ESPN and DirecTV keeping fans in the dark

So Scottie Scheffler may be better than we thought, which makes him very good indeed. 

Coco Gauff perhaps isn’t as good as we imagined. And that dispute between ESPN and DirecTV is not good for anyone who gets his sports on television, meaning most of us.

Yes, there are other stations and other networks. And there’s Comcast and an abundance of additional cable companies. But there is nothing like ESPN, which not only transmits but seems to own most of the events. On the screen, excluding The Golf Channel (NBC), and the one which shows Speedway from Australia, sports basically is on ESPN. Yes, an exaggeration, but I’m irritated. I wanted to see LSU-USC Sunday night but instead was restricted to advisory messages. “Our contract with Disney, the owner of this channel,” they said  “has expired. We appreciate your patience while we negotiate to give you greater flexibility, choice and value.”

What they failed to say was “and to increase our profits.”  

Nothing wrong with that. This is a capitalist society. Those golfers and tennis players as well as the football, baseball, and basketball players are pros. The games are their work. They get paid for their skills and their success, often very, very well.

By winning the Tour Championship last Sunday, his seventh victory of the year not including 1st place and a Gold Medal in the Paris Olympics, Scottie Scheffler earned a cumulative $25 million. Tennis payoffs are smaller than golf. Still, Gauff, the defending champion, won $325,000 for making it to the 3rd round of this year’s US Open Championship, losing to Emma Navarro.  

There is great money in sports, and one of the reasons is the multi-million dollar TV agreements.

Everybody demands more. As we are aware two San Francisco 49ers, Brandon Ayuk and All-Pro tackle Trent Williams signed only days before the start of the NFL season. Eventually, the holdouts and management get together because there are few other options. Each needs the other.

The players have leverage. The viewers do not. As became evident Sunday night when Direct TV chose not to show the much-anticipated college game between USC and LSU, which the Trojans won in the final seconds. The sort of exciting game that increases TV ratings. However, in this case, no one was able to watch it. It was an ESPN game.

The U.S. Open tournament is a virtual ESPN event. Every match day and late night is carried, and there are a dozen ESPN announcers, all former players or instructors, offering expert commentary.  You learn a lot, even if you don’t know a rally from a volley.

But starting Sunday evening you learned nothing. The tournament went on but we were blacked out. That was unfortunate, particularly if you are a tennis aficionado. That was also reality. The big boys challenge each other at the expense of the little people.

Pro football is the golden egg for TV sports. The assumption is that ESPN and DirecTV notice all too well. A settlement may not be very far in the future.

But that doesn’t bring back the LSU-USC game or the tennis matches that were missed.