Wednesday TV/Media Notes:
Click on the title to read the full story.
ESPN's Skipper says new ESPN.com design in Jan. and 2 billion video views. (onlinevideowatch)
Kyle Petty looking at full-time Grand-Am sports car ride. (DIS)
Republicans watching Unique Whips and PINKS, who knew? (nielson blog)
Ms. Sprint, Monica Palumbo, maybe on TV somewhere next season. (nascar.com)
Dale Jarrett and B-17 bombers, that's a new one. (sun herald)
Longtime owner Larry McClure headed for CourtTV over ARCA problems. (thatsracin.com)
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Ugh. Not another ESPN.com redesign. I use ESPN primarily for to check scores, standings, schedules, etc... When you click on a race or football game recap to read the article of what happened, normally a commercial pops up followed by the sportscenter highlights of that event. I would guess that the majority of their 2 billion video views are coming from people who go to a page with the video already embedded in it, but don't necessarily go to espn.com to watch videos.
ReplyDeletePersonally, these annoy me 99% of the time and I have to turn my speakers off when the commercial starts so I can actually read the article.
It bothers me when sites choose to "re-design", as it requires a faster computer with faster internet to take advantage of, as well as figure out where everything has moved to.
My internet isn't that great to begin with, so espn already takes a while to load. My problem isn't so much the videos, but the site as a whole, way too much content into a small space.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030930041151/msn.espn.go.com/
This is espn.com from just 5 years ago. It's much easier to navigate, and arguably it does a better job of what it's intended to do: report the sports news of the day.
ESPN is turning into the MTV of sports, less substance, more fluff. All this new junk in the Q&A the same as when MTV decided to scale the music videos down to 15 minutes per day. I can't even watch sportscenter any more because it's more about the egos and trying to be "hip" than it is about the sports. Okay, rant over. I apologize if anyone read through all that.
I second that emotion!
ReplyDeleteSpeed redesigned- I quit using
ESPN redesign- I'll quit using
I cannot afford to upgrade every time a website does.
RARELY go to ESPN unless there was a Jr article or Tony video or something but I agree with Alex, yes I read your whole note and agree 100%.
ReplyDeleteams agree with you. SPEEDTV.com is a major train wreck and while last I looked they changed the color of their message boards (FINALLY so you don't need a black light to read white text on gray background) I have given up going to SPEED.
Logging in is a HUGE PAIN and it never remembers you. I went there sometimes to read Robin Miller's column but always needed a map, a compass and a search warrant to find his column.
NASCAR.com same thing.
HATED THE UPGRADE last year.
Frankly I now see all upgrades as really a "downgrade" and a PITA so the sites can add more annoying, motion sickness inducing moving adds or videos.
anything that moves and talks EATS bandwidth so it brings things to a crawl or can crash the best computers.
geez.
Do you guys think that doing a series of columns on the NASCAR-related websites would be a good idea?
ReplyDeleteJD
JD- I think having a column about the websites would be a great idea.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to don your safety equipment first! :)
JD, I too agree that columns about the NASCAR related web site would be a great idea as well. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about that for a while now because of the contstant complaints about the NASCAR.com, SPEEDtv.com and ESPN.com sites.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone suggest any other NASCAR-related website that might be included in a column?
JD
Foxsports.com/nascar and Jayski.com?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with either of those sites, but they might be worth a mention as a counter to the often-complained about sites.
Looking forward to the article JD.
JD,
ReplyDeleteRacingone.com
It's a pain also.
Well, racingone.com and nascar.com are basically the same site. That distinction and relationship is worth a discussion as well.
ReplyDeleteOk. Im sick of these new website designs.
ReplyDeleteNASCAR.Com did it a few years ago and it still gets on my nerves when I go there because it is so hard to find things on the site.
SPEEDTV.Com did it and were claiming how much of a better website it was going to be. It could be futher from the truth. the website is a complete mess. It had all these features that dont even work and its so hard to find information. The website before was better.
Now ESPN is going to revamp their website and I can only imagine how much worse they are going to make it. Right now its pretty easy to find things. But I am sure that will change.
Mr D:
ReplyDeleteI know it isn't TV related, but the number of us who use the MRN and PRN websites to follow the race action might also be included.
Just a thought...
JD, if you do columns about the websites, will we be ignored by them just like ESPN TV ignores us now?
ReplyDelete@ Alex, I liked what you said. Especially the audio part. Nothing worse than when you're cheating at work to check a sports site and get blown off your chair by the loud audio.
dot,
ReplyDeleteI got to tell you, ESPN changed about 80% of what we asked for after the 2007 season.
Rusty out, DJ in, Allen in and Suzy out, Erik the Clueless out and Nicole in, no more music videos and celebrity interviews, a one hour great Monday show.
I really do believe that with a couple of tweaks, ESPN can have a dynamic studio, Nationwide and Sprint Cup package for 2009.
We will see in Daytona!
JD
jd: there's a site that i enjoy immensely and that's stockcarscience.com. granted, it's not your usual nascar column but i always go there when there's a controversy or incident that is more techncal in nature.
ReplyDeletethere's also scenedaily.com, thatsracin.com and maybe frontstretch.com.
as for "the usual suspects" of nascar.com, espn.com and speedtv.com? i hardly ever visit those sites, altho' i hit speedtv.com every tuesday for jade gurss's blog. nascar.com is too cluttered and i'm still in my boycott of all things espn (with apologies to marty smith b/c i really enjoy his writing.)
i admire your courage for even opening this discussion!
OK, we will do Website Wednesdays for the next couple of weeks and start with the NASCAR.com site.
ReplyDeleteThink about the issues you have experienced with this site in 2008 and the reasons you go to or avoid it.
Thanks for the suggestions!
JD
@ JD, you are right, ESPN did make those changes. I guess we do have the power. I can't wait until next year to see if they were really paying attention.
ReplyDelete@ Red, I too love StockcarScience. Regarding the other sites, I don't notice any problems if I access the columns through Jayski. If not for Jayski, I would've never found TDP. JD, now you know who to blame, lol. Btw, besides Jayski, TDP is the only racing site I read everyday.
I will agree ESPN made a lot of changes over the off-season.
ReplyDeleteI say thanks for that.
Now if we can get some excitement from the PxP person, allow the commentators to go with the race as stories happen, (vary from the script), large box the race- small box replays, Brewer, etc., NO "here's what 'driver x', said about ?" during the race, NO full throttle and the rest of the bells and whistles. No “In Race Reporter”! The media hounds the drivers enough; when they’re in the car they’re working, give them some piece. And finally, QUIT creating drama or a story where there is none. There is enough to report about without blowing smoke up our ***.