A Letter to ESPN's President

Mr. George Bodenheimer
President
ESPN, Inc.
ESPN Plaza
Bristol, CT 06010

Dear Mr. Bodenheimer:

I have been a viewer and listener of ESPN's television and radio broadcasts for as long as I can remember. My memory of your live sports coverage goes back to the days of Australian Rules Football and coverage of The America's Cup in the very early days of the network. I also recall the first SportsCenter and other progressive programming like The Sports Reporters.

Your live sports coverage has always been top notch and I have continued to enjoy many of your original programming experiments. But I would be remiss if I did not state that I no longer feel like a valued customer. I now find myself only tuning in for programs like Pardon the Interruption, your College GameDay coverage, and ESPN Radio because I know I am going to get quality content for my valuable time.

I understand the need to innovate and to bring in new viewers to your network. I also understand the pressure from advertisers to show more "edgy" content that skews younger. Unfortunately, ESPN's attempts at this kind of programming over the years have produced a graveyard of scuttled shows. My advice to you is to stick to what made you a successful network in the first place: Live sports, news, and intelligent analysis.

Leave the movies and awards shows to Hollywood, keep the talking heads to a minimum, and let the actual games be all the reality shows you need. (Just for the record my morning show already is on ESPN, and it's called SportsCenter.) Please do not sacrifice many loyal viewers in the hopes of capturing a few novelty ones.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Steve MacLaughlin