ESPN Cuts Tied to Rights Fees, Viewer Declines

SportsBusiness Journal: As the names of the roughly 300 laid-off ESPN employees leaked though the sports industry at the end of last week, many execs reacted with a sense of disbelief. More than a dozen senior execs — both inside and outside of Bristol, Conn. — seemed surprised at the severity of the cuts. All the contacts pointed to a combination of skyrocketing rights fees and deep distribution cuts that put ESPN in the position where it had to shed about 4 percent of the company’s workforce. “The cost of goods is going up and sales are going down. That’s not a good trend.”