A Spirited Valentine ...

Phineas

Well-Known Member
Can someone out there please invent time travel?...
No lie, when I started a new job, the instructor during orientation asked us as an ice breaker: "If time travel were invented, when would you travel to?" And you had the typical answers, 200 years into the future, the Renaissance, etc. When it was my turn, I said "1982. Florida. For the original Epcot Center." I was greeted by silence. People don't understand haha
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
No lie, when I started a new job, the instructor during orientation asked us as an ice breaker: "If time travel were invented, when would you travel to?" And you had the typical answers, 200 years into the future, the Renaissance, etc. When it was my turn, I said "1982. Florida. For the original Epcot Center." I was greeted by silence. People don't understand haha

Because they were not THERE
 

Nubs70

Well-Known Member
With actions like this it once again shows that TWDC thinks that Wall St is the customer who must be served. The earnings call is going to be a hoot.

Disney should hook up a generator to the spin machine on this earnings call
Whacking 100 FTE is more than Wall St servitude. The current action smells of basic business and realization the boat has a hole in the hull.
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Whacking 100 FTE is more than Wall St servitude. The current action smells of basic business and realization the boat has a hole in the hull.

The ESPN boat has a Titanic size hole in the boat mainly caused by executives overpaying for rights. 2.6 billion for weekday NFL games yet no superbowl.

Yet fox got a package of weekend games with 2 Superbowls for 800 million.

How much of that 2.6 Billion was a bribe to the billionare boys club known as NFL ownership groups but Iger blew that with his 'deer in headlights' preso to the NFL

The problem is WHICH 100 FTE got whacked. They whacked their most popular on-air personalities. ex Mike Golic one half of the Mike and Mike team who were staples of Drive time radio.

Intelligent companies dont whack the people who CREATE the revenue. Without Mike and Mike ESPN might as well write off Drive time radio and the ad revenue

This is not whacking 100 faceless executives this is whacking the people who drive revenue. They were probably the 100 most expensive non-executive employees.

Hence wall st as customer

And no no number of 20 something replacements will replace them

The right approach was to go back to the teams and tell them that the deals are unsustainable in the current media environment and must be renegotiated at a lower price. Else we do a strategic bankruptcy and the judge will figure out what the rights are worth
 
Last edited:

csmat99

Well-Known Member
Once again Disney/ESPN management shows their utter cluelessness

Now ESPN can kiss the Morning drive time slot buh-bye. Looks like Mike Golic is history now.

Mike and Mike WAS drive time radio for a huge audience. And even if you were not a sports fan it was fun to listen to. Because the show was about the interplay between the Mikes.

FS1 must be breaking out the champagne right about now.

Time to short DIS
Golic isn't history. He resigned with ESPN earlier this month. Everyone has known for months they were breaking the Mike's up. There have been interviews about it. Mike Greenberg is going to be used to try and save morning sportscenter with his own show within a show and Golic is going to be doing the radio with new co-host. And the issue with ESPN isn't ratings it's the fact that ESPN is bundled at around 8 bucks per month so when you have the hipsters who are cutting cable who don't even watch sports ESPN losses that money. I have been saying for years ESPN dropped the ball and they should of went the Netflix/HBO route and targeted people who want their product and will pay for it versus forcing people to pay when they never even turn it on.
 

csmat99

Well-Known Member
No lie, when I started a new job, the instructor during orientation asked us as an ice breaker: "If time travel were invented, when would you travel to?" And you had the typical answers, 200 years into the future, the Renaissance, etc. When it was my turn, I said "1982. Florida. For the original Epcot Center." I was greeted by silence. People don't understand haha
People all lie about that question. The only true answer December 12, 1980 the date Apple went public. Buy as many shares as you possibly could have bought. If you spent $990 back then it would be worth 330k today. :)
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Golic isn't history. He resigned with ESPN earlier this month. Everyone has known for months they were breaking the Mike's up. There have been interviews about it. Mike Greenberg is going to be used to try and save morning sportscenter with his own show within a show and Golic is going to be doing the radio with new co-host. And the issue with ESPN isn't ratings it's the fact that ESPN is bundled at around 8 bucks per month so when you have the hipsters who are cutting cable who don't even watch sports ESPN losses that money. I have been saying for years ESPN dropped the ball and they should of went the Netflix/HBO route and targeted people who want their product and will pay for it versus forcing people to pay when they never even turn it on.

You are forgetting the even bigger piece of ESPN its RADIO programming and the billions in ad revenue that drives. And the hits were disproportionately in the RADIO side of the business which is competitive unlike the cable space

No listeners the radio stations will drop their ESPN affiliation like a hot rock

If you are in the major metro areas where average commute is 2-4 hours per day. Drive time radio is a BIG DEAL.
 

csmat99

Well-Known Member
You are forgetting the even bigger piece of ESPN its RADIO programming and the billions in ad revenue that drives. And the hits were disproportionately in the RADIO side of the business which is competitive unlike the cable space

No listeners the radio stations will drop their ESPN affiliation like a hot rock

If you are in the major metro areas where average commute is 2-4 hours per day. Drive time radio is a BIG DEAL.
I totally agree with you that radio is big deal. I used to listen to Mike and Mike a ton but you also have to agree podcasts are growing at an unbelievable rate. People want to listen to things on their own time like how when DVR's came out that threw TV ratings into a mess.
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
I totally agree with you that radio is big deal. I used to listen to Mike and Mike a ton but you also have to agree podcasts are growing at an unbelievable rate. People want to listen to things on their own time like how when DVR's came out that threw TV ratings into a mess.

No question that 'on demand' services are the wave of the future.

Its also the one area where Disney is unable to execute effectively in mainly because they dont value information technology.

Disney unlike all other companies of similar scale regardless of industry is unable to keep its IT and telecomm platforms online during peak loads which in the modern world is considered a minimum level of service
 

Phineas

Well-Known Member
People all lie about that question. The only true answer December 12, 1980 the date Apple went public. Buy as many shares as you possibly could have bought. If you spent $990 back then it would be worth 330k today. :)
Okay, okay. So when time travel is invented, I can go back to orientation, and change my answer, and then wait until it's invented again, and then go back and buy Apple shares, and then wait until time travel is invented (again), and then finally get to experience the original Epcot Center.

Is this a good plan? Sometimes I worry that I overthink things.

:)
 

csmat99

Well-Known Member
Okay, okay. So when time travel is invented, I can go back to orientation, and change my answer, and then wait until it's invented again, and then go back and buy Apple shares, and then wait until time travel is invented (again), and then finally get to experience the original Epcot Center.

Is this a good plan? Sometimes I worry that I overthink things.

:)
Yes, that is much better plan. :)
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Sorry to interrupt the @ford91exploder fever dream, but just for a bit of perspective (facts some may boldly call them).

ESPN employs about 4,000 people. At this time it's being reported they are cutting about 100 people; not FTE (full time equivalents). Framing it as an FTE only allows for future obfuscation to increase the number by saying it was 100 FTE but 400 people. It doesn't make sense, but that's the type of shenanigans that are pulled around here.

They are cutting about 2.5% of their workforce.

I'm not offering opinions either way, just some facts as we know them at this moment.
 

wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
In other news ESPN is laying off 100 additional people today. INCLUDING on air talent.

Yup the cutting to greatness strategy is in full swing at Disney
Here is the thing, ESPN isn't what it was back when I was growing up. I growing watching ESPN back in the 1980's and 1990's. That era actually ESPN covering a bunch of sports unlike treating some sports like red headed stepchild because they don't have the tv rights to it. They also are way too biased for certain teams and conferences.

The truth is they didn't fire the people they needed to and John Skipper the President of ESPN needs to be gone also.
 
Last edited:

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Sorry to interrupt the @ford91exploder fever dream, but just for a bit of perspective (facts some may boldly call them).

ESPN employs about 4,000 people. At this time it's being reported they are cutting about 100 people; not FTE (full time equivalents). Framing it as an FTE only allows for future obfuscation to increase the number by saying it was 100 FTE but 400 people. It doesn't make sense, but that's the type of shenanigans that are pulled around here.

They are cutting about 2.5% of their workforce.

I'm not offering opinions either way, just some facts as we know them at this moment.

And only one former coworker of mine got clipped..... Sofar
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom