The ESPN phone
Today I'm going to review and give my thoughts about the phone ESPN is now marketing.
If you don't know, ESPN is now marketing a phone that costs 500 dollars. That is the price of a fully-loaded XBOX 360, if you can find one. The phone is being marketed by ESPN, and the phone's capabilities. The phone can download sports clips. Is there anything else it can do? It can give you the scores.
So...ESPN...in exchange for 500 dollars I get a phone that gives me the scores of games, and lets me download clips, and the clips aren't free either... This deal is just rotten. It's overpriced, it's opulent, and it doesn't even work all that well. Does ESPN not know that the general public can have the internet on their phones? Does ESPN not know this, or do they know, but are ordered to put out this pathetic product because of Disney's fancy? It's becoming more and more apparent that Disney is running the show, less behind the scenes than ever before, and are doing it in a way that makes little to no sense. Why is this? Because Disney has never understood the sports market. They bought the Angels because it was cute, and then did the same thing with the Mighty Ducks. Eventually shedding both because it wasn't business savvy. These are the people who make direct to video failures like Air Bud 17, Air Bud fights the Taliban. They don't get sports, and they never have. Now that they own ESPN, they've progressively made ESPN worse. They've changed sportscenter, they've introduced more original programming, they created the abomination that is Cold Pizza, they actually let Stephen A. Smith have his own show...which is beyond me.
They even employ Scoop Jackson, who takes the worst Boondocks strip's premise, and then tries to relate it to sports and stretches it for a full article. The bottom line is they're doing much less sports, and much more fluff. And this phone is further proof that they're off their rocker and should sell ESPN while they still can. They're doing fine with ABC Sports, because they've kept the majority of the same staff, but they've tried to change ESPN into something it's not. ESPN does sports. It gives you the scores. It gives you original sports programming. It shouldn't give you anymore than that. Let alone things like Cold Pizza, PTI, and Around the Horn. I'm trying to figure out what the production costs are for this "fresh-hip-new" programming that Disney execs are coming up with, but they're still not that great and it seems that ESPN is really trying to shed it's identity because Disney is trying to make ESPN into something it's not. Something sexy. Yeah, keep on working for that whole sexy thing when lazy-eye is doing your New Year's Bash.
And what the hell is ESPN doing with a New Year's programming special that doesn't have Super Bowl Greatest Highlights or World's Strongest Man, or American Poker Championship 1993? You don't waste money doing original New Year's Eve programming unless you actually expect people to watch. Not only that, you put a man with a lazy-eye as the host? All three people who accidentally tuned into ESPN hoping for World's Strongest Man changed the channel to Dick Clark. Disney, Disney, Disney. First, you stopped making animated movies that were any good, save for Pixar flicks(which you had no part of actually creating) and Emperor's New Groove. Then you moved to throwing gobs of money at ESPN in hopes that you could change into something it is not. It is not an entertainment brand. It's a channel. A sports channel. Since you know little to nothing about how the sports world works, stop trying to figure it out. Money isn't the golden key, it's not just going to work if you just spend a lot. You have to spend it wisely.
Here are examples of cost-cutting.
1. Get rid of Cold Pizza.
2. Stop promoting things with Stuart Scott and his lazy eye. Seriously, people change the channel because of him.
3. Stop wasting money on things like a New Year's Eve program schedule.
4. Get rid of things like Stump the Schwab, PTI, Around the Horn, etc.
5. Go back to sports. Instead of trying to inject entertainment into sports, make sports MORE ENTERTAINING. Bring back hockey, add camera angles. CHANGE Hockey, or change another sport. Re-invent the sport, your way. Re-invent it with that money you were wasting on New Years Eve programming. (Seriously, how stupid was that? You do programming directly competing with your own company's juggernaut of Dick Clark doing New Years? Why even waste the money? Why? WHY GOD WHY? (Alright I'm done, sigh))
6. Stop doing, think things through. What about the ESPN phone? It's using old technology, it's too expensive, and very few people will buy it. Oh, it doesn't even work very well. Then you market the hell out of it. I don't care if you think marketing works, it won't work if it's boneheaded and too expensive. Offer the phone for 100, maybe some people buy it. Offer it for 500, and the only people that are going to buy it are bookies, and compulsive gamblers. That's not enough people to make this campaign worthwhile.
Dear ESPN, you were great once, and you can be great again. I don't know who is running ESPN since Disney bought them, but they don't have the right ideas. The ideas that make you strong beyond words require innovation, but they require you to understand that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. ESPN doesn't need a drastic overhaul, and I'm not suggesting that they stand pat and not work to become perfect either. They can always work to become better, always tweaking the formula.
And to imagine that this all started with how upset I am with Disney's approach to the mobile multimedia market, and ranting to Joey about it.
If you don't know, ESPN is now marketing a phone that costs 500 dollars. That is the price of a fully-loaded XBOX 360, if you can find one. The phone is being marketed by ESPN, and the phone's capabilities. The phone can download sports clips. Is there anything else it can do? It can give you the scores.
So...ESPN...in exchange for 500 dollars I get a phone that gives me the scores of games, and lets me download clips, and the clips aren't free either... This deal is just rotten. It's overpriced, it's opulent, and it doesn't even work all that well. Does ESPN not know that the general public can have the internet on their phones? Does ESPN not know this, or do they know, but are ordered to put out this pathetic product because of Disney's fancy? It's becoming more and more apparent that Disney is running the show, less behind the scenes than ever before, and are doing it in a way that makes little to no sense. Why is this? Because Disney has never understood the sports market. They bought the Angels because it was cute, and then did the same thing with the Mighty Ducks. Eventually shedding both because it wasn't business savvy. These are the people who make direct to video failures like Air Bud 17, Air Bud fights the Taliban. They don't get sports, and they never have. Now that they own ESPN, they've progressively made ESPN worse. They've changed sportscenter, they've introduced more original programming, they created the abomination that is Cold Pizza, they actually let Stephen A. Smith have his own show...which is beyond me.
They even employ Scoop Jackson, who takes the worst Boondocks strip's premise, and then tries to relate it to sports and stretches it for a full article. The bottom line is they're doing much less sports, and much more fluff. And this phone is further proof that they're off their rocker and should sell ESPN while they still can. They're doing fine with ABC Sports, because they've kept the majority of the same staff, but they've tried to change ESPN into something it's not. ESPN does sports. It gives you the scores. It gives you original sports programming. It shouldn't give you anymore than that. Let alone things like Cold Pizza, PTI, and Around the Horn. I'm trying to figure out what the production costs are for this "fresh-hip-new" programming that Disney execs are coming up with, but they're still not that great and it seems that ESPN is really trying to shed it's identity because Disney is trying to make ESPN into something it's not. Something sexy. Yeah, keep on working for that whole sexy thing when lazy-eye is doing your New Year's Bash.
And what the hell is ESPN doing with a New Year's programming special that doesn't have Super Bowl Greatest Highlights or World's Strongest Man, or American Poker Championship 1993? You don't waste money doing original New Year's Eve programming unless you actually expect people to watch. Not only that, you put a man with a lazy-eye as the host? All three people who accidentally tuned into ESPN hoping for World's Strongest Man changed the channel to Dick Clark. Disney, Disney, Disney. First, you stopped making animated movies that were any good, save for Pixar flicks(which you had no part of actually creating) and Emperor's New Groove. Then you moved to throwing gobs of money at ESPN in hopes that you could change into something it is not. It is not an entertainment brand. It's a channel. A sports channel. Since you know little to nothing about how the sports world works, stop trying to figure it out. Money isn't the golden key, it's not just going to work if you just spend a lot. You have to spend it wisely.
Here are examples of cost-cutting.
1. Get rid of Cold Pizza.
2. Stop promoting things with Stuart Scott and his lazy eye. Seriously, people change the channel because of him.
3. Stop wasting money on things like a New Year's Eve program schedule.
4. Get rid of things like Stump the Schwab, PTI, Around the Horn, etc.
5. Go back to sports. Instead of trying to inject entertainment into sports, make sports MORE ENTERTAINING. Bring back hockey, add camera angles. CHANGE Hockey, or change another sport. Re-invent the sport, your way. Re-invent it with that money you were wasting on New Years Eve programming. (Seriously, how stupid was that? You do programming directly competing with your own company's juggernaut of Dick Clark doing New Years? Why even waste the money? Why? WHY GOD WHY? (Alright I'm done, sigh))
6. Stop doing, think things through. What about the ESPN phone? It's using old technology, it's too expensive, and very few people will buy it. Oh, it doesn't even work very well. Then you market the hell out of it. I don't care if you think marketing works, it won't work if it's boneheaded and too expensive. Offer the phone for 100, maybe some people buy it. Offer it for 500, and the only people that are going to buy it are bookies, and compulsive gamblers. That's not enough people to make this campaign worthwhile.
Dear ESPN, you were great once, and you can be great again. I don't know who is running ESPN since Disney bought them, but they don't have the right ideas. The ideas that make you strong beyond words require innovation, but they require you to understand that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. ESPN doesn't need a drastic overhaul, and I'm not suggesting that they stand pat and not work to become perfect either. They can always work to become better, always tweaking the formula.
And to imagine that this all started with how upset I am with Disney's approach to the mobile multimedia market, and ranting to Joey about it.