Many at ESPN are calling Wednesday, “Doomsday.”
The ‘world wide leader in sports’ announced weeks ago they would be laying off several on-air talent. But wow, it truly is shocking to see who and just how many got the axe.
ESPN just laid off 300 people across the country in 2015, most of them non-talent. So why roughly another 100 now, especially those who are the faces and voices of the network?
Well, they’ve lost more than 10 million subscribers over the last few years. They’ve overpaid (billions of dollars) for TV rights. And Disney, the parent company, is losing money because of all this and is not happy.
“ESPN was wrapped in Teflon for many years, but big payouts for rights fees plus significant losses in their subscriber base were like punches to the gut and head, and now the company is trying to make sure they are strong enough to fight in the future,” said James Andrew Miller, who wrote a book on ESPN and has contributed to The New York Times.
So below is a running list of of the most recognizable names who have been cut from ESPN so far. There’s expected to be around 100 axed by the end of the day.
The Layoffs
See the rest of the talent being laid off Wednesday at The New York Times.
It’s all jaw dropping. And it’s simply because ESPN thought they were invincible, overpaying for coverage of the NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA football.
Once cable rates went up, millennials cut cords. Now ESPN is cutting their talent because of it.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of Crave Sports.
