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I missed E:60’s acclaimed report on the total train-wreck that is the Qatar 2022 World Cup. I went to E:60’s Facebook page where they had a photo promoting re-airs of the program. I set my DVR only to find it was a different episode of E:60 which irked a friend who came over with the sole intent of watching the Qatar special. I checked again for other re-airings and the same thing happened twice over with now potential former friend thinking I’m totally crazy. I have no idea why the various social accounts of E:60 have no idea when episodes re-air as their latest suggestion this week was not even an E:60 episode at all.
– Draft Academy was a show that flew completely under the radar but was of very high quality in terms of production and access to the point where I gave it the rare “Hard Knocks” esque seal of approval. I caught on late and was totally unaware that the series continued after the draft. I don’t believe anyone I know personally (not digitally) watched any of it. A shame as it was great television.
– Another good example would be ‘Inside: US Soccer’s March to Brazil’ which has often aired new episodes during the working day on the West Coast and hence is a bit off the radar as most DVR worthy programs typically run at night. I believe I’ve got all caught up in terms of the DVR, but that being said this last week I got stuck with 2 innings of a Mets game instead.
– ESPN The Magazine had a GREAT piece on the backstory of Yasiel Puig’s defection from Cuba. It made a lot of waves but from what I gathered, many never actually read the piece nor the video feature which is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QuywVYhL0k
These are just some examples, but there are many more. 30 for 30 shorts fly under the radar as does some of the SC Featured stories (another shout out to the great feature on Mendota), OTL, SEC Storied, and so on. These stories mostly come and go and while you may hear about it via social media, often you never end up watching it or knowing when or how to watch it.
30 for 30 provides a huge catalog to help fill programming hours with quality content. If ESPN wanted to get even more creative, they could try something in late night again with Grantland and Five Thirty Eight doing a sports impression of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report tandem hour that has worked so well for Comedy Central although I imagine it would probably be more like HBO’s weekly talk shows.
Yes, you could still play old games as well as potentially using new formats of added commentary. You could play old sports movie classics with some additional backstory. Grantland has already done oral histories on Friday Night Lights and White Men Can’t Jump and I imagine fans of both would love to see the oral histories blended into a re-airing.
Another key component would be showing more high school sports in the mold of the Mendota feature, 4th and Forever, Undefeated, We Can Be Kings, Go Tigers, Year Of The Bull, and yes Two-A-Days. I’ve never tired of these formats as you can tell and it seems pretty clear Dick’s Sporting Goods is quite keen on helping to sponsor these type of stories going forward.
The reality is that ESPN has built out quite a front line of quality content brands and a nice rotation of terrific content makers such as Jonathan Hock, Scott Harves, and The Barnicle Brothers that are regularly getting new projects from Bristol. The work is tremendous, the acclaim is consistent, but the current limitations on programming shelf space and promotion resources can be disheartening at times.
ESPN Classic had its time and has topped out. I don’t think anyone can argue that. Given the investment surge in storytelling and its rising popularity, the ambitions and structure of Exit 31, and the fact that ESPN is already having issues cramming all of this programming on their current portfolio of more widely distributed networks, I think the timing is right for ESPN to have a hub of storytelling and one with a whole lot of upside in terms of distribution and carriage fees.
With the rising costs of sports rights and cable/sat providers mobilizing via consolidation to fight back rising programming costs, ESPN from a profitability perspective may be getting to a place where there isn’t too much more room for growth unless they diversify themselves away from depending mostly on live events. With that in mind, ESPN Stories may be a viable option for Bristol to continue to grow. (Then again so could an ESPN LeBron channel.)
Either way, I’d imagine ESPN Classic will be some type of vehicle for a new direction for ESPN and one to keep an eye on as things get more crowded on ESPN’s core channels.
As always, happy to hear your thoughts in the comments as to where you think the next great business opportunity lies for ESPN.