Quick! Name a television program distributed to a national
audience dedicated exclusively to sports news and highlights… NOT named
SportsCenter.
Can’t do it? That’s because there isn’t one—Over 30 years
since ESPN’s founding and their flagship program stands as the only nationally-broadcasted
sports news show. Are you as weirded out by this as I am? I know Fred Bucher is—his
recent SBJ op-ed piece looks into Fox’ attempt to create a national sports network
to serve as a rival to the ESPN superpower.
Could the ESPN juggernaut be matched by whatever brainchild
Fox can muster? Bucher seems to think that any rival network (whether Fox, NBC
Sports, or upstarts like Google or YouTube) would need an answer for the
currently un-matched SportsCenter.
Can anyone create another national sports news channel?
Could such a channel draw the lifeblood of this industry—live events? The NFL
is well-entrenched as ESPN’s main squeeze. It will be interesting to watch how
this unfolds in the coming months/years.
What do you think? Post your comments below!
This has been a huge topic in the media lately and as more time goes on, the more I think it is possible. To keep my long opinion short, I think that there is room for a network to come in with a news/highlights show and make Sportscenter and its surface opinions/general bias look almost like child's play.
ReplyDeleteRyan, thanks for advancing the Sportscenter discussion among your readers. Sportscenter remains the gold standard in my view. However, to answer the question you pose above, I would bet that within the next 12-18 months another option will emerge. Of course, this doesn't mean the folks at ESPN have anything to fear. They still do a great job. The biggest winner will be the sports fan. More competition is always good for the consumer.
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