After watching the Youtube ESPN with Phelps I was wondering about ESPN and the Olympic sports. Like it or not, ESPN drives sports interest in this country. They can make or break a sport - and if they don't have enough sports to show, they go and create one - like the X-Games.
But they will never promote the big Olympic sports like track, swimming and gymnastics - because NBC has the biggest prize in those sports - the Olympics. ESPN is not going to promote swimming for 3 years and then let NBC get extra ratings. On the flipside, NBC does not have a real sports network to show these sports - they can only afford to show the Olympics and maybe the trials.
What if ABC / ESPN would have had the Olympics for the last 20 years ?
Would we see the major meets in non-olympic years on ESPN 2 ? Would they not have sports center highlights of the US Nationals in track ? They could have their own women's channel and just show gymnastics and figure skating.
Not sure how much longer NBC has the Olympics locked up, but I think the IOC and USOC would be well served to give ABC and ESPN a run at this.
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After watching the Youtube ESPN with Phelps I was wondering about ESPN and the Olympic sports. Like it or not, ESPN drives sports interest in this country. They can make or break a sport - and if they don't have enough sports to show, they go and create one - like the X-Games.
But they will never promote the big Olympic sports like track, swimming and gymnastics - because NBC has the biggest prize in those sports - the Olympics. ESPN is not going to promote swimming for 3 years and then let NBC get extra ratings. On the flipside, NBC does not have a real sports network to show these sports - they can only afford to show the Olympics and maybe the trials.
What if ABC / ESPN would have had the Olympics for the last 20 years ?
Would we see the major meets in non-olympic years on ESPN 2 ? Would they not have sports center highlights of the US Nationals in track ? They could have their own women's channel and just show gymnastics and figure skating.
Not sure how much longer NBC has the Olympics locked up, but I think the IOC and USOC would be well served to give ABC and ESPN a run at this.
This is a great discussion and I couldn't agree more with your analysis. NBC sports is a joke. ABC/ESPN/ESPN 2/ESPN Desportes/ESPN Classic/ESPU U and even The Ocho (for those of you who saw Dodgeball) could all do a much better job of promoting olympic sports in non olympic years.
As far as the X Games go, yes ESPN created the TV coverage for it and capitalized, but many of those "activities" were happening on Moto Cross tracks, half pipes, and ski slopes all over before.
I think about ABC and the old program "Wide World of Sports". Now that was a program that was good TV and promoted all kinds of non mainstream events every weekend. Now all we get from the 3 networks is a golf tournament, baseball football basketball game, and if we are really lucky on NBC we will get the superstar challenge or some goofy propgram like that were we can watch guys like Michael Strahan swim a 25 yard freestyle. Boy that makes our sport look compelling doesn't it?!
After watching the Youtube ESPN with Phelps I was wondering about ESPN and the Olympic sports. Like it or not, ESPN drives sports interest in this country. They can make or break a sport - and if they don't have enough sports to show, they go and create one - like the X-Games.
But they will never promote the big Olympic sports like track, swimming and gymnastics - because NBC has the biggest prize in those sports - the Olympics. ESPN is not going to promote swimming for 3 years and then let NBC get extra ratings. On the flipside, NBC does not have a real sports network to show these sports - they can only afford to show the Olympics and maybe the trials.
What if ABC / ESPN would have had the Olympics for the last 20 years ?
Would we see the major meets in non-olympic years on ESPN 2 ? Would they not have sports center highlights of the US Nationals in track ? They could have their own women's channel and just show gymnastics and figure skating.
Not sure how much longer NBC has the Olympics locked up, but I think the IOC and USOC would be well served to give ABC and ESPN a run at this.
This is a great discussion and I couldn't agree more with your analysis. NBC sports is a joke. ABC/ESPN/ESPN 2/ESPN Desportes/ESPN Classic/ESPU U and even The Ocho (for those of you who saw Dodgeball) could all do a much better job of promoting olympic sports in non olympic years.
As far as the X Games go, yes ESPN created the TV coverage for it and capitalized, but many of those "activities" were happening on Moto Cross tracks, half pipes, and ski slopes all over before.
I think about ABC and the old program "Wide World of Sports". Now that was a program that was good TV and promoted all kinds of non mainstream events every weekend. Now all we get from the 3 networks is a golf tournament, baseball football basketball game, and if we are really lucky on NBC we will get the superstar challenge or some goofy propgram like that were we can watch guys like Michael Strahan swim a 25 yard freestyle. Boy that makes our sport look compelling doesn't it?!
