For the longest time I’ve been a huge fan of ESPN. I even love their old school 80s logo. I love their enthusiasm and it really looks like everyone on the channel loves to work there. And those Sportscenter commercials are the best.
But perhaps writing Weakonomics and my business education has jaded me. Now all I can see is the business side of ESPN. If you want to continue with the fantasy, best not to keep reading.
ESPN is a subsidiary of Disney. Disney, despite all the magic, is a for-profit company. ESPN has always sought a profit from operations too, and I don’t judge anyone that does that. I do that. But I do always look at the motivations behind a for-profit company’s actions. So whenever I see ESPN pimping some sporting event, I always check to see one thing: is it airing on an ESPN network. If it is, I don’t really pay attention to what the people on TV are saying. Because I know they’re just pimping an event that’s airing later on their channel. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this, we see promotions all the time on channels. But when it’s done behind a veil of journalism, I just can’t pay attention to them anymore.
For over a month, ESPN couldn’t stop pimping all the bowl games that were going to appear on their networks. The biggest bowl game, the BCS championship, aired last night. Every morning I’ll watch Sportscenter (their recap of highlights from sporting events from the previous night) and aside from the news and events from the night before, they talk about this game. Often at the expense of other events. The BCS championship should get coverage; after all, this is the Super Bowl of college football. But would they have given this game so much attention if it hadn’t been airing on ESPN or the sister network ABC?
I’m skeptical. And that’s because I casually observed much less coverage of bowl games that weren’t airing on ESPN. But since ESPN bought the rights to most of the bowl games, this would be difficult to measure. The only major bowl game ESPN/Disney didn’t own was the Cotton Bowl. But I remember lots of coverage for a game few people would care about (Middle Tennessee and Miami, OH) which aired the day before the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl was a big matchup, of good teams. But airing on Fox, I don’t recall much of any coverage from ESPN prior to the game.
But what bothers me the most about the coverage of games they do air is having what seems like every washed up athlete and retired coach take a guess at the final score. These people are no better at predicting the final score than a Gluskin Sheff economist is at predicting GDP (sorry for the cheap shot Dave). Some people predicted scores in the 40s. One guy referred to his estimate as low, 34-31. As it turns out, the final score was 22-19. But they want you to think the game will be high scoring. High scoring games are more fun to watch. It’s much more interesting to watch the score change than it is to watch the punter.
Maybe I’m just being a sports snob. Maybe there’s nothing else to talk about today. But I’d bet that while the Super Bowl will get plenty of coverage, it won’t get nearly as much if it were airing on a Disney network. For the record it’s on Fox.
I don’t blame ESPN for doing this, it no doubt increases viewership. I watched Auburn and Oregon go at it last night, and it was a good game. And then I watched Sportscenter again this morning. But I wouldn’t normally care about either of these teams. The cheerleading works I guess.
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice. |
