ESPN Rise Will Probably Be the Network's Downfall
So ESPN is going to introduce a new interactive website, TV time, and publications to cater to high school sports?
Who's Now? The Greatest Highlight, Titletown, all that stuff was and still is pretty laughable. We knew that it was all part of a feeble attempt to make sports more relevant to fans than just scores and features. But there are only so many sharks to leap over, and considering this is the same network that just hung O.J. Mayo out to dry, making high schooler exploits apart of your 6:00 p.m. SportsCenter just reeks of the bad side.
ESPN touts it as a move to bolster its 12-17 audience and were it a marketing decision to cross-promote Wall-E, I could understand. But trying to engage more teenagers comes off as a bit desperate for the World Wide Leader, and I guess you can't control the world without those all-important teenagers. Nice to see all those Truth commercials didn't go to waste.
Would it be nice to see the future cash cows of the NCAA in action today? Absolutely. But the price may prove to be more steep than can be afforded, as SportsCenter makes a living off of being the fool of sports' grand morality play. You can't lament the big business of college sports and the woe of early entry draft busts and then promote underdeveloped talent and overhyped potential.
But we've come to expect these kind of stunts from ESPN, haven't we? If they weren't rolling out some ill-fated concept every week, then gosh, we'd just be left with....sports.









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