Awful Announcing
Simmons said "I think both of us found we had such a history together that was mostly really good and rewarding that it would be fun to work together again, even if it was in a pretty small way."
Skipper said "Look, in retrospect, we both in some ways looked a little petulant, foolish. And we would have been more dignified had we said 'Let's get in a room and figure what we're going to do here.'"
Bill Simmons and John Skipper are going to be podcasting together.
Beginning March 28, Virk will host DAZN's "ChangeUp," a nightly baseball whiparound program.
DAZN's testing out different advertising approaches in different countries. In Italy, that's been repeated Volkswagen ads.
Anyone who has ever watched a football game on WatchESPN will tell you that the least appealing part...
After a firing at Fox amidst sexual misconduct allegations, Jamie Horowitz was reportedly advising DAZN on their new MLB deal.
"Just as we will disrupt the way that we acquire the ability to watch sports through an app, we will disrupt the way that advertising works. We really will follow the Facebook/Google model — we will understand things about you that will allow us to target ads."
Skipper also talked about the challenges of launching a streaming sports service in 2018.
Skipper reportedly "wasn’t a fan of the sport and didn’t believe it fit into ESPN’s schedule."
A Wall Street Journal report suggests issues arose between Skipper and Iger over time, which may help to explain why Skipper abruptly exited in December instead of being put on leave.
DAZN will be carrying 32 boxing fight nights annually in the U.S. as part of this new deal. Further details on their pricing and other U.S. content aren't available at the moment.
Despite the company being from the UK, Skipper will be based out of New York.
"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."
Questions still remain.
Skipper said his cocaine habit had rarely interfered with work before an extortion plot forced his abrupt resignation.
Could Skipper have been forced out in a corporate power-play?
2017 will be a year that isn't celebrated too wildly in Bristol.
Skipper conducted meetings and business as if he wasn’t going to resign.
ESPN has always hired its presidents from within. Will that trend continue this time around?
"Once those Trump tweets got out there, that brought a whole new audience that was kind of paying attention to things I was saying."
The news caught many by surprise.
Skipper’s highlights include deals with FIFA, MLB, NBA, NFL, Pac-12 and SEC. His lowlights include his Bill Simmons feud.
“ESPN is a journalistic organization – not a political organization. We should do nothing to undermine that position,”
"We don't have less people watching ESPN than last year, we have more. They're just watching in different ways."
