On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Mark Jeffries <spotligh...@gmail.com>wrote:
> Granted, Deadspin isn't the most impartial source, but they claim that a > three-digit number of employees are being laid off from the Worldwide > Leader as mandated by Disney, presumably to leverage from higher and more > rights fees (including grabbing all U.S. Open tennis rights)--the > technology department seems to be the hardest hit, but it also looks like > "UNITE," ESPNU's attempt at a hip late-night show is also being affected > and will be off the air by July: > > http://deadspin.com/source-espn-laying-off-hundreds-509043249 > I am always eager to take a dump on Disney corporate and management culture, and to the extent this is an attempt to lay off older and more expensive workers with younger/cheaper ones this is an appropriate juncture to take such a dump (and if they are not careful with that they might break some laws). But it is worth making two points in Disney's favor: 1. Some of what they seem to be cutting is not just fat, but crap (UNITE is a good example). I don't have a problem with a company deciding they no longer want to invest lots of money in ventures which may have seemed like a good idea at one time but no longer are. 2. While high profit margins have become a driving expectation at ESPN, a source of multiple evils, this is also part of their anticipatory response to the Fox Sports channel, and ramped up sports cable operations at NBC and CBS. They have already said that the main advantage Fox has is its live sports rights, and implied that they would be working to improve their position in that area - as Mark notes the US Open is part of that. The problem with the sequence of events is that sports rights are expensive, which in the case of ESPN means everybody pays; plus the increased competition drives up the rights fees for everything and everybody else. My point with #2 is that even in a universe where TV ratings are down, home entertainment is fracturing and the recovery from a Great Recession is sluggish, this is signaling that live sports rights fees for TV are going to increase even more. This is bad news, for cable rates, but also for sports fans. Probably 75% or more of what is wrong with spectator sports in this country over the last 40 years or so is a direct or indirect result of the obscene amounts of money they generate. Fans would enjoy the NBA just as much if Lebron only made $9M/year instead of $19M, or the Heat were only worth $310M instead of $625M. Given that there are so many millions of dollars being generated by the NBA (almost all of it from television revenue) I don't begrudge the players getting as large a share as possible, I just wish there was less cash in the system. I had some hope that various structural changes in the economy and society were going to exert downward pressure on TV rights fees, and on the cash supply in sports. I see now that was naive. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
