Will coronavirus break the sports media industry? | Hacker News Reader

Will coronavirus break the sports media industry?

bloomberg.com

Live sports has been the last gasp of cable TV bundles for so long now. It's frankly astonishing that more people haven't cancelled en masse. Or maybe they have and earnings haven't been released yet.

And good riddance. I look forward to being able to stream individual games on demand.

I canceled mine after dragging my feet for years and paying way too much all that time. I have been dreading the call required to cancel but it went pretty smoothly. The lady asked why I was canceling and I said, "I only pay for this for Hockey (and sometimes Baseball) and I am no longer getting either". She seemed not surprised in the slightest and there was zero push back or painful trips to the "retention department". I too look forward to way better streaming options in the next couple of years.

It's proved ominous for newspapers as well. Local Big City daily manages a few ads, but the sport section has had none in weeks, if not over a month.

> People who don’t like sports have always paid for cable networks they didn’t watch.

Exactly. So now we think that sports fans paying for games they can't watch is going to cause a problem? These business people have spent decades building an empire that depends on getting people to pay for services they're not enjoying.

I would be shocked if they can't find some way to weasel their way out of it this time, too.

Wrestling seems to have done well enough. Maybe that's the future for other 'sports' too.

As probably one of the bigger wrestling fans on HN, I feel obliged to point out that WWE is doing very poorly even though it's just about the only live sport-like product left on TV: https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwe-smackdown-falls-below...

WWE's TV deals are in danger, which is why they are terrified and trying to be the first thing back up and running, to grab as much marketshare as possible while they can. Doesn't seem like anyone's biting, though.

(the shows are also pretty unwatchable these days, but that was a problem long before coronavirus. that said, I agree with the other commentator that some of the pretape stuff they've been experimenting with has been working okay, and I'm kind of cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Money in the Bank PPV, which sounds like the film "The Raid" but with pro wrestling)

I have to agree about the quality of the weekly shows, RAW had been soulless and SmackDown just "funny", but for me NXT has doing well, except for Miss Flair as the NXT Champion, the show has been pretty solid, and new additions like Dexter Lumis and the upcoming Scarlet+Kross seems right. Speaking in quality I can say for NJPW, the lastest WK was incredible, I cheered too much for Naito.

> As probably one of the bigger wrestling fans on HN

I have to ask ...

As an adult, what's the appeal of watching WWE?

Fair question! Different folks get different things out of it. Personally, I got into it a few years ago since I have some friends who are into it. It drew me in with all the spectacle, and kept me in with how compelling the long-term storytelling can be.

Lots of people compare wrestling to soap operas, with the overdramatic acting and the constant, several-times-a-week frequency of shows, but really the closest comparison I'd have is something like the current Marvel movie franchise - a silly, bombastic thing that somehow winds up being surprisingly emotionally effective (at times). Of course, much like how there are a lot of bad superhero movies, there is a lot of bad wrestling, but the good stuff can be really good.

Not a wrestling fan but this short documentary made me understand the appeal

https://youtu.be/rnvSs3HEz2o

Yes, a good example was the use of pre-taped matches like "Ultimate Deletion" and the recent "Boneyard Match", if not overused will be a good solution for some matches. It would be give us nice Dream Matches like Undertaker Vs Stinger, even Foley posted on Twitter he could wrestle on this type of match.

Isnt' UFC growing in this space?

Yes coronavirus will impact the sports industry. But some sports will held and don't worrt about Covid-19.

I'm fascinated by your account. It's 21 days old yet has a karma of 1. And the majority of your comments are greyed out.

I wouldn't ask if this was just a personal HN account, because at this point nothing surprises me anymore, but for an account that claims to "provide you fully tested tech product reviews, buying guides, features analysis, and a large how-tos collection. Our staff work 24/7 to provide the latest tech industry news.", I can't help but be curious what it is you're trying to achieve. Is anyone on your staff telling you to stop it with the shit comments, or to figure out how to not eventually get shadowbanned?

It will hopefully break the Academic Industrial Sports Complex, and rich parents can stop Photoshopping their useless brat's heads into photos of rowboats and basketball courts. They should be giving those scholarships to poor hard working kids who know how to use Photoshop, instead.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/college-admissions-s...

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/colleg...

>4. CW-1 allegedly photoshopped applicants’ faces onto stock photos of athletes, sometimes in ridiculous ways.

>In one case described in the court documents, CW-1 told a parent that he would photoshop an applicant to make it look like he had played football, even though his high school did not have a football team. CW-1 said this would increase his chances of admission to USC to 90 percent, and the two even discussed what fake position he would play. “I’m gonna make him a kicker,” CW-1 said, prompting the parent to laugh and say, “He does have very strong legs.”

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