For only the second time in the company’s history and the first time since 2013, ESPN laid off hundreds of employees. The layoffs were caused by lower advertising revenues which resulted in lower ratings and rates. Also, ESPN is having difficulties competing with subscriber-based services. The total came up to be around 4% which is a total of about 300 workers. The layoffs were split with 2/3 of employees at the Bristol headquarters and the rest were employees worldwide.
Courant.com reported, “These changes are part of a broad strategy to ensure we're in position to make the most of new opportunities to build the future of ESPN," CEO John Skipper said in a letter to employees that was posted on the network's website.
With layoffs coming at a large broadcasting company like ESPN, the general public would believe it would be the anchors and analysts they see on TV. However, this is not the case as the majority of layoffs were given to producers including longtime SportsCenter producer Gus Ramsey. Ramsey is life-long friends with former ESPN analyst Bill Simmons. Ramsey also appeared frequently on Simmons’ ESPN podcasts.
“It will always be an honor to have ‘ESPN 1994-2015’ on my resume,” said Ramsey in a blog post detailing his layoff after 21 years at ESPN.
Subscription based companies including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu to name a few, is the biggest threat to any broadcasting company. Currently, subscription based services is the new innovation of technology which is hurting ESPN partnerships with cable networks. Cable packages that were once a hit are now meaningless to broadcasting companies like ESPN if they can make more profit by giving advertisements within subscription based companies.
“[The ESPN layoffs] is a big deal, many families lost their guardian’s jobs, that was their main source of income, especially in today’s economy,” NHS junior Adam Beckett said. “I still think [ESPN] is still top notch, well known, more people refer to that than any other source.”
NHS junior Owen McInerney agreed with Beckett’s views on the ESPN layoffs, “Definitely, they (ESPN) lay off loyal employees, and it’s pretty terrible, being laid off and finding your way back,” McInerney said. “ESPN is too world-wide to go backwards, it’s everywhere, I watch it every day, very involved with ESPN apps and they’re very good at social networking, I also watch it on the go.”
With its second layoff process in less than a decade, clearly ESPN is trying its best in innovating themselves for the upcoming generation of fans. Subscription based-services may be rising however, ESPN seems to not be holding back in continuing to be “The Worldwide Leader in Sports.”