When ESPN laid off various members of its on-air talent roster on Friday, it sent the sports media world into a state of shock. Several enduring names, including Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, Jalen Rose and Max Kellerman, were relieved of their duties at the network in a move that ostensibly marks a shift in the network’s philosophy. Dan Le Batard, who worked for ESPN and presented his eponymous radio show on its platforms until 2020, has commented on the layoffs, the opening rounds of which were mandated by The Walt Disney Company. ESPN is set to report its own earnings for the first time in November under a reorganization of its parent company cultivating three distinct business entities, one of which is the “Worldwide Leader.”
Le Batard asserted that the company intentionally timed the layoffs with the dwindling news cycle ahead of a lengthy Fourth of July holiday weekend amid inactivity in the sports world and to ensure it did not draw an avalanche of negative publicity.
“We’ve seen this day coming for a long time as Disney tries to correct some of its errors with ESPN – people that are largely interchangeable,” Le Batard said. “While ESPN took the public hit on Friday for shedding those costs, I thought to myself as it happened, ‘Are they actually going to feel this beyond this day? Is it going to be something that empirically puts off viewers?’”
ESPN undoubtedly attracts viewers through its studio and shoulder programming; however, like most live sports, most people tune in to watch the game itself more so than certain personalities. Amin Elhassan, contributor for The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, expressed that most people do not tune into the NBA Finals just to watch Van Gundy, but rather to view the matchup itself. Nonetheless, Le Batard is grateful to be operating with Meadowlark Media, the company he co-founded with former ESPN president John Skipper.
“I feel like after watching that day, I’m like, ‘Woah, we got out of there in the nick of time,’” Le Batard said. “We got out of there just in time because I’m positive – Max Kellerman was given the slots and the places to replace where it is that we were; the hours… and then he looks up and he’s disposable too.”
In laying off College GameDay personalities David Pollack and Gene Wojciechowski, questions are being posed regarding the storytelling value of the show going forward. It will surely be an area ESPN needs to fortify after letting go of some of its most adept personalities and journalists, but an area towards which people question the company’s commitment to its fans.
“I think one of the things we all really enjoy about Saturday mornings has been diluted by degrees, and you don’t necessarily feel just one absence,” Mike Ryan said. “When you put them all in a pile, I think you’re going to get a worse product.”
ESPN still has a large share of live sports programming rights across professional and collegiate sports inside and out of the United States. In fact, ESPN just concluded its college sports season where it averaged presenting 89 games per day and attained record viewership numbers. For the viewer, whether or not the departure of these talents affect overall consumption numbers is a salient observation that could foretell the weight placed on just who is on the air.
“It’s not anything else; it’s the rights,” Elhassan said. “You’re watching where the game is, and your affinity towards this individual stuff is not quite as strong to your affinity to watching the actual game.”
The quality of the product, long thought of to be paramount in importance with venerable brands like ESPN, is being surmised by some spectators as willingly being sacrificed. The company and sports media industry as a whole seems to value versatility more than ever before in an effort to consolidate operations and cut costs. After all, more consumers are cutting the cord than ever before, leading outlets to prepare a direct-to-consumer product and more ways to watch programming without a traditional cable subscription. As it pertains to Pat McAfee, the network is betting on his show to draw a profit and for him to continue being a captivating personality for years to come.
“The McAfee deal is a baked deal,” David Samson said. “They get to amortize his annual cost over all the different programs he does [and] all the hours he takes up, so that means versatility matters.”
