Media

ESPN layoffs target on-air personalities

A control room at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., July 25, 2013. Richard Perry/The New York Times

By JOE DRAPE and BROOKS BARNES, New York Times Service

ESPN on Wednesday morning began another round of layoffs, this one aimed at many on-air personalities, perhaps the starkest sign yet of the financial reckoning playing out in sports broadcasting as cord-cutting proliferates.

ESPN is by far the biggest and most powerful entity in sports broadcasting, and it also may feel the sting more as viewers turn away from traditional ways of consuming live sports. The network has paid vast sums for the broadcast rights to many major sporting events, but the revenue derived from cable subscriptions is declining.

More than 10 million subscribers have been lost over the past several years, but the network has continued to outbid competitors for many of the most coveted properties, including $12 billion for NBA games and $7.3 billion for the college football playoffs.

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“ESPN was wrapped in Teflon for many years, but big payouts for rights fees plus significant losses in their subscriber base were like punches to the gut and head, and now the company is trying to make sure they are strong enough to fight in the future,” said James Andrew Miller, who wrote a book on ESPN and has contributed to The New York Times.

In October 2015, ESPN laid off about 300 people, most of whom were not on camera.

“Dynamic change demands and increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent — anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play — necessary to meet those demands,” ESPN’s president, John Skipper, said in a statement to employees on Wednesday.

In the most recent quarter, Disney’s cable networks division reported $864 million in operating income, an 11 percent drop from the same period a year ago, with ESPN the reason for the entire decline, Disney said at the time. The company blamed the weak results on higher NBA and NFL programming costs and lower ad sales.

Here are some of the ESPN employees who have made statements on social media so far: NFL reporter Ed Werder, college basketball reporter Dana O’Neil, soccer writer Mike Goodman, Big Ten football reporter Austin Ward, hockey writer Joe McDonald, hockey writer Pierre LeBrun, ESPNU host Brendan Fitzgerald, NHL columnist Scott Burnside and Tennessee Titans writer Paul Kuharsky.

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