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I figure that the NFL and NBA will eventually be the only broadcast outlet for their games. MLB has a bit of a different setup (local team contract with local

I figure that the NFL and NBA will eventually be the only broadcast outlet for their games. MLB has a bit of a different setup (local team contract with local provider and then national contract), but I would bet the national contract will go away. The MLB is already doing well with the national contract getting in the way of a great viewing experience[1]. Apple is probably right that the future of TV is apps. I would expect college conferences / NCAA to unite and do the the TV as some point. I see ESPN (or their replacement) as basically Netflix for sports that cannot build an infrastructure that allows for subscriptions. Although, the MLB has done service for others and might just do it for other sports. I would say some of the value of the commentary on ABC / ESPN is diminished by their talk of politics. It has become something of a joke about what Bob Costas will lecture us on this week. People go to sports to escape and be with friends, and not be lectured to. Looking at the feeds I follow this is a bit of the loss of people. 1) I do love them having multiple separate streams per game (Home Audio, Away Audio, Home Video, Away Video plus alternate language for some things). The bitching my parents do when the game is on ESPN or Fox is pretty heavy because of the degraded viewing experience and inconvenience of it. Plus when they aren't showing the game and my dad has to revert to internet radio generates some commentary.

jonknee 10y ago
> I would say some of the value of the commentary on ABC / ESPN is diminished by their talk of politics. It has become something of a joke about what Bob Costas will lecture us on this week. People go to sports to escape and be with friends, and not be lectured to. Looking at the feeds I follow this is a bit of the loss of people. Bob Costas works for NBC and is never on ABC or ESPN...
- protomyth 10y ago
  He does NBC for the Olympics (edit: got that wrong he does the other football games on NBC) oops, I suppose I can just point to some of the other commentators.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    You should update his Wikipedia entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Costas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Costas
  - jonknee 10y ago
    No, he is a host of NBC's Sunday Night Football. Also on MLB network. He is not on ABC or ESPN.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
chiefalchemist 10y ago
Those are all traditional sports. Sports that are getting less and less participants at the youth level. ESPNs focus is dated. The fact that there are options to watch other things only compounds their rust. All in all, this isn't really a surprise.
- formula1 10y ago
  The rise in esports and computer games doesnt necessarilly dictate the losing in popularity of conventional sports. ESPNs statistics can just as easily (with more evidence) be correllated by their focus on drama in sports. Ive seen numerous complaints about espns love of the kardashians or other non-sport related aspects. I dont think the tech industry or a rise in videogames is necessarilly a driver in popular culture. Sports stars are viewed as heroes and often are the subject of jealousy and interest while success in videogames Is associated to a sacrifice of health and looks. There also is fun/humorous cultish mentality related to sports. Instead its viewed as depressing to the point of mental illness. In sports, celebrating your team in a big way is celebrated in a way everyone can get involved. There is still a lot of good reasons why sports will not die and a lot of reasons why espn has activily repulsed its audience
  - qmalzp 10y ago
    In addition to esports, I think there's just been a growth of more niche non-traditional pastimes due to technology allowing people with those interests to connect. An example I'm most familiar with is skateboarding. It's something I've followed since about 2000, and it's amazing how much it has grown in popularity over the last 10, much less 20 years. It's going to be in the Olympics in 2020! I think a large part of this growth is explained by how technology has enabled distribution. In the 90's, if you wanted to watch a skate video or see the state of the art of what pros were doing, you either saw the few photos which made it into a monthly magazine, or hoped the nearest skate shop got the latest videos (and by the way, the nearest skate shop might be hours away if you don't live near a major city, esp. outside the US). Nowadays, you follow your favorite pros on Instagram or Snapchat and you can literally see what they did that day. "Team" videos are largely a thing of the past, as a single rider can finish filming whenever he feels like it, and distribute his footage via iTunes for $3.99. You can imagine something like this would be economically infeasible in the days of VHS/DVD. Going back, I suspect my friends and I in the rural midwest would have lost interest if we hadn't been able to download hundreds of videos off Napster/Kazaa in the early 00's :)
steve-howard 10y ago
Yep, the one thing everybody hates in baseball is the national broadcast. Interviews during the game, commentators getting lost in the stories they're trying to tell while important things are happening on the field, generally a lower emphasis on the actual sports. ESPN's in an interesting position right now because of slim cable packages. If I could get the Big Ten Network on Sling, I'd have very little use for "real" cable. And I don't have to pay for Sling year round if I don't want to use it outside football season.

jonknee 10y ago

> I would say some of the value of the commentary on ABC / ESPN is diminished by their talk of politics. It has become something of a joke about what Bob Costas will lecture us on this week. People go to sports to escape and be with friends, and not be lectured to. Looking at the feeds I follow this is a bit of the loss of people. Bob Costas works for NBC and is never on ABC or ESPN...

protomyth 10y ago
He does NBC for the Olympics (edit: got that wrong he does the other football games on NBC) oops, I suppose I can just point to some of the other commentators.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  You should update his Wikipedia entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Costas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Costas
- jonknee 10y ago
  No, he is a host of NBC's Sunday Night Football. Also on MLB network. He is not on ABC or ESPN.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

chiefalchemist 10y ago

Those are all traditional sports. Sports that are getting less and less participants at the youth level. ESPNs focus is dated. The fact that there are options to watch other things only compounds their rust. All in all, this isn't really a surprise.

formula1 10y ago
The rise in esports and computer games doesnt necessarilly dictate the losing in popularity of conventional sports. ESPNs statistics can just as easily (with more evidence) be correllated by their focus on drama in sports. Ive seen numerous complaints about espns love of the kardashians or other non-sport related aspects. I dont think the tech industry or a rise in videogames is necessarilly a driver in popular culture. Sports stars are viewed as heroes and often are the subject of jealousy and interest while success in videogames Is associated to a sacrifice of health and looks. There also is fun/humorous cultish mentality related to sports. Instead its viewed as depressing to the point of mental illness. In sports, celebrating your team in a big way is celebrated in a way everyone can get involved. There is still a lot of good reasons why sports will not die and a lot of reasons why espn has activily repulsed its audience
- qmalzp 10y ago
  In addition to esports, I think there's just been a growth of more niche non-traditional pastimes due to technology allowing people with those interests to connect. An example I'm most familiar with is skateboarding. It's something I've followed since about 2000, and it's amazing how much it has grown in popularity over the last 10, much less 20 years. It's going to be in the Olympics in 2020! I think a large part of this growth is explained by how technology has enabled distribution. In the 90's, if you wanted to watch a skate video or see the state of the art of what pros were doing, you either saw the few photos which made it into a monthly magazine, or hoped the nearest skate shop got the latest videos (and by the way, the nearest skate shop might be hours away if you don't live near a major city, esp. outside the US). Nowadays, you follow your favorite pros on Instagram or Snapchat and you can literally see what they did that day. "Team" videos are largely a thing of the past, as a single rider can finish filming whenever he feels like it, and distribute his footage via iTunes for $3.99. You can imagine something like this would be economically infeasible in the days of VHS/DVD. Going back, I suspect my friends and I in the rural midwest would have lost interest if we hadn't been able to download hundreds of videos off Napster/Kazaa in the early 00's :)

steve-howard 10y ago

Yep, the one thing everybody hates in baseball is the national broadcast. Interviews during the game, commentators getting lost in the stories they're trying to tell while important things are happening on the field, generally a lower emphasis on the actual sports. ESPN's in an interesting position right now because of slim cable packages. If I could get the Big Ten Network on Sling, I'd have very little use for "real" cable. And I don't have to pay for Sling year round if I don't want to use it outside football season.