"ESPN is Microsoft but non-evil, it's not like they're taking over anybody's local sports pages." ESPN, like WalMart, may not take over local sports pages, but they are making it increasingly difficult for other sports news programs to compete. How many of us consistently choose ESPN over other news programs? Why? (I like ESPN, and, honestly, the comparison to Microsoft falters, but it is interesting note that ESPN continues to grow--NHL, NFL, NBA, etc--in Microsoft fashion). I think the biggest evidence for the dominance of ESPN is SportsFilter's consistent return to ESPN.com for links, news, articles, etc. The fact is, it is difficult to find other sources that can compete with the coverage and quality of ESPN.com. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it would be easy for SportsFilter to function as "ESPN presents SportsFilter: a webspace to discuss ESPN content." It is simply a fact that ESPN dominates sports coverage in America (at least on the web).
ESPN is really good at what it does, and they didn't cut anyones throat to get big, so I don't see a problem. Now I'm going to finish watching Sportscenter.
yeah, the only thing ESPN does that is evil is the damn popunder AND popup that load on their front page. For a while the top one would re-focus itself when it finished loading (if I killed or hid it while it was not loaded). THAT was annoying. At work on the PC I have my wonderful popup stopper, but no such luck at home on the Mac (unless anyone has a mac IE popup stopper?). But aside from that, ESPN has superior content, and I agree, they didn't cut anyone's throat to get big, and for the most part they're always the best, fastest, and most entertaining (although I personally can't stand Stu Scott, most of America loves him)...
no such luck at home on the Mac Mozilla and Opera have it built in. Hey, if we're bashing Microsoft, I might as well suggest you give Moz a spin.
I have a hard time hating ESPN, I really love the product they put out. I'll watch the same sportscenter over and over. I'll even watching competitive jump roping on espn2 everytime it's on. Espn.com has been my start page for 5 or so years now.
I prefer the NY1 Sports coverage to ESPN's, greatly.
Bernreuther: Pop-Up Zapper works o.k. and you can try it out for a few days before you have to register. I agree with yerfatma though, I started using Mozilla a few months ago and now live pop-up free. (sorry off-topic)
While we're off topic, will someone honestly give me some of the disadvantages of Mozilla? I've considered switching (using IE 5.2 on Jaguar/PowerBook G4). What is gained, and, more importantly, what is lost by going with Mozilla? Now, regarding ESPN, I will not deny that ESPN puts out a superior product, but at what point will their domination become problematic? Let's say they pay to have exclusive rights of all the major sports. Or that they buy out 90% of every major sports magazine.
My complaint with Mozilla is that it's a memory hog and runs slower than IE, but that's on a PC. The only platform-independent thing I can come up with is that a lot of sites don't look right in Mozilla (which is the site's fault for not being compliant, not Moz's*). In fact, to get this all back on topic, plenty of ESPN.com pages look like hell in Mozilla (two paragraphs of slightly oversized text in one font followed by small Times New Roman). * Mozilla, not Morrissey
Thanks.
jacknose - I tried to email you, but it was returned undeliverable, so here it is: In an effort to keep the thread more on-topic, I figured I'd email you with my mozilla (or general mac browser) thoughts. I am also using a powerbook G4, just so you know. Yerfatma is right about mozilla being a memory hog, it loads at about the same speed as netscape, or slightly (YMMV) slower than IE. The ability to block pop-ups is probably my favorite benefit, although the option to block images from individual servers is also cool. (I don't really know much about using host files to keep the adservers at bay.) I haven't had yerfatma's experience with espn.com pages not looking good, but I have noticed this in other websites (especially microsoft sites, go figure). Chimera is a really fast browser, but I rarely use it because it lacks the extended features of mozilla. Although I'm sure you've probably seen it, there is some discussion of mozilla and others in this metatalk thread.
To get back on-topic...I actually don't think that we can equate ESPN with being "the M$ of sports broadcasting." Especially on cable! I mean, OLN has had full coverage of Tour de France and the America's Cup races; Speed Channel has Formula One and WRC. Throw in Fox Sports Channel, par-per-view of English Premier League, and the local international-oriented public TV station that regularly puts up Aussie football and Irish hurling (!!)....there's lots of choices in my neck of the woods. ESPN would only be the M$ of sports broadcasting if they tied up all these contracts in the US AND overseas. I don't see that happening.
ESPN isn't the problem; the real menace is The Associated Press. Most ESPN recaps are AP stories in an ESPN wrapper, with maybe an ESPN sidebar to spice things up.
