The Official "Espn First Take , FS1 Undisputed, Sportscenter , Sports Radio, Podcasts etc" Thread.

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[Alpha_Ambition]

That screenshot is comedy Terrell Davis was ready

 

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https://twitter.com/_missleandra/status/941056313286709249

 

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https://twitter.com/warrensapp/status/940937468014194689

 

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https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941033849848557568
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941034509461544965
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941034997871468544
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941035301547503617
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941035681752772610
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941036185165721601
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/941036569263333377

 

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https://twitter.com/deadspin/status/941079375411318791

 

[d.green]

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/935235598981398528

I agree. Those choreographed, group celebrations look corny to me.

I liked the individual celebrations that were off the cuff.

The Steelers player putting another man leg up in the air like a wrestler and another dude counting 1,2,3 was gay IMO.

 

[infamous114]

All Sapp did was confirm he did all that shit lol

 

[Lurkristocrat]

Nigga said his cte be acting up lmaooooo

 

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http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/21766966/disney-fox-deal-add-22-regional-sports-networks-espn

Regional sports networks in Disney-Fox deal

The Walt Disney Company reached an agreement with 21st Century Fox on Thursday to acquire the entertainment giant, including its 22 regional sports networks.

The deal is worth $52.4 billion in stock, plus $13.7 billion more in net debt that Disney is assuming.

The sports networks include the YES Network in New York, Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West in Los Angeles, and networks that carry 44 professional teams in Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL.

Disney also will acquire 21st Century Fox's film-production businesses plus its television-production units. It also includes FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, Fox Networks Group International, Star India and Fox's interested in Hulu, Sky plc, Tata Sky and Endemol Shine Group.

As part of the deal, 21st Century Fox retained the Fox television network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten Network. They will be part of a newly listed company after the close of the deal.

 

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http://awfulannouncing.com/espn/what-disney-fox-means-for-espn-fox-sports-rsns.html

What the Disney-Fox deal means for ESPN, Fox Sports, and regional sports networks

For ESPN: Synergies, stability, and streaming

The regional sports networks are an important part of this deal, with the overall deal being valued at $52.4 billion and estimates of the regional networks’ value coming in from $20 to $22 billion. And that’s just what they’re worth now; there’s reason to believe they could be worth more to Disney and ESPN. For one thing, there’s the carriage deals; ESPN has long been known for being able to gain favorable carriage for their other channels thanks to the demand for their primary channel (even if they’re putting less emphasis on carriage of some smaller channels recently), and that could be a big help for some of the RSNs. Disney now controls a whole lot of the sports TV marketplace, and that’s important when it comes to carriage deals. (However, as AT&T-Time Warner shows, regulatory approval may not be easy, and promises about not pulling channels may be required.)

Beyond that, there are all sorts of possible ways to integrate RSNs on the content side. RSNs could air ESPN studio programming in addition to their own local content when they’re not showing games, while ESPN could pick up reports from RSN talent, going to a reporter with one of those networks when there’s a big story involving that team instead of sending one of their national people. There could also be regional editions of shows like SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, or the like that could air across multiple RSNs in one area. Disney CEO Bob Iger has already mentioned the content sharing in loose terms:
https://twitter.com/Ourand_SBJ/status/941314499050721280

It should be noted that this comes with costs and risks, though. Programming efficiencies tend to mean job losses, and while ESPN’s already laid off a lot of people this year, more layoffs could follow any RSN integration. And while these networks could potentially fit nicely with ESPN, it’s notable that they never slotted in with Fox Sports 1 all that well. Part of that’s about FS1’s own challenges, but there are hurdles to making this work. And as Peter Kafka writes at Recode, this means that Disney is now paying for even more expensive sports rights deals, many of which are locked up for quite a while. They’re betting that there are still going to be enough pay-TV subscribers to make this a good long-term play, but that isn’t automatic; the desire to get out of local sports is part of why Fox’s Rupert Murdoch made this deal. Disney has more scale and more synergies that give them an advantage in making RSNs work over Fox, but that doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing.

Something that is more sure is Disney’s corporate leadership as a result of this. Iger has said he’ll stay on until 2021 as part of this deal, which was reportedly a request from Murdoch. That lines Iger’s contract length up with recently-extended ESPN president John Skipper, and as we wrote back in March around Iger’s previous extension through mid-2019, that suggests that ESPN’s going to stay on its current tacks in terms of programming shifts, layoffs and streaming plans. Even if Iger had left in 2019, that might not have led to drastic changes right away (at least through Skipper’s tenure), but Iger staying on longer is another move for stability at the top and for the continuation of ESPN’s current plans.

The streaming front is well worth discussing too, as there are plenty of possibilities there. For one, this deal includes international services Star and Sky, and it’s been mentioned that ESPN can pick up some plans from what they’ve been doing with streaming. There are also perhaps chances to integrate Star and Sky with ESPN’s own international programming, and to integrate them on the content side as well. But there’s also streaming as it applies to RSNs. Not a whole lot can necessarily change there immediately given the rights that are already locked up, but in-market streaming to authenticated subscribers has become a bigger deal recently, and there could be synergies with ESPN and its streaming offerings on that front. Competitor NBC/Comcast has also started launching some regional over-the-top streaming packages, and maybe there’s a model there for ESPN to follow. And while rights deals may limit what can be done with the RSNs and streaming for the moment, owning both ESPN and RSNs could give Disney some flexibility to pick up rights for ESPN Plus in the next round of negotiations, which could be very useful if the marketplace moves even more towards over-the-top.

Speaking of that, another important element of this deal is Disney picking up majority control of Hulu. That gives them their own digital multichannel video provider carrying live TV, including live sports. And those digital MVPDs have been repeatedly cited as an important growing segment for ESPN, including by Skipper this week. Well, now they have one that’s in the corporate family.

For the RSNs: more integration, and a company that believes in them

Many of the possible impacts for regional sports networks have been discussed above from the ESPN side, but those effects will be important on the local side as well. For one, there are likely to be some jobs lost down the road, especially if ESPN content becomes highly integrated with the RSNs. Efficiencies may be good for companies, but they’re not good for the people previously doing whatever jobs get eliminated or combined. But for those who remain, there could be extra opportunities, from appearing on national ESPN feeds to discuss certain stories to perhaps even a larger and easier path to national work. ESPN now has a much larger pool of affiliated in-house talent to draw from.

Beyond that, the RSNs as a whole could get some boosts from their connection to ESPN. Consider streaming; they’ll presumably eventually be able to draw on BAMTech’s services and expertise there instead of the much-criticized Fox Sports Go, and if more authenticated or OTT streaming is done down the road, they’ll be tied to a company very involved in that. Consider the carriage deals; it may be a lot harder for providers to hold out against ESPN and Disney than it was against Fox. But the biggest part of this may be that Fox was souring on RSNs, and that ESPN clearly believes they still have a major role to play. That could mean a whole lot for the future of these networks.

 

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https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/941280830655225856

 

[elgato]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmh3QbOXKFE

This was a weak interview. I'm disappointed in Stephen A. Smith and Max.

They let RG3 sit there and talk about how he's ready to start for a team, yet they didn't ask him about the fact that he can't read defenses, can't play from the pocket, and can't slide. They let him bash Kirk Cousins but didn't address the fact that Kirk's numbers are way better than RG3's. They let him whine about the fact that the Shanahans didn't want him initially but didn't bring up the fact that Hue Jackson wanted RG3, got RG3, and then let RG3 go.

So RG3 took no responsibility for his actions in this interview and he continued to bash his old team. I don't think any GMs watched this and thought to themselves "Hey, let's go sign RG3."

 

[TheBoyRo]

https://twitter.com/thebiglead/status/942789287988400128

 

[playmaker88]

I wonder if this was masking something else... so they lead with the sympathetic.. "substance abuse"

 

[TheBoyRo]

Anything is possible nowadays

 

[tupacfan12]

Dan LeBatard damn near broke down in tears when he read Skipper was leaving on his radio show. It was like the man just died.

 

[toheeb27]

Dan LeBatard damn near broke down in tears when he read Skipper was leaving on his radio show. It was like the man just died.

LeBatard has always said Skipper is the one who went out of his way to give Minorities and Women chances at ESPN even when facing criticism that ESPN is too “Liberal”(which is often code),

 

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Dan LeBatard damn near broke down in tears when he read Skipper was leaving on his radio show. It was like the man just died.

Dan LeBatard damn near broke down in tears when he read Skipper was leaving on his radio show. It was like the man just died.

LeBatard has always said Skipper is the one who went out of his way to give Minorities and Women chances at ESPN even when facing criticism that ESPN is too “Liberal”(which is often code),