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Here's a shocker: ESPN to get less sports-centered

Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by Faos, Jun 21, 2005.

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  1. Faos

    Faos Member

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    Cabler to broaden its field with more series, telepix

    By JOHN DEMPSEY


    Less hockey and baseball. More original movies and series.

    That's one big equation on the mind of Mark Shapiro, executive VP of programming and production for ESPN, who's gung ho about broadening the audience for ESPN by reaching beyond the stereotypical potbellied sports nut, stretched out in his undershirt on a Barcalounger with a can of beer in one hand and a remote in the other.

    ESPN and ESPN2 aimed the National Hockey League games it carried from 1999 through 2004 squarely at this viewer, but Shapiro says the NHL's ratings had fallen to such a depressed state by the 2003-04 season (a labor dispute obliterated the 2004-05 schedule) that he won't pay cash license fees anymore.

    And Shapiro is negotiating a new contract with Major League Baseball but says, "I'm not interested in carrying five games a week unless I get full network exclusivity," a concession baseball seems unwilling to grant except for the traditional ESPN game of the week on Sunday night.

    And that's where scripted programming comes in. Shapiro says one of the reasons ESPN's scripted series about Las Vegas poker players "Tilt" failed to find an audience earlier this year is that the only free night not saturated with live sports commitments was Thursday, where, at 9 p.m., the show had to go up against such strong series as "CSI" on CBS, "Will & Grace" on NBC and "Extreme Makeover" on ABC. Against those odds, "Tilt" never really had a chance.

    By contrast, ESPN's other scripted series "Playmakers," a warts-and-all look at the members of a fictional pro-football team, fared much better with audiences in 2003's late summer and fall because the network was able to carve out a weekly primetime slot on Tuesday, where the competition was not so fierce.

    Despite solid ratings, "Playmakers" got a reluctant cancellation notice after its first 13-episode season, falling victim to the hostility of the National Football League, most of whose owners hated the portrayal of some athletes as drug users, wife beaters and other unsavory types.

    The mistakes ESPN made in shepherding "Playmakers" and "Tilt" onto the schedule have only reinforced Shapiro's goal of coming up with one or two hit series in the next few years and with at least four highly exploitable original movies a year, starting in 2006.

    The man who created "Playmakers," John Eisendrath, is working on an untitled drama pilot set in the world of boxing, which is slated as ESPN's next series.

    Shapiro says he has 30 movie projects in the works, with two in production: "Four Minutes," a docudrama about Roger Bannister, the first athlete to run the four-minute mile, and "The Code Breakers," a script based on the 1951 West Point scandal in which the school expelled 83 Army cadets, including most of the football team, for cheating.

    Sports-media consultant Kevin O'Malley applauds Shapiro's push to get ESPN into scripted movies and series.

    "These shows are already getting more women and younger men to watch the network," O'Malley says.

    Getting different kinds of people to watch ESPN, says Neal Pilson, a sports consultant and former president of CBS Sports, will help to pump up the network's advertising revenues.

    Kagan Research says ESPN already harvests more ad revenues than any other cable network, projecting a record $869.2 million in 2005, a 9% gain over those of last year.

    ESPN should look at the example of MTV, says David Carter, a principal with the Los Angeles-based Sports Business Group.

    "MTV became an integral part of the pop culture," he says, "by morphing from a musicvideo network to a channel carrying a wide range of programming."

    However, Mike Trager, former head of Clear Channel Entertainment, says ESPN "has to walk a fine line between reaching out for new viewers and alienating its core audience."

    Or, as another sports analyst puts it: "Women may watch an episode of one of the series, but that doesn't mean they're going to abandon Lifetime to become devotees of the NFL and the NBA on ESPN."

    Link
     
    #1 Faos, Jun 21, 2005
  2. drapg

    drapg Member

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    "Playmakers" needs to come back for season 2 right away!

    that show rocked!
     
    #2 drapg, Jun 21, 2005
  3. SWTsig

    SWTsig Member

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    LAME.

    that really sucks a$$.
     
    #3 SWTsig, Jun 21, 2005
  4. drapg

    drapg Member

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    You know, I'd rather see sports related programming during the summer than some random Devil Rays vs. Rangers game.

    The Bannister flick sounds bad ass.

    I need more sports related movies in my life. This is a good thing.
     
    #4 drapg, Jun 21, 2005
  5. Uprising

    Uprising Member

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    AMEN>
     
    #5 Uprising, Jun 21, 2005
  6. mj10501

    mj10501 Member

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    A 'Playmakers' style boxing show? Heck yeah I'm there :cool:
     
    #6 mj10501, Jun 21, 2005
  7. Manny Ramirez

    Manny Ramirez The Music Man

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    I wish ESPN would stick with sports and leave soap opera **** to the major networks, the soap opera network, and lifetime. Before you know it, they are going to turn into MTV - a network that is no longer known for what got it created in the first place.
     
    #7 Manny Ramirez, Jun 21, 2005
  8. CriscoKidd

    CriscoKidd Member

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    Bull****.

    MTV was much better when they showed a crapload of videos. I can stand a little bit of "reality" sprinkled in, but the sheer amount of crap that they have on that channel is ridiculous.


    ESPN's reality shows have sucked ass. And Playmakers throated donkeys.

    >
     
    #8 CriscoKidd, Jun 21, 2005
  9. Tdogg

    Tdogg Member

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    ROFL... I freaking spit up my drink when I read that line.

    I understand the times and everyone wanting to branch out. However, I would have preferred if MTV played music on Music-TeleVision and did their other crap on MTV2.

    Same goes with ESPN. If they move forward with more "show" programming and less sports programming, then come up with another channel for it and don't pollute the channel that almost every man makes time for during the day.
     
    #9 Tdogg, Jun 21, 2005
  10. tigermission1

    tigermission1 Member

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    Two things for ESPN to work on in the immediate future: Playmakers 2, and "The Contender 2".
     
    #10 tigermission1, Jun 21, 2005
  11. Mr. Mooch

    Mr. Mooch Contributing Member

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    ESPN sucks, has sucked (deteriorating more in the past decade than a muscular dystrophy patient), and will continue to suck for all of man kind.

    If they're going to do all this crap, at least change their name to EPN.

    Leave the S where it belongs: in a REAL SPORTS NETWORK.

    The only thing that will redeem the future ESPN is if they air Cheap Seats at a good time slot on the "new" ESPN. It's truly the best damn sports show period.
     
    #11 Mr. Mooch, Jun 21, 2005
  12. PhiSlammaJamma

    PhiSlammaJamma Member

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    I'm for more reality TV, but forget the series. ESPN is real. Keep it that way. I understand dumping baseball tho', cause the competition from Extra Innings is to powerful.
     
    #12 PhiSlammaJamma, Jun 21, 2005
  13. Isabel

    Isabel Member

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    EXACTLY. MTV used to be great and now it blows. And it's important to always have some type of game or sporting event on... don't know about you, but when I want the TV on for background and can't find anything I want to watch, I just turn on whatever game is on. Even if it is baseball or hockey. We don't need fewer options in that department.
     
    #13 Isabel, Jun 21, 2005
  14. Faos

    Faos Member

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    If I want to watch a movie I'll tune to HBO.

    On the bright side, maybe they'll stay away from doing Dream Job IV.
     
    #14 Faos, Jun 21, 2005
  15. Nuggets4

    Nuggets4 Member

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    I was gonna try to come up with something to go along with this, but really this sums up my thoughts 100%. Playmakers was the worst show I've ever seen.
     
    #15 Nuggets4, Jun 21, 2005
  16. DieHard Rocket

    DieHard Rocket Member

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    I have no complaints with them taking away hockey and showing more original series and movies, etc.

    As far as I know baseball is only on Sunday and Wednesday nights anyway, and I'm sure they wouldn't completely do away with showing MLB games.

    I think in recent years the sports junkies have turned to satellite subscriptions more like DirectTV "League Pass" and "Extra Innings", hurting the ratings for ESPN. I imagine baseball is getting bottom of the barrell ratings, so any movie or drama series will probably bring in more viewers.
     
    #16 DieHard Rocket, Jun 21, 2005
  17. JumpMan

    JumpMan Member
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    BSPN.
     
    #17 JumpMan, Jun 21, 2005
  18. JamesC

    JamesC Member

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    Thats exactly how I feel. ESPN needs to just create another channel where they can show all the sports movies and reality shows they want. This is ridiculous.
     
    #18 JamesC, Jun 21, 2005
  19. gwayneco

    gwayneco Contributing Member

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    They need to bring back Australian rules football.
     
    #19 gwayneco, Jun 21, 2005
  20. KellyDwyer

    KellyDwyer Member

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    About 15 years ago, MTV realized it could put anything on (even Aussie Rules Football), and the 14-year olds would lap it up. ESPN doesn't have that luxury. I walked into my parents house earlier this year to see my 17-year old brother and 5-6 of his friends just ripping "Tilt" for the piece of crap it was. If you can't slip lame dialogue past a group of high school juniors, then you have no clue.

    They'll figure it out sooner or later. Remember, those crappy shows and movies cost next-to-nothing to make, in comparison to paying for the rights to pro sports. Fans will go elsewhere for their sports fix, and gradually ESPN will come around.

    20 years ago, the station played 92 different sports 20 hours a day. 10 years ago, they left that and went to the non-stop SportsCenter rotation. They continue to try things out, with varying degrees of success. They'll fail, they'll learn, and (unfortunatly for sports, especially for the people in sports journalism) they'll survive.
     
    #20 KellyDwyer, Jun 21, 2005
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