Pope Flick Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I live and breathe sports, especially football, but I'm getting kind of tired of ESPN in general. This whole Tebow thing is just the icing on the cake. Chris Berman annoys me. Skip Bayless sucks. I have to turn off PTI after watching Around the Horn. On top of the on-air annoyances, it sucks that they take credit for breaking stories (like the Pujols signing) when they weren't the ones to break the story. Or, they'll drop one of these on us: "ESPN has confirmed so-and-so". Good for you, ESPN. Really, there are no other options. Fox Sports simply can't keep up. NBC is supposedly coming out with an "all sports, all the time" channel but I have a feeling it will suck. There really, really needs to be a competitor here. I obviously can't turn it off due to my sports obsession, but it sure would be nice to have options. Funny, I grind through Around the Horn but really like PTI. It's kornheiser's best format and how can you not love the blind Chicago homerism of Wilbon? I think the alternative is forming in the twitterverse, blogosphere personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonsoxandy Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I live and breathe sports, especially football, but I'm getting kind of tired of ESPN in general. This whole Tebow thing is just the icing on the cake. Chris Berman annoys me. Skip Bayless sucks. I have to turn off PTI after watching Around the Horn. On top of the on-air annoyances, it sucks that they take credit for breaking stories (like the Pujols signing) when they weren't the ones to break the story. Or, they'll drop one of these on us: "ESPN has confirmed so-and-so". Good for you, ESPN. Really, there are no other options. Fox Sports simply can't keep up. NBC is supposedly coming out with an "all sports, all the time" channel but I have a feeling it will suck. There really, really needs to be a competitor here. I obviously can't turn it off due to my sports obsession, but it sure would be nice to have options. ESPN's shameless self-promotion is just what ESPN has made it's name off of. No chance that they stop taking as much credit as possible for every possible sports news story. Personally I like Around the Horn and PTI. I think it's always entertaining and somewhat informative. No chance anyone even gets close to rivaling ESPN. Maybe a rich billionaire like Mark Cuban or someone along those lines teams up with some smart, competent people and build a competitor, but I highly doubt they will ever have a good reason to do that as long as ESPN treats them nice. It would just take so much money to get to ESPN's level right now. ESPN has fantastic original programming (30 for 30), live NFL games (MNF), NBA and MLB games, the BEST college football pre-game show and best selection of games, NCAAB, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of other stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 NBC is supposedly coming out with an "all sports, all the time" channel but I have a feeling it will suck. There really, really needs to be a competitor here. I obviously can't turn it off due to my sports obsession, but it sure would be nice to have options. I believe NBC bought Versus and they are changing the name to the NBC Sports Network. I have that on my cable package, and they are starting to pick up a lot of games. They play a lot of regional teams around here (Big 12), and some hockey and other stuff. So I could see them starting to make a dent, especially with NBC money behind them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Funny, I grind through Around the Horn but really like PTI. It's kornheiser's best format and how can you not love the blind Chicago homerism of Wilbon? I think the alternative is forming in the twitterverse, blogosphere personally. AtR has started to wear on me a little but I'll still watch it... typically it's "in the background" as I work on the computer. I don't like the fact that Kornheiser and Wilbon have to yell at each other. It just gets annoying. I believe NBC bought Versus and they are changing the name to the NBC Sports Network. I have that on my cable package, and they are starting to pick up a lot of games. They play a lot of regional teams around here (Big 12), and some hockey and other stuff. So I could see them starting to make a dent, especially with NBC money behind them. Ah, I knew NBC had bought Versus but didn't put two and two together. --- And really, how hard would it be to compete with ESPN? At least for the content that I personally want... just show me highlights, talk about the implications of wins and losses, and sprinkle some fantasy content in. I really wish someone would just give it a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Funny, I grind through Around the Horn but really like PTI. It's kornheiser's best format and how can you not love the blind Chicago homerism of Wilbon? Same here, Woody Paige is one of the most annoying sports people out there. I also agree that the magnitude of suckness from ESPN has decreased rapidly over the past couple years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackass Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Funny, I grind through Around the Horn but really like PTI. It's kornheiser's best format and how can you not love the blind Chicago homerism of Wilbon? I think the alternative is forming in the twitterverse, blogosphere personally. +1. Around the horn is totally unwatchable. PTI is one of the few shows i can tolerate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godtomsatan Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 And really, how hard would it be to compete with ESPN? At least for the content that I personally want... just show me highlights, talk about the implications of wins and losses, and sprinkle some fantasy content in. I really wish someone would just give it a go. The NBC Sports Network might be an interesting challenger, because they'll get the full bore support of the corporate machine with familiar enough names and faces on display immediately. They also will be giving a home base to the audiences of the NHL and MLS who won't have to play second fiddle to the NBA on ESPN. There are also a great deal of television package opportunities for collegiate conferences that will continue to come up that also get tired of sucking up to Bristol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevegrab Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 I believe NBC bought Versus and they are changing the name to the NBC Sports Network. I have that on my cable package, and they are starting to pick up a lot of games. They play a lot of regional teams around here (Big 12), and some hockey and other stuff. So I could see them starting to make a dent, especially with NBC money behind them. That is correct. There is talk in some ciricles (speculation mostly) that they will end up getting the Thursday NFL games, or get games for the first half of the season while NFLN continues with the second set. But just yesterday renewal of the big NFL TV contracts (CBS, Fox & NBC) was announced and that inlcuded mention of more Thursday games on NFLN. Also mentioned that Thanksgiving night game will be on NBC, and that NBC will only have 1 wild card game but also get one divisional (2nd) round playoff game. I do not currently get Vs (Dish America's top 200 plan) and would be bummed if NFL games moved there. And if that happens I'd suspect they charge more to the TV providers, which means increases for the consumers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 --- And really, how hard would it be to compete with ESPN? At least for the content that I personally want... just show me highlights, talk about the implications of wins and losses, and sprinkle some fantasy content in. I really wish someone would just give it a go. I pitched a concept to a network and was laughed at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godtomsatan Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 When I turned on Sportscenter last night, they had one of their trained monkeys using its words while the question "Should Tim Tebow get MVP consideration?" languished at the bottom of the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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