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| Comcast Sports Net Bay Area |
In addition to the Bay Area, similar layoffs have hit Chicago, says Robert Feder.
More than likely, the studio-based sports news program, "Sports Net Central" will be dumped, or at least modified to a more social media-enhanced format. This represents a significant change in the presentation of sports news at Comcast.
Sports Net Central has never moved the needle here but that's not a Comcast edict. Their business model has always been presented around sports clients like Giants and A's baseball; 49ers and Raiders NFL football; Sharks hockey; and Warriors basketball.
Cable is facing a subscriber upheaval with ESPN alone losing over 600,000 subscribers last month and now having to resort to new models to ebb the flow. Nobody knows for sure if that will work but Comcast is in roughly the same predicament and now looks for ways to curtail its own numbers reduction.
Expect more changes too. This is not the last personnel move.
Many jobs can be saved by firing Amy G.!
ReplyDeleteShe should use her maiden name.
DeleteWhat is her maiden name? Prmplzak?
DeleteThe sports bubble is about to pop. The NFL is down, and if not for the Cubs MLB would be seeing a bigger hit.
ReplyDeleteNets are paying wayyyyy tooo much for sports programming and that's gonna hit them in 2017. Watch NBC/UNI/Comcast slash budgets this 2017 in News also.
There might be an "election effect" on the NFL ratings thus far this season. I'd wait a few weeks before reaching any firm conclusions.
Deleteagreed -- people are sick of the product the NFL is putting out there what with 3" of play followed by 6" of commercials followed by idiotic calls by the refs and then the reviews -- so boring ! Thurs nite games are not helping. Re: ESPN loosing so many viewers - how long will it take for them to get the message? the kids are NOT buying those damn expensive cable pkgs [me neither] -- allow me to buy ad hoc what I'd like to watch. MLB set up their off season so only those again with the expensive cable pkg could watch the play-offs. these golden geese are set to get cooked !
DeleteIt's not the "Election effect", the NFL has been shooting itself in the foot for several years. Letting Kraep and his zillionaire thug buddies kneel for the national anthem (while admitting to not voting...) hasn't helped, nor does all the showboating after every single play, and the insane amount of commercials per on-field action has come home to roost.
DeleteViewers are enjoying having some free time on Sundays! (Saturdays too, I couldn't watch any college games anymore, the shuck and jive after each play was just too much anymore.)
I guess Comcast isn't happy Griggs locked in so many hosts to contracts? Maybe why he suddenly tired of warm California and see's the beauty of frigid winters for 7 months of the year now?
ReplyDeleteCSNBA is a shrill for their teams. Just like KNBR sucks Larry Baer's huge one. Go away. No loss. Scram.
ReplyDeleteFeldman and Fareed are the smarmiest, douchiest tandem on TV. Really embarrassing to watch them. Also, Fallon Smith has a voice that could rip paint off a wall. Getting rid of these folks is addition by subtraction. One exception might be the very pleasant Mindy Bach.
ReplyDeleteAgree about Fallon Smith's voice. I'm waiting for her to cough and clear her throat.
DeleteCSN Bay Area does a fair job of reporting professional sports. The anchors are competent and are knowledgeable. The Giants and Warriors are the bread and butter. What lacks in their reporting is a lack of coverage for ALL colleges and universities. There is more than Stanford and Cal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe shitty irrelevant colleges
DeleteCSNBA Might Be Dumping Main Studio Show!
ReplyDeleteMIGHT BE DUMPING, That's quite a scoop.
Maybe they should fire their Giants producer. The pregame shows are the same boring shit everyday.
ReplyDeleteyea, no need for ''this date in giants history'' , cause we know it was probably a season they didn't win anything.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed their website doesn't have as many "breaking news" items on it. Wondering whether they are cutting back on costs . . .
ReplyDeleteFrom someone who has a regular peek inside the operation (but little if any sense of the internal politics):
ReplyDeleteFeldy and Ahmed (especially Ahmed) are phenomenally more intelligent than their SNC schtick on screen. They were obviously told to do early 1990's Sports Center impersonations. That's too bad, and doesn't give them enough credit for who/what they are.
The beat reporter has slowly been phased out, and the load has been put on the "insiders" to do the bulk of the live shot work. Both Mindy and Fallon are not traveling with the 49ers and Raiders this year on away games, which saves what, about $8k (I'm guessing)?
Papa isn't going anywhere (unless upward, but he's fairly busy as it is). Giants and Warriors pre/post game shows are great. Sharks underrated, but really outside of SJ, who cares? CSN cannot do anything with A's because 1) they don't rate well, and 2) A's PR fights them on everything for some bizarre reason. NFL pre/post game shows are a puzzle because none of the games are on CSN's air. I think they have some sort of marketing deal with the 49ers to be on the Faithful Mile and be in their in-stadium studio, but who watches that? They cannot even air highlights... just stills from AP and Getty put in motion over analysis of the game.
Features and mini-doc opportunities abound, especially with the resources they have available to them compared to the local news stations, but instead they insist on repeating the same content, live mind you, throughout several shows leading up to the game that is on that evening (Sports Talk Live, Sports Net Central, Pre Game show, etc.).
Synergy and defined roles between the broadcast truck and the ENG crews is odd and ever-changing, creating a lot of overlap and over-utilized resources.
CSN Chicago, from what I've heard from staffers that visit the Bay Area, is fiercely under-staffed and under-equipped. They may be a big drag on CSN Bay Area/California.
Parent company Comcast knew what they were doing when they bought NBC Universal: the cable industry is eroding fast, but content is king... so long as you can support it. CSN is feeling the immediate burn (but it probably won't be long term), but this is the perfect moment for the consultants to turn it into a Social Media based platform... whatever the hell that means. Prepare for Short Attention Span Theatre 2017.