Don't get me wrong. I have very strong negative opinions about ESPN in a wide variety of areas. However, while reading reactions to the most recent wave of ESPN layoffs, which included prominent and well-respected employees such as Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark, I couldn't help myself from somewhat defending ESPN. Again, I think they are a crap company, but their current situation reminds me more and more of what happened to blockbuster once streaming arrived. People hate on ESPN for hiring big personalities, who have otherwordly takes, and do whatever they can to generate clicks. I agree that I hate that. It is not my cup of tea. But the question is, what else could they offer that isn't already offered via social media and/or podcats? 

I remember as a kid watching a 30 minute Sportscenter episode as a kid, just waiting to see the Lebron and Kobe highlights. Or watching an episode of College Football Live in hopes that the crew would spend 2 minutes talking about the Buckeyes. While I say that I miss the "good ole days", I can gaurantee you that if you put me back in 2005, I would be appalled having to watch a 30 minute show to get the info I needed, versus getting 100x the amount of info with the scroll of a thumb. I haven't watched an episode of sportscenter in over a decade, and yet on a nightly basis, I see highlights of Lebron, Ohtani, Judge, etc. as I'm winding down for bed. And it takes 2 minutes. If anything crazy happens, in pretty much any sport, its all over my phone and I see it within 30 seconds of it happening. There just isn't a market for highlights. My late Grandpa, whom was my Ohio State game day pal, hated it. And I can understand those you don't live with their phone in hand. But those folks are quickly becoming the minority. 

In addition to highlights, the other main criticism you see is that their "analysts" often don't get very deep in their knowledge of the game. You get cliche takes. The problem is that ESPN, or any cable television sports channel, can't really do that in a 30-60 minute block of television. Talking in depth about a team, and actually using deep knowledge of the game to make your analysis, can easily last over an hour. And that is just for one team! But guess what, there is a service for that with podcasts. Guys like Danny Kannell, David Pollack, etc, who by the way, were layed off by ESPN in the past, have podcasts that are extremely knowledgable. When they were on ESPN, I thought they were bafoons. But at the end of the day, when you only get 2 minutes to speak in a 30 minute show (18 after commercials), you don't even have time to prove your knowledge. 

So what is their future. I hear people say all the time, I just want the highlights back. Do you really? Would you actually watch them? Or would you realize how much time it takes to get those highlights, and revert back to the ever efficient phone? In the same vein as blockbuster. I'd bet 98% of people would flog to blockbuster if it reopened, only to realize that this method was inefficient, and never do it again.