This week ESPN has positioned itself back into the spotlight of sports and sports entertainment, and people are outwardly upset about the moves they are making.
The NFL first made a deal with Disney, the parent company of ESPN, where it will give the NFL a 10% stake in all things ESPN in return for control of key media NFL assets including the NFL Network. The NFL Network has one of the most fan friendly shows that are on television with the NFL Sunday Red Zone.
Many fans took to social media and any outlet they could to talk about their concerns with what would happen to their beloved Red Zone. The Red Zone is a show that airs on Sundays during football season and bounces around all the leagues games with instant highlights and showing every NFL touchdown.
Long time Red Zone host Scott Hanson quelled some of those fears when he said he will be back behind the desk for another season hosting the show. Hanson wrote on X "Fired up for a great season! Optimistic about this new partnership!"
Yesterday ESPN made more news, and with it more fans upset, when they gained the rights to broadcast the WWE. They reached a rights agreement to become the exclusive home of all WWE Premium Live Events in the U.S. The PLE's are the highlight of the WWE schedule each month.
The price increase from their current home of Peacock to ESPN premium will go from roughly $10 per month to $30 per month. WWR President Nick Khan is confident people who subscribed to Peacock for WWE ‘PLEs’ will follow the product to be subscribers of ESPN. He stated that they followed from the cancelled WWE Network to Peacock.
Fans were quit to point out that was the same price though, not three times as much.