The Sports Media Thread

[Red Wolf]

9 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

 

I think it's absurd that I bought a $30 Roku for ESPN+, but I'm glad I did. ESPN's MLS access is really awesome and I'm glad to have it for the home stretch. That it's the only way to watch Ronaldo now is a bonus.

 

Xbox One has an HDMI in so you can access the Roku from the Xbox. Not sure if PS4 has something similar.

No, PS4 doesn't have one of those. I really don't want to buy another streaming thing. I've got the PS4 and an older Apple TV. Apparently newer Apple TVs have the app, so maybe I just need to suck it up and spend some money, but it's just really annoying. Maybe I'll go out and get an Amazon Fire TV so I have ESPN+ and NJPW World. 

 

Dumb story, I once hooked a PS4 through the Xbox's HDMI at a friend's house. The input lag makes it impossible to play anything, but I thought it was neat. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

That ESPN doesn't have Xbox and PS4 apps right now is so dumb and unnecessarily annoying. Especially since the updated ESPN+ app on Roku at least is essentially the same thing as the old WatchESPN app on Xbox that's functionally worthless now. 

[Digby]

Genuinely curious how much the hardware ecosystem has fractured in the OTT streaming era. I confess I never would've thought having to support X number of gaming systems would be a big deal until this thread! I'm also old-fashioned and stream all my supports on a desktop or laptop computer.

[Red Wolf]

7 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

That ESPN doesn't have Xbox and PS4 apps right now is so dumb and unnecessarily annoying. Especially since the updated ESPN+ app on Roku at least is essentially the same thing as the old WatchESPN app on Xbox that's functionally worthless now. 

Heck, the old mobile ESPN apps were just updated with Plus support rather than getting a whole new one. It's absolutely baffling.

 

I just put in an order for an Amazon Fire TV because of course I did. They currently have the one with 4K support on sale for the same price as the stick, so I may as well have done that. 

 

9 minutes ago, Digby said:

Genuinely curious how much the hardware ecosystem has fractured in the OTT streaming era. I confess I never would've thought having to support X number of gaming systems would be a big deal until this thread! I'm also old-fashioned and stream all my supports on a desktop or laptop computer.

This is an interesting question. One thing I found odd as an Apple TV user was how different the apps on it were compared to other devices. I assume this is because of Apple's more closed system nature. For instance, the Netflix and Hulu apps on Apple were virtually identical in their presentation. Whereas on any other devices, Netflix and Hulu look very different from each other. 

[Digby]

Anyone here subscribing to the Athletic? Is it worth it? Seems like some of their national coverage of soccer might be good but I'm not finding any other compelling reasons to subscribe to it. I guess I am lucky to live in the reach of Boston sports media (...) which is saturated enough that the Athletic doesn't really offer a compelling local-level competitor. That and my Boston Globe subscription is unbelievably expensive so, much as I love to support the local media at this point in time, that's also taking up my media-support budget.

[dfwabel]

8 minutes ago, Digby said:

Anyone here subscribing to the Athletic? Is it worth it? Seems like some of their national coverage of soccer might be good but I'm not finding any other compelling reasons to subscribe to it. I guess I am lucky to live in the reach of Boston sports media (...) which is saturated enough that the Athletic doesn't really offer a compelling local-level competitor. That and my Boston Globe subscription is unbelievably expensive so, much as I love to support the local media at this point in time, that's also taking up my media-support budget.

The Athletic is easily worth it when you use a discount code and pay the year in full.  You often get 30- 40% off, so it averages to $2.99-3.49/month. There were some 40% discount links with the several NCAA page launches earlier this month and 30% off for some of the launches this week, like the Tampa Bay edition. You wouldn't be locked into that area's teams as you set your alerts, but the more teams you set, the bombarding of new stories will be sent.

[dfwabel]

With Russillo's contract with ESPN done, he'll now podcast with Simmons.

https://www.thewrap.com/ryen-russillo-joins-bill-simmons-the-ringer-podcast-network-to-launch-new-football-series/

[DG_ThenNowForever]

ESPN has a new Bottom Line with the great innovation of allowing ads in the lower right. This is great, because when they're bright red, they completely stand out and make it difficult to concentrate on the game. For me at least -- is this a problem for anyone else?

[BBTV]

On 8/22/2018 at 1:02 PM, Digby said:

Genuinely curious how much the hardware ecosystem has fractured in the OTT streaming era. I confess I never would've thought having to support X number of gaming systems would be a big deal until this thread! I'm also old-fashioned and stream all my supports on a desktop or laptop computer.

 

If "streaming" TV from a desktop or laptop is considered "old-fashioned", I must be prehistoric.  I used to wiggle rabbit ears around and/or rotate a rooftop antenna so I could pick up channel 9 (I think it was 9) in NY to watch a Flyers home game vs the Rangers since home games were on pay TV.

[dfwabel]

Beadle leaving "Get Up!", moving back to L.A. and will return to NBA Countdown.

 

https://thebiglead.com/2018/08/24/michelle-beadle-get-up-maria-taylor-mina-kimes/

 

Her, "I don't watch the NFL or college on Saturdays", this week had to play a role.

[Red Wolf]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

ESPN has a new Bottom Line with the great innovation of allowing ads in the lower right. This is great, because when they're bright red, they completely stand out and make it difficult to concentrate on the game. For me at least -- is this a problem for anyone else?

That hasn't distracted me as much as the fact that the damn thing is bigger than the old one.

 

I got my Fire today. I'm exploiting my ability to properly watch ESPN+ on my TV by watching women's college soccer. Not so much because I want to, but because now I can.

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, dfwabel said:

Beadle leaving "Get Up!", moving back to L.A. and will return to NBA Countdown.

 

https://thebiglead.com/2018/08/24/michelle-beadle-get-up-maria-taylor-mina-kimes/

 

Her, "I don't watch the NFL or college on Saturdays", this week had to play a role.

 

Good for her for sticking to her principles regarding a league that has no regard for human life -- in the bad way, not the Kevin Harlan calling a dunk way -- but if you've had that sinking feeling that the members of your media do not want to speak to you so much as they want to speak to themselves, well, it's probably sinking a little more, isn't it?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

12 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

Good for her for sticking to her principles regarding a league that has no regard for human life -- in the bad way, not the Kevin Harlan calling a dunk way -- but if you've had that sinking feeling that the members of your media do not want to speak to you so much as they want to speak to themselves, well, it's probably sinking a little more, isn't it? 

 

Brother, that's the truth.

[The_Admiral]

Show's also being cut by an hour to do more SportsCenter and less Cold Pizza 2: Colder Pizza. It's probably all back to SportsCenter by Christmas, right?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

The word on Get Up is that you weren't supposed to judge its success until football season. Well, it's not football season yet, but its host opted out of the whole sport.

 

That said, I'm not really sure the point of much of any ESPN programming. As we all know, ESPN daytime programming exists for waiting rooms and airport bars. Anything else you used to need from ESPN can be found on Twitter.

 

If I were in charge of ESPN, I would run nothing but NFL Films and World's Strongest Man competitions all day long. We've already learned that sports talk is better on podcasts and outside of pregame shows, I just can't see the value in studio programming.

 

SportsCenter has tried so many times to reinvent itself over the past five years and nothing has worked. Unless you get Jay Leno to host and bring in Kevin Eubanks while you're at it, I think it's time to move on.

[The_Admiral]

ESPN needs to see its daytime programming as again being the media backwater it was for the first 20-25 years and fill those hours as cheaply as possible. A whole morning of SportsCenter isn't necessary anymore, but at least you can do it on a shoestring budget. They're paying vanilla-soft-serve-in-a-safety-cone Mike Greenberg like $6,500,000 and renting studio space in Manhattan for a show that no wants wants to watch, one host doesn't want to do, and is just as redundant to the sports media landscape as the boom-goes-the-dynamite stuff they keep trying to replace. This is going to end with Mike Greenberg getting promoted to an all-new ninth hour of Good Morning America and Jalen Rose listening to Bill Simmons talk about the time his buddy Mohawk Charlie tried to make a snow angel in a semester's worth of discarded beer cans, all while blinking SOS in Morse code.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Show's also being cut by an hour to do more SportsCenter and less Cold Pizza 2: Colder Pizza. It's probably all back to SportsCenter by Christmas, right?

They've got to ride with this through the Super Bowl at the earliest, Final Four/Opening Day seems more likely to pull the plug as they could get out before The Masters.

 

 

 

Oh, and the Big Ten and Comcast come to an agreement a week before football season.

https://www.cleveland.com/osu/2018/08/btn_reaches_agreement_with_com.html

[JayMac]

12 hours ago, DG_Now said:

ESPN has a new Bottom Line with the great innovation of allowing ads in the lower right. This is great, because when they're bright red, they completely stand out and make it difficult to concentrate on the game. For me at least -- is this a problem for anyone else?

I just saw it today and I was completely underwhelmed. No more team colors or logos? Bad choice. It seems distracting to me too. I couldn't put my finger on it but maybe it is for the same reason in which you gave.

[BBTV]

Does anyone besides college kids watch daytime ESPN?  I tried once on a PTO day, and wanted to throw myself out a window once I realized I couldn't find the remote to change it.  It's literally all the same.  Every single show is the same, they just repeat each other.  I can't even tell you the names of the shows or the hosts, because the just seem like the same.  

 

I kinda think that watching sports discussion on TV is ridiculous because people treat it like it's real news, and we treat some of these guys like they're real journalists, when it's literally nothing more than an entertainment show, though I have to say that I do enjoy PTI and the show that comes before it, somewhat (though I want to punch Woody Hayes repeatedly until my fist is actually going through his face and hitting either the wall behind him or the floor if I'm standing over him, and then I'll rip his lips off because they annoy me.)

 

[dfwabel]

52 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Does anyone besides college kids watch daytime ESPN?  I tried once on a PTO day, and wanted to throw myself out a window once I realized I couldn't find the remote to change it.  It's literally all the same.  Every single show is the same, they just repeat each other.  I can't even tell you the names of the shows or the hosts, because the just seem like the same.  

 

I kinda think that watching sports discussion on TV is ridiculous because people treat it like it's real news, and we treat some of these guys like they're real journalists, when it's literally nothing more than an entertainment show, though I have to say that I do enjoy PTI and the show that comes before it, somewhat (though I want to punch Woody Hayes repeatedly until my fist is actually going through his face and hitting either the wall behind him or the floor if I'm standing over him, and then I'll rip his lips off because they annoy me.)

 

¿Highly Questionable? is the best!!!

Papi LeBatard is the star of it and can say nearly everything  which those who hate ESPN would want to say. I love him. Many hate him because of his accent t that's very, very unfortunate.

 

$hit, Papi got me a gig in 2013 as during a group interview, HQ was on at the lunch the six of us were at. One girl was from Miami and knew the show. I got the 18 month assignment and we traded Papísms all the time.

 

There are now four shows basically owned by Erik Rydholm. PTI and Around The Horn are his. High Noon and HQ are too. Deuce & Mero is his too and of that was on ESPN, it would've been gold.

Edited August 25, 2018 by dfwabel