ESPN buying FiveThirtyEight after hiring Nate Silver

[mgf]

According to Michael Calderone, Senior Media Reporter for The Huffington Post, via Twitter:

• ESPN is buying the FiveThirtyEight name and URL -- not a licensing deal.
• ESPN won't comment on how much the network paid for FiveThirtyEight.
• Nate Silver expects to hire at least one more person to cover politics full time.

Interesting move for ESPN and Disney to take on this blog from NYT. Thoughts?

(Please keep this from getting political.)

 

[michmousefan]

I also heard that he will have a presence on Keith Olberman's new sports show on ESPN2.

 

[Darth Sidious]

What is the need for politics on ESPN? Do they plan on launching an ABC 24/7 news network? If ESPN starts airing politics in lieu of sports, I'll gladly watch Fox Sports 1, which Disney seems a little uneasy of. It seems as though FS1 is the first real threat they might face.

 

[michmousefan]

It was made very clear that Olberman's show would be a sports show and essentially "politics free". Nate started out in Baseball analysis before he got involved in political handicapping, so he's just going back to his first love.

 

[Darth Sidious]

It was made very clear that Olberman's show would be a sports show and essentially "politics free". Nate started out in Baseball analysis before he got involved in political handicapping, so he's just going back to his first love.

Interesting, I hadn't seen that... I had figured they were planning a news network and just scooped them up for the time being.

 

[maxairmike]

Interesting move for sure, but I'd be more interested in the ratings drop that's been going on, especially with FS1 getting ready to start up, and the most profitable college sports network (also partly owned by FOX) pushing into the NY/NJ/DC corridor over the next three years. It looks like ESPN's typical antics and preferred hero building/destroying and lack of real sports commentary ("embrace debate" is the worst thing they've ever done) are about to come back around to bite them big time. Fortunately for them, it looks like FS1 is going to attempt to compete with ESPN on ESPN's level, which means debate shows and shallow, worthless commentary. If people are getting sick of it from ESPN, it won't fare any better on FS1. Still, ESPN has reason to be concerned, and to consider moving away from what has made them a horrible sports network lately.