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dcawrey
dcawrey
5/12/2017 5:52:56 PM
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Platinum
Re: The flip side
ESPN needs to find a way to cater to customers who prefer streaming. 

Look, ESPN has had streaming for years. The problem I think has been really trying to capitalize on that component of its programming. Live sports is very valuable, so I think they end up figuring this out. 

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Ariella
Ariella
5/11/2017 1:49:31 PM
User Rank
Author
Re: The flip side
< Maybe sporting events don't need to have anything other than the game at hand to build a common bond, but I think there really needs to be more long-term connections between people to get enduring conversations and repeated interactions.> @mhhf1ve but it's also possible that love of the game or loaylty to the same team will serve as the glue that binds together people who don't have much more in common.  Certainly, it's the type of thing some salesmen would make a point of mentioning to score points with potential customers as anything in common makes us more likely to want to do business with a particular person (one of the lessons of the book Pre-suasion and also the book Click).

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mhhf1ve
mhhf1ve
5/11/2017 1:33:39 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
@ariella - Sure, but I'm skeptical of how engaging that actually is. Twitter connects you with semi-random people because it doesn't really know your social graph like Facebook does. Maybe sporting events don't need to have anything other than the game at hand to build a common bond, but I think there really needs to be more long-term connections between people to get enduring conversations and repeated interactions.

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Ariella
Ariella
5/11/2017 12:59:51 PM
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Author
Re: The flip side
@mhhf1ve Don't some sites also run a twitter feed of fans commenting in real time?

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mhhf1ve
mhhf1ve
5/11/2017 11:59:46 AM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
Sports need to adapt to viewers -- that's how we got the 30second shot clock. It was getting too boring to watch teams just dribble around without scoring. Maybe the NBA need to mix up the draft picks more to get teams that are more competitive with each other. I saw an indoor football league that is trying a "crowdsourced" coaching where the audience gets to vote on which plays the teams will run. That seems like the kind of extreme engagement that could keep fans more involved.

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dmendyk
dmendyk
5/11/2017 9:35:16 AM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
The whole sports fatigue issue is a soft variable that also increases the difficulty for ESPN and other distributors. Attention spans are shortening for just about everything, and it's not helping the sports domain that games are expanding to operatic proportions. And really, I don't think there ever was a time when an audience beyond the hard core would watch a significant portion of a game in real time (Super Bowl and the like being the exception). As for the NBA, when one of your most visible advocates trashes the product, you have a problem.

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mhhf1ve
mhhf1ve
5/10/2017 6:41:39 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
I also wonder if the OTT streaming rights are a different license that ESPN doesn't necessarily have the rights to... since they've been sold to Twitter, etc.

ESPN might have to bid more to retain both TV *and* OTT broadcasting rights. 

I wonder how the NBA contract works when there have been so many blow-out games and it looks like it might be a Cavs vs Warriors repeat..? Diehard fans are still watching, but even Charles Barkley is saying he'd rather watch NHL.

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2017/5/9/15592912/charles-barkley-nhl-nba-playoffs-comments-please-like-my-sport

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mhhf1ve
mhhf1ve
5/10/2017 6:37:36 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
The other tricky thing would be to create an OTT app that specifically doesn't allow anyone to "cast" to a TV. That might be a hard sell given that almost every OTHER video streaming app allows and encourages it.

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dmendyk
dmendyk
5/10/2017 6:29:32 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
That's possible -- but you have to wonder how much ESPN would have to charge subscribers to an OTT service to make it worthwhile. It's a lot harder to figure out than just collecting close to $8 a month from the close to 88 million pay-TV subscribers who now fund ESPN whether they watch it or not.

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mhhf1ve
mhhf1ve
5/10/2017 5:58:16 PM
User Rank
Platinum
Re: The flip side
> "The threat (or promise) of moving to a stand-alone OTT service is somewhat empty."

I think the beauty of an OTT service is that it doesn't have to be stand-alone -- it could be run in parallel with much of the same benefit. The audiences for mobile OTT sports and traditional sit-on-the-couch TV might not overlap that much, so if ESPN started an OTT service that targeted its audience and left the couch potatoes alone, I think it wouldn't cannibalize the corded audience that much. 

I think Disney has just been sitting on its laurels and raking in "bundled" ESPN profits for too long that it didn't anticipate that when cord-cutters cut -- they will do so drastically. 

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