http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013...t-sports-rights-layoffs-and-bill-simmons.html
ESPN President John Skipper is one of the most powerful people in not just sports television, but sports and television. Skipper's reign at ESPN comes at a pivotal time for the company as the network and cable landscapes shift, sports rights continue to soar in value, and competition is greatly increasing with NBC and Fox launching their own 24/7 sports networks.
This week Skipper opened up about several topics in a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter, and while it might be little more than a rundown of internal talking points from Bristol, Skipper is still a relatively interesting and revealing quote for a top executive. In the THR interview, he opens up about a number of topics that have made waves in recent months.
One of the central criticisms of ESPN is their lack of hockey coverage and the first quote from Skipper that leaps off the screen is his "regret" that ESPN didn't win back NHL rights from NBC a couple years ago:
"I regret not being able to get hockey back. We made a strong bid for it last time [in 2011]. But the NHL felt well served by NBC. So that's kind of something you have to respect, that they wanted to stay with the incumbents. And of course, it was very difficult for me to lose World Cup soccer [which will go to Fox in 2018]. It's not even a question of who you lose it to. I mean, one thing we've been fortunate in is that while we've aggregated this huge portfolio of rights, the rest of what we don't have has tended to get spread around. When we lost the World Cup, it went to Fox. Hockey is at NBC. CBS and Turner kept the NCAA men's basketball tournament. That's another one that I regret, of course. Basketball is a sport I played as a kid. I grew up in North Carolina [and went to the University of North Carolina as an undergrad], so bringing the men's tournament here would have been great. But I'm generally pretty proud of what we've been able to assemble -- but we weren't able to get the men's basketball tournament, the World Cup, the Olympics, hockey."
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[/FONT]In addition to hockey, the ESPN President also wishes he hadn't lost the World Cup and had the NCAA Tournament and Olympics. Those are basically the only sporting events on Planet Earth ESPN doesn't have television rights to, so Skipper is basically saying he wants to televise everything. Hockey fans shouldn't get too excited at that Skipper quote and at this point, they should be happy without ESPN anyways. (After all, for every executive that offers a peace pipe to the NHL there's another that says it's a niche sport.)
ESPN President John Skipper is one of the most powerful people in not just sports television, but sports and television. Skipper's reign at ESPN comes at a pivotal time for the company as the network and cable landscapes shift, sports rights continue to soar in value, and competition is greatly increasing with NBC and Fox launching their own 24/7 sports networks.
This week Skipper opened up about several topics in a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter, and while it might be little more than a rundown of internal talking points from Bristol, Skipper is still a relatively interesting and revealing quote for a top executive. In the THR interview, he opens up about a number of topics that have made waves in recent months.
One of the central criticisms of ESPN is their lack of hockey coverage and the first quote from Skipper that leaps off the screen is his "regret" that ESPN didn't win back NHL rights from NBC a couple years ago:
"I regret not being able to get hockey back. We made a strong bid for it last time [in 2011]. But the NHL felt well served by NBC. So that's kind of something you have to respect, that they wanted to stay with the incumbents. And of course, it was very difficult for me to lose World Cup soccer [which will go to Fox in 2018]. It's not even a question of who you lose it to. I mean, one thing we've been fortunate in is that while we've aggregated this huge portfolio of rights, the rest of what we don't have has tended to get spread around. When we lost the World Cup, it went to Fox. Hockey is at NBC. CBS and Turner kept the NCAA men's basketball tournament. That's another one that I regret, of course. Basketball is a sport I played as a kid. I grew up in North Carolina [and went to the University of North Carolina as an undergrad], so bringing the men's tournament here would have been great. But I'm generally pretty proud of what we've been able to assemble -- but we weren't able to get the men's basketball tournament, the World Cup, the Olympics, hockey."
[FONT=Chaparral Pro, Georgia, Arial]
[/FONT]In addition to hockey, the ESPN President also wishes he hadn't lost the World Cup and had the NCAA Tournament and Olympics. Those are basically the only sporting events on Planet Earth ESPN doesn't have television rights to, so Skipper is basically saying he wants to televise everything. Hockey fans shouldn't get too excited at that Skipper quote and at this point, they should be happy without ESPN anyways. (After all, for every executive that offers a peace pipe to the NHL there's another that says it's a niche sport.)
