Canada is one of the
few countries in the world that does not have ESPN. For sports fans in Canada, this is a crying
shame. Somewhere along the lines, the powers that be in Canada decided that Canadian sports fans could not
have the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. To be fair, at least we have
espn.com, for now. And who watches television these
days?
The most obvious point to make about this new book, Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World
of ESPN, is that it is a story of all the hijinks and strange behaviours exhibited at
ESPN during its earliest days. And this book is
entirely entertaining, if only because it is a tell-all. In fact, the book is almost completely an oral
history of ESPN. It is written in such a way that the authors
themselves are merely transcribing the interviews they did with the entire cast of characters that made
ESPN the worldwide leader in sports programming. One
excerpt of an interview with an ESPN person flows into another and the story is told.
The authors themselves say very little, which is incredible given that the book is over 750 pages
long.
If you choose to really focus in on the content, you will quickly realize that the
genius of this book is how it describes the creation of a company from the ground
up.
There are several observations worth noting: 1) ESPN is at its core a technology company, 2) an all
sports channel was bound to happen but the incumbent national television channels such as
ABC, CBS and NBC were either too slow or lacked the creativity to
come up with the idea themselves, and 3) ESPN would have still been broadcasting unpopular
sports such as bowling and skeet shooting if it were not for the deep pockets of the Getty Oil
company.
ESPN’s greatest move was to purchase a satellite transponder that allowed it to send its
signal across the United States. Whatever other strategy was employed by the company, the fact that it had
the appropriate technology to be a national television channel from the onset was what made it a success in
building and monetizing its audience.
And what an audience. Whereas the big boys in US television such as
ABC, CBS and NBC were happy enough to offer bits and bites of
different kinds of content, the people at ESPN took a complete departure from the view that they
could be everything to everyone. ESPN zeroed in on an audience, namely sports fans in
the USA, and catered solely to sports fans.
Audience in hand, ESPN was able to leverage those eyeballs and acquire
more programming and programming of a higher quality. Starting with whatever sports programming they could
get, which in this case were sports such as Aussie Rules and bowling, ESPN built an audience. The company realized that their
audience would rather be watching football, baseball and basketball, and therefore went after the broadcast
rights to these bigger ticket items. American college sports became ESPN’s next target and their success with
that programming subsequently vaulted the company into the big leagues.
Literally.
Like an athlete who graduates from college and goes to the
National
Football League, ESPN’s ability to deliver sports such as
professional baseball and football really propelled the channel to the next level. As the book rightly points
out, the value of the ESPN brand is now worth more than the leagues
themselves.
It took a great deal of oil money to get ESPN off the ground. The interviews in the book bear
witness to the fact that Getty’s investment was essential but also somewhat crazy. Getty sunk tens of
millions into a business that often times did not seem to have a clear business plan. It was as though
everyone involved realized a great deal of money could be made off sports programming, but no one really knew
how much money was in them thar hills.
The derivative of sports has outgrown the sports themselves and in recent years, fantasy
sports, a further derivative, has become a multi-billion dollar business. Ever at the cusp of the bleeding
edge, ESPN has become a fantasy sports hub par
excellence.
Where will they go next? Who knows. As sports leagues themselves become broadcasters,
something seen by the rise of the NFL network of television, radio and Internet outlets,
ESPN will have to figure out how to exist when the
leagues themselves do not want to sell their programming content. If history is anything to go by,
ESPN will find a way to maintain
relevance.
This book is a great read for sports fans. I would argue that this book is important
reading for anyone in business and essential reading for anyone involved in a media start-up. There are
countless lessons to be drawn from the story of how ESPN was built. Getting past the gossip, this book is
one of the best business stories I have ever read. •
