Coming soon, perhaps, to a Cocktail Party near your television.
ESPN, the network and self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports, is on this Earth for one reason and one reason only: to provide a telecast and entertainment in whatever sport they are paying millions and often billions of dollars to broadcast. ESPN also wants to be in the assumption business, meaning those at the network think they know what viewers want.
On Saturday, a day made specifically for college football, ESPN thought it would be wise to split screen games with Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and his quest to tie the American League record for home runs in a season. Does anyone else see the issue here? The reason you didn’t see that on Friday night is because the game against the Boston Red Sox was nationally televised and the network isn’t allowed to break into coverage.
College football fans, especially the teams whose games were split screen, don’t care about Judge or baseball, at least not while their team is playing. If a consumer wanted to watch the Yankees, there are plenty of other ways to do that, but the network must think people don’t own smartphones, can’t stream, or go to a bar to watch if they really wanted to see history.
ESPN had the same issue with the its Monday Night Football telecast, assuming that fans wanted to be updated on the other game with that dreaded split screen. Only when Clemson and Wake Forest went to overtime Saturday did they use some common sense and update Judge’s chase instead of breaking into live action.
It’s a matter of when, not if. Mickey don’t care. And the saddest thing will be watching Greg Sankey ignore it.
Get The Picture 