The Layoff Beard

Extended Thought ▪ Where’s ESPN’s Competition?

By Matt Sussman | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

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First, there was CNN. And it was good. Good, but not great. But then Fox News and MSNBC came along and got their fair shares of the pie. And the competition made those cable news stations beacons of amazing programming in the eyes of the public.

Ick. Bad example.

But competition is good for television, and ESPN just doesn’t seem to have it. Fox Sports, Versus, and sport-specific channels are all that wage Nielsenesque wars on the Worldwide Leader In Sports. There’s just no broadcast channel or channels, unless draw battle lines between “Tiger and the field,” so to speak.

That’s not to say ESPN is untouchable. Their magazine and their website both have serious competitors and even superiors.

But where’s the Erdrick to TV’s Dragonlord? So far this guy appears to be the top opposition. Yikes.

Fox Sports seems content on dominating regional markets. Versus must be happy enough to monopolize the bullriding market. Actually, Vs. seems plucky enough to pull off a few shares off ESPN’s hairy back, since they already air college football and the NHL. But unfortunately they’d need more resources, such as money and broadcasters people have actually seen before.

The big thing, of course, is to pry some games away from ESPN’s broadcasting schedule. When ESPN is handing sacks of money to leagues and writing them notes about the most wonderful time they had last night, anything that isn’t a network station is only able to offer fat free yogurts.

In two years, the NBA collective bargaining agreement runs out. So does Versus’s contract with the NHL. If basketball enters a lockout or strike, and Versus renews their hockey contract, perhaps the league can collect castoff leagues like they were Sean Avery’s former Pokemon collection.

That’s not to say ESPN is horrible — some disagree — but sometimes they make some broadcast decisions that just make you sit there, jaw agape, doing your best Picard.

Perhaps the best-equipped [blush] organization to duel ESPN at high noon might be CNN/SI. Turner Broadcasting has been known to sit on the can and squeeze out another channel from time to time. The only dedicated Sports-O-Vision one they have is NBA TV, which is a start, but if SI became a channel, you could definitely see it picking up steam. The only problem is that TV channels, unlike website (bookmark thelayoffbeard.com today!) take a long time to permeate into cable boxes, hotels, and The People’s subconscious and DVRs.

But that might be what it takes to stop seeing news conveyed this.