Marketing / 04.01.20

With No Live Sports, the TV Sports Industry Struggles, Gets Creative

Access Staff

Los Angeles Daily News (03/30/20) Keisser, Bob

The TV sports industry has had to creatively grapple with the cessation of live sports because of the coronavirus pandemic, with ESPN and the cable outlets of CBS, NBC and Fox losing a massive amount of programming. "The first few days were just consolidation of what we do and covering whatever was out there to cover," said ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys. "We still had shows like First Take and all of our SportsCenters, and we talked about the postponements of events and the few things that were happening, like Tom Brady leaving the Patriots and NFL Free Agency." The MLB Network opted to keep some its studio shows going to discuss baseball's immediate plans, while also re-airing great games. The network also has the rights to the Ken Burns documentary series "Baseball," as well as many baseball-related movies. ESPN shuttered its Los Angeles and New York studios and has installed Scott Van Pelt's novel version of SportsCenter, showcasing lesser-known sports or leagues or colleges, as a mainstay. The network also may dig deeper to its acclaimed SportsCentury archives, although Soltys said this would be a complicated venture. "There is footage that the network had to pay for when we aired them, and we would have to get approval to use it again or consider editing them out of the original show," he noted.

Read the full story from the Los Angeles Daily News. 

Tags: Sports , NFL , COVID-19 , Coronavirus