Unit 2 Portfolio

Unit 2

ESPN has been the leading platform for all sporting news in the world for almost forty years.  Over that time, there were many changes in the broadcasting industry that many companies struggled to overcome.  Possibly the largest obstacle, and still the most prevalent, was and is technology.  ESPN adapted over the years in order to stay relevant in a time of ever so changing technological platforms and social media.  This new technology allows ESPN to find, reach, and expand their audience in a way that best interests the company and it's viewers beyond just broadcasting.  Technology has allowed for ESPN to use and expand  upon fantasy football, Sports Science, and statcast.  All of these aim to target fans who want to get closer to the game and gain insight on live updates and injuries.  

Fantasy football has been a game loved by everyone who enjoys sports.  In the early 1960’s, fantasy games were just a mere thought that no one expected to be what they are today.  Although, with the increase in technology, fantasy sports have become a major cornerstone in the sports industry.  ESPN jumped on the bandwagon in 1995 when they begun their first ever fantasy football league.  Fantasy football was a new way for ESPN to use technology and to explore it’s possibilities.  If we look at how it has helped grow their company today, we can see a major spike in viewership.  When fantasy first began, it was relatively small and was mostly done on paper.  ESPN transformed this into what we know it today through the use of technology.  

Fantasy football, and thus technology, opened so many doors for ESPN that I will explore in detail.  One major advantage fantasy football has added to ESPN’s diversity is the creation of a whole new application for smartphones.  One article describes the app as, 

“The No. 1 most popular fantasy football game, ESPN Fantasy Football has begun its 23rd season with enhanced game play and expanded content on the ESPN Fantasy App and ESPN.com, as well as the fantasy sports industry’s most comprehensive collection of expert analysis, news, statistical data, and tools across app, web, television, and audio” (Ota, 2018).

This application plays a large role in how the company has been operating the past few years.  The application’s tremendous success has led to so many other opportunities that ESPN has also capitalized on.  

  ESPN advertises some of their workers as fantasy football experts.  This experts give advice on how to manage, run and own a fantasy team in order to win.  In many cases, fantasy football leagues include friendly gambling to incentivize participation in the league.  Those who participate in free leagues are playing for bragging rights over some of their closest friends.  Due to this, fantasy team owners trust the expert’s valuable opinions.  One way ESPN is able to get the expert’s voices out to the public is by broadcasting.   

Every year ESPN airs TV specials before fantasy drafts in order to let viewers to get an inside look at what the professionals think can help them win.  This drives viewership up for TV tremendously.  “According to ESPN, its first ‘Fantasy Football Marathon’ last year ‘drove the two biggest days ever in the history of ESPN Fantasy Football.’ A record 1,753,511 teams were drafted during the 2016 marathon” (Rosenthal, 2017).  In recent years, ESPN’s TV viewership had been dropping slowly due to other news outlets such as social media.  This spike in viewership for this marathon was a huge win for the network.  This shows how important the expansion of technology and fantasy gaming is to ESPN’s success.

Another way ESPN voices the opinion of their experts is through the release of podcasts.  The ESPN Fantasy Focus podcast stars four of the lead fantasy experts that is available on any Apple device.  In each episode, they discuss the latest news and injuries and those who listen feel as if they are getting top notch secret information (ESPN, 2018).   

Twitter also plays a large role in fantasy football gaming.  Many of these experts have personal accounts linked to ESPN where they give live updates from game scores, injuries, and star updates.  At some points, these experts will also announce when they will be on ESPN”s flagship show SportsCenter to discuss fantasy.  This is free advertisement for ESPN broadcasting.  Matthew Berry, probably the most famous fantasy expert and analyst, has nearly one million followers in Twitter.  We can begin to see the importance and complexity when it comes to how technology and fantasy football expand ESPN’s horizons.  

Although, there are some criticisms of ESPN personalities using Twitter as a means of relaying news to fans.  In an article, the author states, “With such frequent access to their news sources, people will expect, even demand, a constant bar- rage of new information, whether it is newsworthy or not. This paves the way for stories based on gossip, speculation, and hearsay to receive as much time in the headlines” (Hancherick, 20).  To an extent, I believe the author is correct; moreover, I believe the expansion of technology as a media platform is something that is inevitable.  ESPN and other outlets will continue to use social media in order to grasp a younger audience of millennials.  

The popularity around ESPN’s fantasy football has opened so many other doors for the company. The popularity of other fantasy games including: baseball, basketball, and hockey, is no where near football.  Although after playing fantasy football, many people will try and crossover to a new fantasy sport.  Some do this to keep themselves busy in the offseason and others use it as a way to decide fantasy football draft orders for the upcoming season.  In essence, fantasy football has given ESPN a platform to succeed in other aspects of the fantasy world.  

Outside of fantasy sports, ESPN uses technology in other ways to enhance their flagship show SportsCenter.  In most cases, these segments are a few minutes long and are incorporated into the show.  They usually look at a certain athlete and use technology to analyze and express how difficult it is to perform the way they do.  They use physics and technological animations to express this numerically and visually.  In the video attached, John Brenkus analyzes Steph Curry’s three point shot.  During the clip, numerical values describing knee angle, ball speed, and power generated are computed and displayed through technology.  They compare Curry’s shot to others in the league and explain why he is so successful.  It allows us to understand how difficult it is for the average human to achieve these sport feats.  To those who love sports, these clips give insight in to why professional athletes we watch daily and idolize are truly masters of their craft (Brenkus, 2017).    

Another example of how technology helped mold into what we know ESPN as today is Statcast.  Statcast is a system that uses technology in baseball that quickly and accurately can determine pitch speed, distance, exit velocity, launch angle, spin rate, catch probability ,and sprint speed.  The MLB website describes the importance of Statcast as, “The radar and camera systems create Statcast, which allows front offices, broadcasters and fans alike to quantify the raw skills of players in ways that were previously available only to scouts or not available at all” (Statcast, 2018).  Now fans can feel as if they are much closer to the players and can grasp a better understanding of how athletes are physical specimens.  In a way, this technology is similar to Sport Science.  

If we take deeper look into one stat that Statcast can generate we can see how it can be applied to other aspects that have already been discussed such as fantasy baseball.  In the MLB glossary, exit-velocity is defined as, “Hitting the ball hard is skill-based and therefore considered at least somewhat predictive of future performance” (Statcast, 2018).  This technology now allows for fans and fantasy baseball owners to make decisions when it comes to their teams.  If a player is hitting the ball hard and has a high exit-velocity but is in a slump, fantasy owners can see he is just unlucky with where he is hitting the ball.  If the player has a low exit-velocity, fantasy owners can tell that the player is not performing well and can add a different player.  

In the Sports Illustrated article, the series of videos are from ESPN’s Monday Night Football.  They have been using technology in new ways that allow fans to seemingly get closer to a football game.  The star athletes were given microphones during the game.  This was an initiative that was being used to drive ratings.  In the videos, you can hear how they talk while mid-play, interact with teammates, and communicate on the sidelines. 

In this article, there are a few videos that I feel are important to my topic of how ESPN’s technological advances.  They are hoping that allowing fans to feel closer to the game will boost ratings.  This allows for fans to get insight into aspects of the game they had never seen before.  They can feel as if they are on the field with the players or on the sidelines talking over new game plans.  Jay Rothmans, who is a lead producer of Monday Night Football, stated, “No disrespect to the NFL, but I brought them examples of what Major League Baseball has done with it’s audio, what the NBA has done, and how the NFL is behind” (Feldman, 1).  The NFL and ESPN acknowledge this may not be their solution to fix their ratings, but want to catch up with technology and see if it can solve the mystery.

In essence, ESPN is using technology in innovative ways to encompass a vast audience that is beneficial to ratings.  The desire from the company to continue to succeed is undeniable.  They are not afraid to move out of their comfort zone and expand horizons on any type of technology or media that is up and coming.  Although some aspects of their company, such as fantasy football, have been up and running smoothly for over twenty years, there is always a way to stay ahead of the technology curve.  With TV viewers declining due to new technologies and streaming services, it is imperative that ESPN makes the necessary moves to remain thriving.  By creating new smartphone applications for fantasy, ESPN has enabled it’s fans to participate anywhere in the world, instead of just in front of a computer screen.  They has also expanded to podcasts; once again allowing people to get sports information away from conventional devices.   

It is rumored that the company is working on 4k resolution live television.  This will allow for the clearest live picture sporting event in history.  It was also rumored that as the demand for virtual reality increases, they will soon begin working on a way to bring the game right to your living room.  At the rate technology has been advancing the last twenty years, it is hard to say what ESPN will look like in the near future.  Although, it is almost certain that they will figure out a way to manipulate future technologies to it’s benefit in order to successfully attain a larger audience.  

Rosenthal, Phil.  “ESPN pushes expanded fantasy football coverage with 28-hour marathon.” ChicagoTribune.com. 17 August 2017. https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/ct-espn-fantasy-football-marathon-20170811-story.html 

Ota, Kevin. “ESPN Fantasy Football: Back for More than Ever Before in 2018.” ESPN. 8 August 2018. https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2018/08/espn-fantasy-football-back-for-more-than-ever-before-in-2018/ 

ESPN. “Fantasy Focus Football.” ESPN. 29 October 2018. http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/2942325 

ESPN. “Steph Curry from 30 feet.” Sport Science. 18 November 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0044xEaZaA

MLB. “Statcast.” 29 October 2018.  http://m.mlb.com/glossary/statcast 

Feldman, Jacob. “ESPN Is All in on Sound for Monday Night Football.” SI.com, 17 Sept. 2018, www.si.com/tech-media/2018/09/17/espn-monday-night-football-sound-micd-up-khalil-mack.  

Hancherick, Drew. “Tweet Talking: How Modern Technology and Social Media Are Changing Sports Communication.” Elon University. 2011.  

http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/vol2no1/02Hancherick.pdf