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ESPN will fire between 200 to 300 employees in the next few months as its parent company Disney downsizes.
 
The Big Lead reports that sources inside and outside of ESPN acknowledged the coming layoffs, the first instituted by ESPN since 2013, resulted from Disney’s order to cut $100 million from the 2016 budget and $250 million in 2017. ESPN released a statement reading: “ESPN has historically embraced evolving technology to smartly navigate our business. Any organizational changes will be announced directly to our employees if and when appropriate.”
 
Because numerous consumers have eschewed buying cable TV and watch ESPN online, ESPN started cutting costs, including losing Bill Simmons, Colin Cowherd, and Keith Olbermann.
 
The Wall Street Journal reported that ESPN lost 3.2 million subscribers in a little more than one year; the network’s NBA annual fees will grow from $485 million per year to $1.47 billion by the 2016-17 season, when ESPN’s new contract with the NBA is implemented. Of the major cable channels, only the Weather Channel lost a higher percentage of subscribers between 2011 and 2015.
 
The Journal also reported that Disney relied on ESPN for 25% of the company’s operating profit in 2015, according to Nomura Securities. SNL Kagan reported that ESPN earns the most carriage fees of any TV channel, roughly $6.61 a month per subscriber.
 
http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2015/09/...employees/

I remember reading a few years back that ESPN was ripe for the picking as far as competition was concerned. Thing was, at the time they were the only game in town. Seems like that's not the case any longer.

I think that and the fact people are using hulu, netflix,VUDU, ROKU, etc, People are dropping cable and direct tv because they don't want over 100 channels that they mostly don't watch for a premium price. Those new products you get what you want for less.

Quote:I remember reading a few years back that ESPN was ripe for the picking as far as competition was concerned. Thing was, at the time they were the only game in town. Seems like that's not the case any longer.

 

Seems like FS1 is a dud.  I watch it occasionally for mma, but that's about it.

Well they won't have a shortage of talking heads to choose from.

wait , espn is owned by Disney ? I never knew that.

 

 

no wunder they mickey mouse

Good god that is alot of money to pay for the NBA

Sounds like old Bob & Bob from Office Space came in for some "restructuring." When you do something, you need to ask yourself: Is this good for the company?

Quote:wait , espn is owned by Disney ? I never knew that.

 

 

no wunder they mickey mouse

Disney owns a whole lot. The amount of companies and organizations they've acquired is pretty mind boggling.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_as..._by_Disney

I hope they get the guy who dropped us in the power ranking and somehow moved Miami up.

Quote:Sounds like old Bob & Bob from Office Space came in for some "restructuring." When you do something, you need to ask yourself: Is this good for the company?

 

Also, Friday is Hawaiian shirt day. So wear a Hawaiian shirt.

Not to get too political in this forum but I find it ironic that a liberally owned company would be cutting people in the name of profit.

If they were a privately owned company I would agree about the irony but they're a publicly traded company so everything they do is about maximizing profits for shareholders, liberal or not.  

Hopefully that chick that got her car towed and had a meltdown calling the tow company workers pathetic losers is the 1st to go.

ESPN isn't alone in their struggles.  Many cable networks are facing the same problem with more people cutting the cable and going to online streaming resources.  Even the major networks are seeing steep declines in their ratings for the same reason.  It'll be interesting to see how that impacts future television contracts for the major sports leagues because the decline is pretty striking.

Quote:ESPN isn't alone in their struggles.  Many cable networks are facing the same problem with more people cutting the cable and going to online streaming resources.  Even the major networks are seeing steep declines in their ratings for the same reason.  It'll be interesting to see how that impacts future television contracts for the major sports leagues because the decline is pretty striking.

 

Sports (football in particular) is the only reason I still have DirecTV. I could easily live without the few series I watch (and wait for them to show up on Netflix in a few years).

I wouldnt even have espn if comcast didnt offer me less for the cable+internet package ($62 for 12 months) than they did for the internet alone ($69).  There is rarely anything I want to watch on espn anyways since I don't watch any college ball, and I can see the rays on mlbtv.

Quote:Hopefully that chick that got her car towed and had a meltdown calling the tow company workers pathetic losers is the 1st to go.

 

She too purdy to fire.

I need every channel --- we have 6 tvs and every single channel under the sun.   I love TV !!!  

 

Also, if anyone wants pretty decent worldwide news, the BBC channel is pretty good.

Personally, I wish they could fire Colin Cowherd a few more times just for good measure.

 

Olberman's hardly a loss, either.