Empire Sports in Big Trouble

[Ebenezer]

Acording to Ch. 4 tonight Empire announced that they are laying off 27 workers and going to minimal local programming. How long before they say good bye? What will be interesting is what happens when Empire shuts off permentently and people find out they can get more channels cheaper by going to DirectTV...weather on the 8s is not worth $25 a month.

[Tatonka]

direct tv is good for one thing..

nfl ticket.

[lordofgun]

Originally posted by Tatonka
direct tv is good for one thing..

nfl ticket.

I could not agree more.

[The_Philster]

Kinda makes me not so upset I don't get it anymore if it's soon going off the air. And you have to think that Time Warner execs are chuckling because they helped cause this by limiting access to their subscribers.

[don137]

Where are the Sabres going to be shown if Empire folds. Luckily I live in North Carolina and signed up for the center ice package but I would hate to see the Sabres not on TV in upstate New York.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Wonder if they got rid of Brinson?

[Historian]

All this goes back to the Adelphia-Rigas mess. At some point, they decided that instead of aligning themselves with the Bills, which is a sure fire way to expand viewership, they decided to abandon Bills programming, and focus significantly on the Sabres. My guess is because the Bills would have asked too many significant questions, and possibly exposed some of the problems at Adelphia. These layoffs (and the layoffs at WNSA) are only a trickle down effect from everything that went on.

Remember the good old days????The Frank Reich Show????The Bill Polian Press Conference???Empire has really gone downhill since then.

[Dozerdog]

The guy who put together their website poll must have been one of the guys laid off.


For the past 2 weeks, they copied nearly to a "T" the same poll we put on our Zone front page.

[Michael82]

They also cancelled Fan TV! All that is left is Sabres, and the Empire Sports Report.

[Ebenezer]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Wonder if they got rid of Brinson?

No, he is the new morning guy on the radio...and he is bad...it's like all disco bumpers and basketball...the guy is as bad as his toupee...they even kept Zig-noramous...just moved him back to nights...first chump they should have fired.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I can't imagine why they would have problems. During the day they have such great sports as ping-pong, sync. swimming, miniature golf, etc.


:o:


I sent them some suggestions once but they didn't listen:

1. Put on more Bills stuff. Maybe even have call-in shows much like they do with Simon but have it all about the Bills.

2. Put on more Sabres stuff. Read above.

3. Have a show that the fans run. Have weekly contest to decide something like five fans and then have a forum with the fans chatting about the Bills and the players. You could even do the show in someones house, in sort of the way the SNL skit Wayne's World.

4. Profile the Bills/players players, kind of like a reality show, but get to know the players a little bit more. Show the good side of NFL players. You can see their community work, what they do on their days off, what they do at practice, what they like to do, etc.

5. I don't know if this would work but get a local high school sports show.

I don't know if this interests everyone but if done right I thought these ideas would have nice ratings in this area.

[WG]

Originally posted by Tatonka
direct tv is good for one thing..

nfl ticket.

Indeed!

Their movie selections are great too. $2.99 per movie right after they leave the theaters. That's pretty good. No returns to the store either. It's nice.

But ST rules!

What's really nice about ST is that you don't have to deal w/ the commercials. It's like being at the game from the cameras.

[lordofgun]

Really? There's no commercials with Sunday Ticket??? What do you see during commercial time?

[lordofgun]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Wonder if they got rid of Brinson?

Or Josh Moron?

[Alluro]

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030820/1050237.asp