ESPN "Red Wedding" today ...

They just fired about 20-30 employees out of 8,000 world-wide employees.

Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Dell have fired about 50,000 employees this year. They aren't declaring bankruptcy.

You just ignored the whole "they have $4 billion in revenues and are profitable" part of my post?
Those 20-30 employees have outsized salaries and probably cost $100M+ in salary. Comparing them to rank-and-file employees or shlubs at Microsoft and Dell doesn't make a lot of sense.

Likewise, citing revenue doesn't mean much. ESPN pays a huge amount in licensing fees and exclusivity deals, such as with the NFL and NBA, that likely make overhead a lot higher than other premium cable TV channels. (For example, the NFL deal costs $2.7B and the NBA deal costs $1.4B annually.) Do you happen to know what ESPN's profits were in 2022?
 
As I said in the rumor thread on here somewhere awhile back when news broke the cuts were coming, it sucks to lose certain ones but its the nature of the beast. They've been doing this awhile now, like a decade to 15 years. Every few years there's a cycle of cuts, everyone talks about how those who were let go were the "soul of ESPN", fans bitch about how ESPN is dying and share their own personal grievances with the network about how they don't watch (yet seem to know a lot about the programming) and ESPN is killing themselves because of all kinds of decisions. And then ESPN just keeps going
 
Those 20-30 employees have outsized salaries and probably cost $100M+ in salary. Comparing them to rank-and-file employees or shlubs at Microsoft and Dell doesn't make a lot of sense.

Likewise, citing revenue doesn't mean much. ESPN pays a huge amount in licensing fees and exclusivity deals, such as with the NFL and NBA, that likely make overhead a lot higher than other premium cable TV channels. (For example, the NFL deal costs $2.7B and the NBA deal costs $1.4B annually.) Do you happen to know what ESPN's profits were in 2022?
You said that the cuts meant they were going bankrupt. They aren't going bankrupt. Firing high paid employees, when they publically have stated that they did so in order not to have to fire the rank and file, is not an indicator they are going bankrupt. They are simply getting the expense side of the ledger adjusted to some degree.

I cited revenue and stated that "they have been reported to be profitable."

2 minutes on Google.



 
Can espn fire Chris Simms even though Chrissy works for nbc? Please?
 
Don't worry guys, we still have Desmond

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LMFAO!!

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Van Gundy and Pollack is just just stupid moves. Pollack is one of the better College Gameday hosts, get rid of Corso and keep him.
Van Gundy is rumored to have been looking to jump to the Mav's staff anyways. This might have been them getting him off the books now knowing he was interested in leaving? Not sure. He wasn't terrible though.
 
You said that the cuts meant they were going bankrupt. They aren't going bankrupt. Firing high paid employees, when they publically have stated that they did so in order not to have to fire the rank and file, is not an indicator they are going bankrupt. They are simply getting the expense side of the ledger adjusted to some degree.

I cited revenue and stated that "they have been reported to be profitable."

2 minutes on Google.



Firing the public facing talent is the first step, the rank and file come second. That's how it always goes. Then there will be some fluff piece about pay cuts for the c-suite, but really will be made up for with incentive based comp.

Business reset 101.
 
I think ESPN just realized no one really gives a fuck who delivers the commentary. They can put anyone anywhere, and viewership will not change.
And with podcasts being a growing industry, anyone looking for opinions on sports can find one that perfectly aligns with their own. no one pays attention to the TV talking heads. Just report the news and highlights, anyone can do that. Except that one dynamite kid. He should never do highlights again.
 
And with podcasts being a growing industry, anyone looking for opinions on sports can find one that perfectly aligns with their own. no one pays attention to the TV talking heads. Just report the news and highlights, anyone can do that. Except that one dynamite kid. He should never do highlights again.
And they basically subletted that to Macafee
 
You said that the cuts meant they were going bankrupt. They aren't going bankrupt. Firing high paid employees, when they publically have stated that they did so in order not to have to fire the rank and file, is not an indicator they are going bankrupt. They are simply getting the expense side of the ledger adjusted to some degree.

I cited revenue and stated that "they have been reported to be profitable."

2 minutes on Google.



The boldened part of your statement would seem to suggest things aren’t going well. On-air talent is something that should be generating income, not merely viewed as a chunk of overhead to be cast off when times need to be lean.

So, did you find what the profits were for ESPN?
 
The boldened part of your statement would seem to suggest things aren’t going well. On-air talent is something that should be generating income, not merely viewed as a chunk of overhead to be cast off when times need to be lean.

So, did you find what the profits were for ESPN?
ESPN saw a Q1 drop in subscriptions of nearly 1M. That's only 1.2% of their customer base, but a trend that isn't just an outlier. ESPN+ is bundled with Disney+ and Hulu, of which those streaming services combined for a $4b loss in the last fiscal year.
There are no two ways around it, income isn't growing as much as costs are and the ESPN content costs are skyrocketing with every TV contract with a league or conference.

Look at Diamond Sports Group for a preview of what ESPN will go through over the next few years. Any cost savings they can get, the sooner the better.
 
Curious if Neil Everett left because he knew what was coming, or heroically left to save someone's spot.
 
Curious if Neil Everett left because he knew what was coming, or heroically left to save someone's spot.


When asked if he was a part of the layoffs, he responded, “It was just time to go. If you jump of the cliff were you pushed or did you jump?”
 
Ray Lewis is still on but they got rid of Suzy Kolber? She was a good MNF host
 
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