ESPN’s Hunt for Originality
Satellites. Ted Turner. Playmakers. It is clearly evident that ESPN, the most prominent sports specialized broadcasting network ever, has had to change their tune in 2005 due to a number of realizations. When ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) entered the scene over 20 years ago, they were forced to focus on “speciality” sports-related programming. Events such as tractor pulls or Australian football. Events the major networks wouldn’t pick up. In 1987, when ESPN launched NFL Sunday Night football, now a weekly tradition every fall, growth began. Over time, ESPN has become as much of a reputable source for quality sports programming as the big 3 (NBC, ABC, CBS). Broadcasting major sporting events in football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, you could always count on ESPN to catch a good quality games at odds time throughout the week.
With the growth of technology, has come a barrage of competition for the leader in sports. Because of satellites, we can now turn on TBS to catch the Braves, WGN to catch the Cubs, Fox Sports Net L.A. to catch the Kings. Smaller networks have moved into the arena and stepped on ESPN’s shoes. I don’t have any numbers to prove that the movement by these smaller networks has affected ESPN’s viewership or ratings, but purely based on observation and reasoning, it appears that the network’s crown isn’t as jeweled as a few years ago.
What I feel has been a major impact, is the level of programming that viewers are now faced with. Decisions. With the purchase of a new big screen HDTV, consumers must also make the dive as far as upgrading their cable or satellite package. When they get these more “souped” up packages, they are faced with a number of smaller networks that may be broadcasting similar sports events as ESPN. Even the specialty events such as World’s Strongest Man has competitors on [what is now] Spike and NBC. In fact ESPN Thursday Night Hockey is gone after last year’s strike and OLN (Outdoor Life Network) has taken the games.
So how does ESPN differentiate themselves?
Original Programming.
Of course, ESPN has the ringer–Sportscenter. With witty and colorful hosts, Sportscenter is the most entertaining way for an individual to find out about all the latest happenings on the internet. (And until everybody has broadband and streaming sports highlights become more the norm) Those ratings will be safe for a while.
With a large number of programs being presented under the title ESPN Original Programming, we can see where this is headed. Playmakers, a weekly hour long program about the real dealings of the players in the NFL, was a true test for how successful sports related original programming could be. This article by Business Weekly Online, written in November of 2003, reports average rating of 1.9 (or 1.6 million households) at that point in time. Eventually because of that program’s ccontroversial content and lack of sponsor support, it fell off the radar.
Last January, ESPN played off the popularity of poker by hiring Michael Madsen to star in “Tilt”. A show about the casino and poker underworld. With camoes by big name poker players, it was fairly popular among many of my colleagues and friends. Bound for Glory, The Season, and many more on the way, we can almost now expect to see a reality show or original series as often as a football game when we tune in to ESPN.
ESPN can get away with it. They can give these original series the exposure they need in order to produce the viewership they need. During the broadcasting of a Sunday night football game, a quick ad in the bottom right hand corner of the screen for the newest series, now that’s exposure.
