Layoffs would come anyway. You think if Disney shareholders didn't have to give that money to the NBA, they'd be content to let employees have it instead of taking it for themselves?
They already do in the fact there is a monthly cap to your usage on several types of packages. If you go over that, you are charged more. It's just a way of packaging the sell of data usage. You do caps with overages rather than metered pricing. But you are in no way unlimited like you are with phones.
My thinking was it is a drastic change in business structure, whereby they have to invest more in technology and infrastructure to put out the new product. But, the article does appear to be pure speculation that the NBA deal is the reason. I'm with you. That's sounds wrong. The deal and the layoffs are likely unrelated.
Γαμώτο σας , θα ήθελα να κάνω αυτά τα σχόλια ! Κερδίζεις! Um, "damn you, I wanted to make those comments! You win!" (Did Google translator work?) Too bad they won't throw Ramona Shelburne (L.A. sycophant), Stephen A. Smith (Knicks sycophant), Amin Elhassan (self-righteous Stephen Curry sycophant), Marc Stein (Mavs sycophant, exists to keep that brand alive) and other such turdlets onto the s*** heap.
ESPN already has ESPN3 (Watch ESPN), they need to go full a la carte like HBO and the others have. Cable bundles have existed since the beginning due to technical logistics, plus they make huge profits for the cable/sat companies. But they have to realize that's not what consumers want and techincally it's no longer an issue. I would be a life long cable/sat customer if I could get my a la carte channel lineup suited for me. As it stands now I can't so I end up paying for 200+ channels I never even look at. SlingTV has the right idea but the companies too small at this point, even with the DISH support. As small as they are they don't have the capital to really explode and even with their current small subscriber base, they still have many technical issues. I really wish cable/sat would offer a la carte pay per channel as well as bundles. Let the consumer decide.
If ESPN went streaming they would not need the cable/sat providers anymore. They'd go solo and they'd charge as much as they want. I could see the ESPN subscription costing $20 per month. If ESPN was $20, fox sports was $10, and Hulu is another $10 would you still prefer that over a cable subscription with 150 channels costing $50 a month? I'm not so sure.
Who needs ESPN? For coverage of football there's battleredblog, texanstalk, and SOTT. For baseball there's crawfishboxes. For basketball obviously there's Clutchfans. And for all the idiots out there screaming against the hometown bias, there's reddit. If the actual content (sports games) turns into a pay-per-view streaming type enterprise, then ESPN will be left in the dust. They've got to adapt and fast, lest they find themselves in the same junkyard as newspaper companies.
For sure, you're right. That industry is in for a period of pretty rapid change as streaming kills traditional cable. ESPN and the rest of them will probably have to do a lot of organizational restructuring to keep up with changing times. That's going to mean waves of layoffs as they wipe out departments that are obsolete, and also hiring as they try to build new capabilities to succeed in the new medium. I suppose the deal and the layoffs are related in that they are both symptoms of the same cause -- the only reason sports content shot up in value is the fragmentation in entertainment otherwise caused by the internet.
Getting there. Maybe next year. https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/8/16115372/disney-espn-streaming-service-launch-release-date-2018
Sheesh what with the necro bump man. I am also still not satisfied why ramon shellburne still being hired
"BE-CUZ CAH-MEH-LO AN-THO-NY IS TOO GOOD A PLAYA TO JUST COLLECT A PAYCHECK. A ONCE IN A GENERATION SCORING MACHINE. WHAT YOU GONNA DO, CAH-MEH-LO. YOU DON'T WANT IT BAD ENOUGH."
Why could Screamin A. Smith still keep his job on ESPN? I went to the ESPN page during the layoff time, 99.99% posters said he should be the first one to be let go.