Disney Announces $12.99 Bundle for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+

Jason Tate Aug 7, 2019

Julia Alexander, writing for The Verge:

Disney will offer a bundle package of its three streaming services — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — for $12.99 a month starting on November 12th, the company announced today. […]
The streaming services is likely to be available through “Amazon, Apple, and other distributors,” according to Iger. Disney has not finalized any deals with the aforementioned companies, but told investors “we feel it’s important for us to achieve scale quickly, and we think it’s going to be an important part of that. They’re all interested in distributing the product.”

Bill Simmons Podcast: Inside the Evolution of ESPN

Jason Tate Aug 1, 2017

I loved this podcast from Bill Simmons, Jim Miller, and Bryan Curtis on the evolution of ESPN and their past and future. There’s some really interesting stories and tidbits about the company and where they made mistakes and missteps over the years.

A Struggling ESPN Lays Off Many On-Air Personalities

Jason Tate Apr 26, 2017

The New York Times:

ESPN on Wednesday began another round of layoffs, this one aimed at on-air personalities, perhaps the starkest sign yet of the financial reckoning playing out in sports broadcasting as cord-cutting proliferates. […]
The network has lost more than 10 million subscribers over the past several years. At the same time, the cost of broadcasting major sports has continued to rise. ESPN committed to a 10-year, $15.2 billion deal with the N.F.L. in 2011; a nine-year, $12 billion deal with the N.B.A.; and a $7.3 billion deal for the college football playoffs, among many others.

The Ringer:

This is what’s mind-blowing about the ESPN layoffs. It’s possible that the money the network decided it had to cut is so big that it couldn’t just prune people from fading properties like SportsCenter, or more fully abandon its plan to colonize local sports pages, which had been evident for some time. Here is ESPN cutting a digital reporter covering its biggest growth sport — one of two writers it attached to maybe the most popular sports team on the planet right now.

NBA Watching the Basketball Tournament’s Innovative Approach to Crunch Time

Jason Tate Apr 10, 2017

Zach Lowe, writing for ESPN:

Elam, a Mensa member, has devoted most of his spare time since 2004 to solving the slog of NBA crunch time. Oklahoma City’s win was remarkable to Elam because the Thunder’s deliberate fouling worked.
Elam has tracked thousands of NBA, college, and international games over the last four years and found basketball’s classic comeback tactic — intentional fouling — almost never results in successful comebacks. Elam found at least one deliberate crunch-time foul from trailing teams in 397 of 877 nationally televised NBA games from 2014 through the middle of this season, according to a PowerPoint presentation he has sent across the basketball world. The trailing team won zero of those games, according to Elam’s data.

I’m not convinced this idea doesn’t make most of the game kind of pointless, but it’s definitely outside of the box.

Remove

ESPN Is Finally ESPN.com

Jason Tate Aug 4, 2016

Joshua Benton, writing for NiemanLab:

It isn’t quite our-long-national-nightmare-is-over level, but one of the significant daily reminders of the early web just disappeared. ESPN’s website, which had been hosted at espn.go.com since 1998, is finally now just at espn.com.

Damn, there goes one of my favorite jokes.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell Goes Deep on 2000s Emo

Jason Tate Aug 4, 2016

The Solid Verbal college football podcast did a deep dive on early 2000s emo/pop punk with ESPN’s Bill Barnwell. There’s something pretty great about hearing Barnwell, who I love to read write about football, go deep on The Promise Ring and Saves the Day.