ESPN is facing some strong headwinds as a network, given the collapse of cable and the rapid transformation of the media industry. There’s been plenty of analysis about the uncertain future for the Worldwide Leader in Sports and how it will navigate these uncharted waters.
But if anything is clear about ESPN’s strategy for this current era of sports and media, they have gone all in as a network on one thing.
Star power.
The answers to the questions ESPN is facing today are centered on hiring the biggest, best, and most famous people to attract and keep fans. But if you know anything about ESPN’s history, it’s counterintuitive to everything the network used to be.
The superstar initiative is a far cry from the days of yesteryear in Bristol when nobody was bigger than the network. Once upon a time in the 1990s, Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann became cultural phenoms as SportsCenter anchors. (Hard to believe now, I know.)
And in Jim Miller’s famed ESPN oral history Those Guys Have All the Fun, Patrick was quoted as saying that the network was worried that he and Olbermann would become too big for ESPN to control and develop a cult of personality all their own as Chris Berman had become for his abilities on NFL Primetime.
“It was all about who had control. I don’t think they liked making stars out of us. As Keith and I were told one time, “We don’t need another Berman.” Chris had established himself as unique and passionate, bold and fun, and I think they were worried that Keith and I were sort of levitating above everybody else.”
ESPN went through a similar back-and-forth during the 2010s. After experimenting with the return of Olbermann and splashing the cash on several big contracts, ESPN let some of its biggest personalities, like Bill Simmons and Colin Cowherd, walk away in the name of controlling costs. Bristol seemed content once again to let it ride on the four letters as the most important thing regardless of who sat in what chair because ESPN itself was too big to fail.
These days, it is the complete opposite. ESPN is leaning on superstars and celebrities to save the network in the streaming era in order to keep its place at the top of the sports world.
What ESPN is doing is no different from what any other media company tries. There’s a reason why Fox shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars for Tom Brady and built a commercial campaign around him even though they had the literal best analyst in television in Greg Olsen. There’s a reason why Netflix went all in on Jake Paul and Mike Tyson as its big entry into the live sports world; even though it was largely seen as a failure, it got people to the platform, and that’s what matters.
But nobody is living into its superstar era quite like ESPN. The transformation of the network over the last couple of years has been truly astounding. And when it’s seen together all in one place, it’s like nothing that ESPN has ever done before.
Monday Night Football’s renaissance
For years ESPN felt as though Monday Night Football was the black sheep of the NFL’s primetime packages. Bad games, inflexible scheduling, and a revolving door of talent left MNF a shadow of its former self. So, what did ESPN do? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make it a premier NFL showcase once again.
ESPN signed the NFL on Fox’s lead broadcast booth of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to mega contracts. No offense to the likes of Jason Witten, Joe Tessitore, Steve Levy, and Brian Griese, but the upgrade was substantial, and it has immediately made Monday Night Football matter again.
ESPN also went and brought in Peyton and Eli Manning and developed an entire altcast around them in partnership with Omaha Productions. As if that wasn’t enough, the ManningCast now has Bill Belichick as a regular analyst this year after his time with the Patriots came to an end.
For its pregame show, ESPN won the Jason Kelce sweepstakes this offseason and now has him on board too while moving one of its incumbent stars, Scott Van Pelt, to the host seat. Who knows if they even add Drew Brees to the mix permanently at some point.
Buck, Aikman, Mannings, Belichick, Kelce, Van Pelt – all working the same broadcast property? It’s a wealth of talent not seen this side of the 1927 New York Yankees. Now ESPN has flex scheduling, better games, and one of its weaknesses has turned into maybe its greatest strength. And it’s just the beginning.
Inside the NBA…. on ESPN?
ESPN’s other major weakness when it comes to its sports coverage has been with the NBA. For years, ESPN has always failed to measure up to TNT’s beloved Inside the NBA. It’s been as big of a mismatch as the Harlem Globetrotters versus the Washington Generals.
So, what did ESPN do? When Warner Bros. Discovery lost NBA rights and settled its lawsuit with the league, ESPN simply licensed Inside the NBA to become its main NBA studio show and solve all its problems.
Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal on ESPN? Are you kidding? What kind of fever dream are we living in?!? It makes the MNF upgrade look minuscule by comparison. NBA Countdown has been through 39 different personalities over the years all the while Inside the NBA has stuck with its core group. And all it took was some Big 12 games moving in the other direction to TNT.
And while ESPN won’t own Inside the NBA or claim the likes of Barkley and Shaq as ESPN employees (it’ll still be a TNT Sports production) the impact on its coverage will be just the same. Bristol managed to find a way to bring the best and most popular studio show in the history of sports television to its airwaves.
ESPN’s investment in NBA talent didn’t stop there. When insider Adrian Wojnarowski abruptly retired, the network chose not to promote from within. Instead, they hired Woj’s chief rival Shams Charania as a like-for-like replacement to be the unquestioned place to go for breaking basketball news. Imagine the Patriots drafting Patrick Mahomes to be next in line after Tom Brady.
License to Thrill
Apologies for the terrible pun aside, but ESPN has figured out that in this new media climate, licensing shows might be the way to survive. If they can’t successfully build stars of their own, maybe it’s better just to rent instead of buy. The landmark licensing deal with The Pat McAfee Show could be the turning point for this new era of content strategy.
Whether you love him or you don’t, McAfee has brought all of the modern-day media benefits to ESPN. In spite of various headaches, controversies, and feuds with longtime executives, McAfee has brought the new eyeballs that ESPN desperately craves. And even more importantly, he has done so across linear and digital platforms, keeping ESPN relevant at a time when YouTube and TikTok are just as valuable as the cable network.
McAfee also stars on College GameDay, where ESPN has also chosen not to rest on its laurels. Facing stiffer competition from Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff, ESPN loaded up by bringing in McAfee last season and Nick Saban this season. Those moves have pushed GameDay to new heights this year in ratings and influence.
ESPN’s investment in its daytime lineup is also seen in the talent they’ve acquired for First Take as well. After Shannon Sharpe’s high-profile divorce from Skip Bayless on FS1, he found a landing spot at ESPN. And like McAfee, Sharpe is a multi-platform star with his own podcast making huge waves.
Instead of finding one foil for Stephen A. Smith to embrace debate with, ESPN has embraced entertainment instead. Now, it’s a place for stars to shine, whether that’s in-house folks like Dan Orlovsky and Elle Duncan or new hires like Chris Russo and Cam Newton. That’s not to mention the money invested already in Stephen A. Smith or even Mike Greenberg and his crew on Get Up.
Planting the Flag(ship)
With ESPN facing business challenges never seen before, the question has been how ESPN could afford such high-priced talent everywhere you look.
But maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe the real question is how they could not?
Sure, it makes for tough optics when ESPN makes its seemingly annual round of budget cuts and talent layoffs. For all intents and purposes, the middle class at the network is slowly disappearing. And ESPN isn’t better off when talents like Zach Lowe are cast aside to balance budgets, just to name one of many.
But this is ESPN’s chosen path for the future. Next year ESPN will launch arguably the company’s most important initiative since its inception when its Flagship DTC streaming platform comes to life. The success of Flagship will have a huge say in just how successful ESPN is in making the linear to streaming transition and maintaining its place on the top of the mountain in a new media era.
And if ESPN has McAfee, Barkley, Kelce, Shams, Saban, Belichick, Manning, and so many other stars all under one roof it sure makes its DTC product more sellable to a sports fan who might be on the fence to subscribe. In an increasingly fragmented media marketplace, these huge superstar investments makes ESPN a must-see destination not just for the games themselves, but for all of the conversation around it through the 365/24/7 media cycle.
It may come at a significant cost, but it checks every box when it comes to game broadcasts (Buck and Aikman), studio (Inside the NBA, College GameDay), and daily talkers (First Take, McAfee). And ESPN can currently lay claim to the biggest talent lineup that has ever existed in sports media.
The superstar era is not the ESPN it used to be, but it’s the ESPN it needs to be for 2024 and beyond.
