Bill Simmons leaving ESPN.

Djay

Djay

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I'd have to go listen to his stuff again to give specific examples...I was just explaining the reasons I stopped listening to him 2 years ago on my commute to work. But, yeah...the example Vandyn gave is similar to the type of stuff that really turned me off. I know he had some strawman stuff where he'd change the point of the argument and go off on that instead. It's been too long since I've actually listened to him to give specific examples, though.
 
LachiusTZ

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Dude talks, on the record, adlib, for 20 hrs a week. I write some of that off as his crew being his sounding board and that being most of his feedback.

I can definitely get him chafing your ass. But I do think he is one of the smarter and better sports commentators.

That being said, his level of smug is really starting to wear thin. So yeah, I can understand. Lol
 
Sterling

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Yeah he's a huge douche and has a lot of double standard hypocrisy stuff happening, but he's also smart and generally is well researched which is a huge step up from most of the ESPN guys. Not that the bar is set particularly high.
 
Gilgamel

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He does his job. If you're a national radio host your job is to get people to listen. He's not a hypocrite or anything like that, he's just good at what he does. It's not my cup of tea but don't hate on a dude for making bank.
 
DickTrickle

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The example above (player gimmicks) is pretty hypocritical. They're not really hating on him being popular or making money, but his style and content.

I enjoyed listening to him, though I only did so for probably a half hour a week on average.
 
Wombat

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Gilgamel_sl said:
Apparently they are in massive cost cutting mode. Something like 40% of their revenue comes from people who don't even watch the channel due to the way cable deals work, and Netflix/HBO/Amazon are putting massive pressure on a declining cable industry to give people a la carte options instead of the big packages you have to buy now. In the big scheme of thing Simmons/Olberman/Cowherd are a drop in the bucket though.
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/lecture mode:

Cable channels, unlike oldschool broadcast channels, get their money from two sources: the first is advertising spots (like broadcast), and the second is what the cable systems (Time Warner, Charter, Comcast) pay the cable channels to air them every month (usually called carriage fees). E.g. if you're a Time Warner customer (like me), roughly $6 of your bill every month goes right to ESPN*. (By contrast, AMC, back in the Frank Darabont-Walking Dead mess, was getting a mere $0.26 every month per customer.) This is why if you want certain channels, you have to subscribe to extra packages (because your cable system doesn't want to pay that price for every subscriber they have), or why it can take so long to get a cable channel added to your system - it took forever for the NFL Network to get added to Time Warner, because the NFL wanted it added as a basic package channel (so Time Warner would have to pay them for every subscriber), while Time Warner (obviously) didn't want that.

The rise of digital and a la carte systems could put a serious dent in the the likes of ESPN, TNT, etc.'s bottom line... in about a decade or so. The more likely case is this is just another once-a-decade spring cleaning, where expensive hosts get released and the network carries on. How many 20-somethings even remember when, say, Craig Kilborn or Dan Patrick were on the network?

*All those college bowl games you've never heard of until recently? They're completely "fake" entities created by (and owned by) ESPN, because they earn more in advertising spots than it costs them to hold the events, and raises the carriage fees they can charge the cable systems per month.
 
zzeris

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He was one of my favorites but not because he was awesome but because most of them are so bad. Outside of Mike and mike, there really isn't much left now that Olberman, Simmons, and Cow-turd are gone. The rest sound like Fox News. Repeat the same shit over and over with different people saying it. Fuck that noise.
 
Gilgamel

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Wombat_sl said:
/lecture mode:

Cable channels, unlike oldschool broadcast channels, get their money from two sources: the first is advertising spots (like broadcast), and the second is what the cable systems (Time Warner, Charter, Comcast) pay the cable channels to air them every month (usually called carriage fees). E.g. if you're a Time Warner customer (like me), roughly $6 of your bill every month goes right to ESPN*. (By contrast, AMC, back in the Frank Darabont-Walking Dead mess, was getting a mere $0.26 every month per customer.) This is why if you want certain channels, you have to subscribe to extra packages (because your cable system doesn't want to pay that price for every subscriber they have), or why it can take so long to get a cable channel added to your system - it took forever for the NFL Network to get added to Time Warner, because the NFL wanted it added as a basic package channel (so Time Warner would have to pay them for every subscriber), while Time Warner (obviously) didn't want that.

The rise of digital and a la carte systems could put a serious dent in the the likes of ESPN, TNT, etc.'s bottom line... in about a decade or so. The more likely case is this is just another once-a-decade spring cleaning, where expensive hosts get released and the network carries on. How many 20-somethings even remember when, say, Craig Kilborn or Dan Patrick were on the network?

*All those college bowl games you've never heard of until recently? They're completely "fake" entities created by (and owned by) ESPN, because they earn more in advertising spots than it costs them to hold the events, and raises the carriage fees they can charge the cable systems per month.
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If you honestly think the landscape of digital entertainment isn't changing rapidly and that the old distribution models are dead in the water I don't know what to tell you. It won't be 5 years, much less 10. They lost 3% of their subscriber base this year alone, and that's only going to accelerate.
 
popsicledeath

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LachiusTZ_sl said:
What's with the Cowherd hate here? He seems in line with the liberal circle jerk here, dude is smart, good, etc.
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I don't like him at times on a very subjective level in that his voice and style is whiny to me and sounds douchy.

From a more objective perspective he's kinda clumsy with technical things, like a lot of dead air and then he'll respond to the producer talking in his ear. Shit like that bothers the hell out of me. I also get annoyed with his pre-produced skits (or whatever the equal would be on radio) and don't usually find them funny (but see how 40 year old white men wearing black socks with white Newbalance sneakers would, I guess).

He also doesn't have very strong pure-sports related opinions, and his opinions often just seem like his subjective opinion that isn't researched very well. I tend to like the guys that can cite stats or concrete reasons or are at least really funny/bold about their opinions. Cowherd just usually seems safe and mediocre to me.

Then again, I'm a huge Jim Rome fan, and a lot of people hate him and his show because he'll often go off the rails talking about things far from sports related. His show is technically as sound as they come and he is almost always funny and entertaining to me, though. Maybe I'm bias because Rome will have a bit more dead-air than other hosts, too, but it's usually dramatic pauses, not like Cowherd who'll seem confused and like he's trying to figure out producer direction.
 
LachiusTZ

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popsicledeath_sl said:
I don't like him at times on a very subjective level in that his voice and style is whiny to me and sounds douchy.

From a more objective perspective he's kinda clumsy with technical things, like a lot of dead air...

Maybe I'm bias because Rome will have a bit more dead-air than other hosts
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I can see how you find Cowherd douchy tho . . . but the technical stuff? . . . Wut? . . . Most of the time he is just talking to his crew, they seem to have a decent rapport. I guess its just pure preference, I find Rome grinds my douche tolerance to zero pretty fast.

Dont forget PTI, that show is great. Cowherd, PTI, Mike and Mike are the only things I have watched / listened to on ESPN for a few years. Obviously I missed the Bill Simmons train, but shit thats already 4hrs a day of radio junk . . . by the time I got around to Simmons there were Game of Thrones podcasts etc?... I liked his 30 for 30 series tho, just never listened to Grantland etc. Need to give it another swing when he gets setup at his new gig.
 
Djay

Djay

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PTI is the only ESPN show I DVR. They can actually have an intelligent conversation about subjects. Mike&Mike is ok...I don't have any gripes about them, but I don't go out of my way to listen. I used to love Bill Simmons...I read everything he wrote and listened to all his podcasts, but about 5 years ago or so his stuff stopped being as interesting to me. I still think he's one of the best NBA guys and was the only reason the NBA pre-game shows were interesting, but something changed after the Grantland and 30-for-30 stuff.
 
Caal

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Djay_sl said:
PTI is the only ESPN show I DVR. They can actually have an intelligent conversation about subjects. Mike&Mike is ok...I don't have any gripes about them, but I don't go out of my way to listen. I used to love Bill Simmons...I read everything he wrote and listened to all his podcasts, but about 5 years ago or so his stuff stopped being as interesting to me. I still think he's one of the best NBA guys and was the only reason the NBA pre-game shows were interesting, but something changed after the Grantland and 30-for-30 stuff.
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I'm the same way, but every week I would wait for his podcast with cousin Sal like a kid on Christmas day. I fucking loved his gambling stuff.
 
Foggy

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Even if you are not a fan of Simmons and/or Cowherd, ESPN is losing some of the very little talent they have left. That channel is mostly trash and their best writer and one of their best radio guys are leaving.
 
Brando

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I stopped listening to Cowherd probably a year ago as he would flip flop on a position quite often to whichever side would create the most interest in what he has to say. I get why he does it but it gets old after a while. Much better to just listen to podcasts of people with a real actual opinion that is backed up by facts than whatever direction the public opinion flag is pointing that day.
 
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