every program and daypart on broadcast and cable TV – including data on ESPN’s viewership among loyal Democrats and Republicans.
We analyzed viewership data in a large media market in a swing state (Cincinnati, OH) for the entirety of 2015 and 2016. Also, to control for any changes in partisan identification between 2015 and 2016, Deep Root Analytics analyzed viewership among the same audiences across both years.
In our analysis, a clear trend emerges: ESPN’s viewership in this key swing state market became less Republican during 2016.
Specifically, in 2015, the ESPN audience on average skewed Republican across all dayparts, ranging from 12% more Republican (Early News, Late Fringe, Overnight) to 21% more Republican than Democratic (Early Morning).
In 2016, every daypart on ESPN became less conservative, with Daytime being only 2% more Republican than Democratic, while Late Fringe and Overnight programming became 10% and 12% more Democratic than Republican – a 22 and 28 point shift, respectively.
The same is true across other ESPN properties. ESPN2 skewed Republican across most dayparts in 2015; in 2016 all dayparts skewed Democratic. Every daypart also switched on ESPN News from 2015 to 2016.
if that is true, they are bigger idiots than could be imagined... lol,,
the real joke, is that (ive said this 100 times) I beleive they are purposefully tanking the site, to renig on their NFL contracts,, and others,,, were their viewers leaving for the last 8 years?? YESSSSS
did they continue to push anti man agenda, YESSSSS
and show more wnba grossness,,, yesssss,,,
a Straight man, can go NOWHERE to be a straight man,, I hav to fukn feel godam guilty cause I like big tiddys, and dont like 6,5 moustache lesbos,, and I ahve to feel guilty about waking up in the morning,, fuk espn, fk liberals,,,
everything snaps,,,, im 47, ive seen it happen a few times in my life, seems hard to believe that we wont see a pro male wave coming soon,,,
anyway,,, fk you espn,,
They will continue to lose subscribers but it is tough to say what exactly will happen. Could be 5 mill, 7 mill, 10 mill....
I doubt Comcast/Time Warner/etc just take it up the ass over the next 5 years. Probably will have reduced packages, more customization with plans, maybe an internet-only viewing plan.
Tough to predict. Even for live sports, ratings will continue to go down though. I think once the current generation of NFL/NBA stars retire that those sports will veer more into the baseball direction. Where the best players are basically like Mike Trout/Bryce Harper/Ovenchicken and everyone acknowledges they are really good, but they don't exactly evoke the polarization that past stars used to. Derek Jeter/ARod were probably the last baseball stars like this, Peyton/Kobe/Brady/LeBron are probably the last NFL/NBA stars like this. Certainly Mayweather in boxing. NFL will be a little immune but you get the idea. "Casual fans" will be less and less.
Everything just gonna be more niche. Probably how the gambling gets legalized.
That’s a good question Harry. I’m sure there is a natural element of “they don’t like us anyway, so who cares what they think?” to this. However, it is clear Skipper is a liberal (in this profile he “loves to talk about race” ) and so Skipper has moved ESPN leftward since 2012 because that’s where he wants ESPN to be, not because he thought it would help the company.
It seems that whenever you find out someone’s politics in a non-political setting, it always turns out the person is left wing. For example, I have no idea what Stewart Scott’s politics were nor do I know where Linda Cohn stands politically. But I know where Kornheiser, Skipper, SaS, Jemele, Beadle, etc, stand.
This article points out how ESPN is "reinventing" and note the graphic on the viewership for Sports Center (overall 4% decline, but big drop at 6 PM).
ESPN is now rethinking SportsCenter, focusing it around personalities and discussion—not at the cost of highlights and scores, necessarily, but what was traditionally a highlights show is now looking more like a variety show. In addition to heavily promoting the midnight SportsCenter with Van Pelt, in February it gave the 6pm SportsCenter slot to Jemele Hill and Michael Smith, previously the co-hosts of the talk show “His and Hers.” ESPN says SC6 is finding a diverse audience: 41% black, and its reach among black viewers ages 18-34 has increased 15% year over year since Hill and Smith took over.
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ESPN has basically gutted its baseball programming, and instead will farm it out to MLB
ESPN is now rethinking SportsCenter, focusing it around personalities and discussion—not at the cost of highlights and scores, necessarily, but what was traditionally a highlights show is now looking more like a variety show. In addition to heavily promoting the midnight SportsCenter with Van Pelt, in February it gave the 6pm SportsCenter slot to Jemele Hill and Michael Smith, previously the co-hosts of the talk show “His and Hers.” ESPN says SC6 is finding a diverse audience: 41% black, and its reach among black viewers ages 18-34 has increased 15% year over year since Hill and Smith took over.
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ESPN has basically gutted its baseball programming, and instead will farm it out to MLB
Conservatives seem to be turning away from ESPN
Last week, when news broke that ESPN was laying off around 100 employees, some prominent conservative voices on Twitter connected the network's present woes with a supposed liberal bent.
This characterization isn't new. Last January, for example, ESPN broadcast a tribute to President Barack Obama on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Breitbart News used the moment to remind its readers that the network is "obscenely biased and liberal."
While ESPN has been losing subscribers in recent years, experts tend to blame this decline on the increase in cable unbundling and cord-cutting. Indeed, according to data from YouGov, a quarter of current ESPN customers say they're considering cancelling their cable subscription at some point in the future.
At the same time, however, there is some truth to the idea that conservatives have grown cold to the sports network. YouGov numbers show that ESPN impression scores among Republicans have dropped from around 32 in 2013 to just above 16 in 2017. Democrats, meanwhile, have kept a relatively stable view of the network during the same period.
A look at past events reveals what likely led to some of the more noticeable drops. In July, 2015, for instance, Caitlyn Jenner won the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards. (While the 2015 ESPYs aired on ESPN sister network ABC, the award show has traditionally been broadcast on ESPN and is still linked with the sports network.) In April, 2016, ESPN fired former All-Star pitcher and on-air baseball analyst Curt Schilling for posting controversial content about transgender people on social media.
In both cases, Republican sentiment toward ESPN declined.
Whether ESPN's programming has become more liberal in recent years or not is beside the point; the figures suggest that enough Republicans believe it has, and this belief has ostensibly contributed to their diminished view of the sports network.
Last week, when news broke that ESPN was laying off around 100 employees, some prominent conservative voices on Twitter connected the network's present woes with a supposed liberal bent.
This characterization isn't new. Last January, for example, ESPN broadcast a tribute to President Barack Obama on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Breitbart News used the moment to remind its readers that the network is "obscenely biased and liberal."
While ESPN has been losing subscribers in recent years, experts tend to blame this decline on the increase in cable unbundling and cord-cutting. Indeed, according to data from YouGov, a quarter of current ESPN customers say they're considering cancelling their cable subscription at some point in the future.
At the same time, however, there is some truth to the idea that conservatives have grown cold to the sports network. YouGov numbers show that ESPN impression scores among Republicans have dropped from around 32 in 2013 to just above 16 in 2017. Democrats, meanwhile, have kept a relatively stable view of the network during the same period.
A look at past events reveals what likely led to some of the more noticeable drops. In July, 2015, for instance, Caitlyn Jenner won the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards. (While the 2015 ESPYs aired on ESPN sister network ABC, the award show has traditionally been broadcast on ESPN and is still linked with the sports network.) In April, 2016, ESPN fired former All-Star pitcher and on-air baseball analyst Curt Schilling for posting controversial content about transgender people on social media.
In both cases, Republican sentiment toward ESPN declined.
Whether ESPN's programming has become more liberal in recent years or not is beside the point; the figures suggest that enough Republicans believe it has, and this belief has ostensibly contributed to their diminished view of the sports network.
