ESPN has "taken steps over the past few years to evolve 'SportsCenter' from a daily sports news and highlights show to a multi-platform media brand," according to Sahil Patel of DIGIDAY. Patel sat for a Q&A with "SportsCenter" anchor Scott Van Pelt and Senior VP/"SportsCenter" & News Rob King to discuss the evolution of the show. Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for brevity:
Q: Scott, you’ve previously said the "SportsCenter" of the Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann era could not work today. Why?
Van Pelt: If you know you’re dealing with an audience that more than likely knows the outcome, how do you create content that they’re going to be interested in? Maybe they’re interested in what my opinion is or a more thoughtful or clever treatment of an outcome. There’s still room for the highlight. It’s just that you have to figure out what you put in and around that highlight.
Q: How has that changed how ESPN approaches each "SportsCenter" episode?
King: We’re on 15 to 16 hours a day, but we’re on for very specific audiences. Rather than trying to create one monolithic "SportsCenter," we have to think about what people are doing at various times of the day. By midnight, most people know the headlines and so it’s important to provide context around the headlines. That’s different from, say, 7:00am, when people are waking up.
Q: How has [success on Instagram] changed how you've staffed for digital and social?
Van Pelt: From the perspective of our show, we have a dedicated staff member -- sometimes two or three -- for our daily meetings who are just focused on the digital space. They’ll share the things that are getting traction online, which I might be interested in discussing on the show. Or even if it doesn’t get on the show, we might do a Facebook Live after the show about that topic and by the morning half a million people have seen the video.
King: We have a team of eight folks whose responsibility is to deploy across all of our "SportsCenter" shows in some fashion, as well as a number of others doing the same thing for the shows on ESPN2. Similarly, we have folks dedicated to other shows like "College GameDay," which has a terrific Snapchat experience.
Q: One of the biggest media stories of the past few months -- if not the past few years -- has been the continued decline in cable subscribers and TV ratings. ESPN has not been immune to this. How much of that has played a role in what "SportsCenter" is today?
Van Pelt: It would terrify me if I felt like ESPN and "SportsCenter" were losing numbers to a competitor. But the numbers tell us that’s not happening. I have never seen [James] Corden’s show, I’m on at the same time. But I’ve seen him sing in the car with a bunch of people. Does that mean I haven’t seen his show? It’s the same thing with us. Maybe you didn’t see our show last night, but maybe you caught Van Pelt’s "One Big Thing" segment on your phone. People haven’t chosen someone else, they’re just choosing to find you in some other place (DIGIDAY.com, 1/18).
