Awful Announcing
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February "I don’t see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way." Well, they're doing so at the moment thanks to their stake in DraftKings.
"We’ve been leaders in the virtual reality and augmented reality space for a long time now. We’ve already developed content for the Oculus [VR headset] and are willing to make our content available in those spaces."
ESPN's putting a big football game on ACC Network to kick things off, and get providers to pick the network up.
Last year, Fox aired a simulcast of the NFL Network’s coverage of the first two days of the...
"Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right."
Hill talked about wanting to do work behind the camera in news as well as sports back in July, but was still under contract for two years.
"It was just announced by ESPN that rather than defending our anthem, our beautiful beautiful beautiful national anthem, and defending our flag, they've decided they they just won't broadcast when they play the national anthem. We don't like that."
Pitaro said there is "definitely positive momentum" in the ESPN-NFL partnership, and he wants to remain partners beyond the Monday Night Football deal's 2021 expiration.
Skipper reportedly "wasn’t a fan of the sport and didn’t believe it fit into ESPN’s schedule."
"I think that there is a prevailing optimism, particularly as people meet Jimmy [Pitaro], and get a sense of what his vision is for this place."
"I think that Bob Iger is very comfortable with the NFL, he likes the NFL's product, and I think Pitaro is likely to follow his boss' lead on that."
"I do not believe that we are a political organization. ...Of course, there is going to continue to be an intersection of between sports and politics and we’re going to continue to cover that. We’re going to cover it fairly and honestly. But we are focused on serving the sports fan."
It's a move that makes sense for all involved.
The NFL is tired of ESPN's journalism, and ESPN is tired of being treated as a second-tier partner.
