ESPN's Reign As The Worldwide Leader Is In Danger And Here Is Why

On January 2nd, Versus will become the NBC Sports Network and the way we watch sports on television is going to change dramatically.

For years, ESPN has ruled the sports world as the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports. Their role as the only all-sports network of significance has created a media empire that has risen out of tiny Bristol, Connecticut.

But with their own sports network, NBC is now gunning for ESPN's title. And with the solid business model, and a solid support system already built-in, you can forgive ESPN if they are looking over their shoulder for the first time.

Versus was not ESPN, but it was widespread

By acquiring and re-branding Versus, as opposed to starting their own network, NBC Sports will already be a force from day one. When the network debuts in January, it will already be in 70 million homes. They still have a ways to go to catch ESPN (100 million homes), but the task is now considerably easier.

NBC Sports won't just be an ESPN/SportsCenter clone

Chairman Mark Lazarus said "We are not going to replicate what others are doing," and emphasized that NBC Sports would not be doing a "SportsCenter" rip-off.

And that is a good thing.

The biggest reason the USFL and XFL failed and the UFL is going to fail, is that they were just inferior versions of the NFL. Nobody wants that. If they really wanted to succeed, they should have created a new product, much like the Arena Football League did. Maybe some sort of football-rugby hybrid sport and tried to appeal to the UFC crowd.

Now, that's not to say NBC Sports is going after the UFC crowd. Quite the opposite. NBC Sports is more likely to go in the other direction and provide a more intellectual property.

ESPN is no longer taken seriously in many circles

Sports fans have grown tired of ESPN's biased coverage towards the super-teams (e.g. New York Yankees) and the stars that simply drive ratings (e.g. Brett Favre). And hey, that's cool. It works. After all, the E stands for "Entertainment," and the N does not stand for "News."

But it also means that a lot of people believe that ESPN is incapable of providing fair and balanced coverage of sports. Just check out this "SportsCenter" chart and you will see that ESPN takes care of their partners first, and the news second.

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