# Is ESPN Irrelevant in Sports Programming?



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Irrelevant, yes. Over, probably not. :shrug:

If you go by their HD tv listings today, ESPN is well on its way to becoming just a
footnote in the 50 year history of tv sports programming. Just take a look at their
pitiful 'sports' tv listings for today's prime sports hours, 12 noon to 11pm, Sunday,
October 29, 2006.

ESPN HD
NFL Countdown
Bowling
Hot Dog Eating
Hamburger (eating?)
Figure Skating 
SportsCenter
College Football
SportsCenter

ESPN2 HD
Drag Racing
NHRA
Volleyball
Cheerleading
Streetball (4 hrs)?
Soccer
Drag Racing (3 hrs)
Poker

What a "revoltin' development"!

The good news, of course, is that those avid sports fans who have lost the
remote will get to broaden their scope of interest in other "sports", such as
hot dog eating. :lol:


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Nick: I'll grant you that the schedule doesn't have much going on, but then , there isn't a lot of sports activity at the moment. The baseball season is over and the NBA season hasn't started yet. To their credit, ESPN does have a college football game on today, and tomorrow night, it's Monday Night Football. At least, they're not showing Mickey Mouse Club reruns!


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

Yes, by all means run first run live sports vs. the NFL on CBS and Fox and NASCAR on NBC. Yep, that is the ticket right there, bub.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Ummm... since ESPN has never had NFL football during the day on Sunday... and only the Sunday night game when they did have NFL on Sunday until this year... I don't see how comparing today's ESPN lineup makes them now suddenly irrelevant.

They would always have been irrelevant using that logic for the entire history of ESPN's existence since NFL Sunday daytime programming has always been on the OTA networks during ESPN's existence.


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## jimbo09 (Sep 26, 2006)

Well for people who don't want to purchase many sports subscriptions (college fb, college bb, mlb, nba) ESPN is a good way to get a lot of sports on the cheap. They ran 2-5 MLB games weekly. with lots of good match-ups. I think they'll run many NBA and college b-ball games coming up soon, as usual. 

Sportcenter is the "must see TV' show nightly for most sports fans.

Plus, why bother competing too hard with the NFL on sunday afternoon? 

From the first kick-off 'till NBC SNF, they could run ESPNEWS on all their channels for all I care. 

With all due respect, I think you are way off base on this one.


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## Mustang Dave (Oct 13, 2006)

Starting next year ESPN and ESPN2 are making a pretty significant jump into the Nascar circle. The second half of the Nextel Cup season will be split between ESPN and ABC and ESPN2 will air all of the Nextel Busch races. They are also adding supporting Nascar shows and pre-race countdowns. I suppose if one is not a Nascar fan though this ranks about the same as another Hot Dog eating contest. :lol:


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## agreer (Apr 7, 2006)

Mustang Dave said:


> Starting next year ESPN and ESPN2 are making a pretty significant jump into the Nascar circle. The second half of the Nextel Cup season will be split between ESPN and ABC and ESPN2 will air all of the Nextel Busch races. They are also adding supporting Nascar shows and pre-race countdowns. I suppose if one is not a Nascar fan though this ranks about the same as another Hot Dog eating contest. :lol:


Now we just need to move Sunday Night Football and I will never have to put up with the bathtub-echo on NBC-HD live feeds...


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## Deke Leonard (Nov 3, 2006)

What I miss about ESPN is that they used to have a couple of hours of Sports Center on in the morning then fill the rest of the day with replays of completed events. I would stay clear of the morning paper and Sports Center so I wouldn't know who won. Not knowing the final, it was like watching it live. I don't care for their orignal programing and 6 hours of repeated Sports Center every morning is just to much. That's the way I see it.


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## bluedogok (Sep 9, 2006)

I wish they still had Australian Rules Football like they did 20 years ago instead of it being relegated to Setanta Sports for an extra fee, which I already pay a bunch for Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings and Center Ice.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

bluedogok said:


> I wish they still had Australian Rules Football like they did 20 years ago instead of it being relegated to Setanta Sports for an extra fee, which I already pay a bunch for Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings and Center Ice.


+1 I'd like to see them provide even more diversity in their programming. I love some of the sports that don't get a ton of exposure. Table tennis is a good example. Those guys (and gals) are fun to watch.

John


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## colavsfaninnwia (Jan 25, 2006)

I will add another, how about CFL football?


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## Deke Leonard (Nov 3, 2006)

colavsfaninnwia said:


> I will add another, how about CFL football?


Back in the mid to late 80s they had the CFL, I rather enjoyed it.


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## bluedogok (Sep 9, 2006)

You can find CFL games on the regional sports networks and even a few live games. There are a couple of games showing tonight.


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## jimbo09 (Sep 26, 2006)

bluedogok said:


> You can find CFL games on the regional sports networks and even a few live games. There are a couple of games showing tonight.


CFL is shown on the following networks:

Channel 621 - MSGN 
Channel 623 - NESN 
Channel 624 - FSN NY
Channel 629 - CSN MD/DC 
Channel 640 - CSN Chicago
Channel 644 - Altitude 
Channel 656 - CSN West

This week are the conference finals, next week is the Grey Cup, all of those games should be shown live. From their webpage here are times for CSN West (No Cal, SF, SJ, Sac, Monterey, Central Coast, etc):

Sunday, November 12 Scotiabank Championship at TBD 12:00 PM 
Sunday, November 12 Scotiabank Championship at TBD 3:00 PM

2006 CFL GREY CUP CHAMPIONSHIP 
Sunday, November 19 Winnipeg, Manitoba at Canad Inns Stadium 3:00 PM

Times are PST, of course


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

CFL is also shown live in HD on dish ch 9477 Worldsport. HDSportsGuide.com says Grey Cup for sure. Program guide is currently showing to be announced. They also show live soccer from Spain. Anybody else watch the old voom channels?


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