ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

This was a behemoth. 778 pages. Definitely the longest book I have ever read. I have seen this book laying around many places, and often times I have heard people mention it. I wanted to read it when it came out, but truthfully I saw the length and passed. One of the guys I work with mentioned something from the book a few weeks ago so I decided to give in and read it. It took me nearly a month.

ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun documents the history of ESPN. It starts with how the idea blossomed. As a start up, they were blazing their own path. There were no rules. Soon the creators were pushed out as more experienced TV people took over. They kept gaining momentum and eventually became who they are today.

The entire book is interviews. That' right - the history is told through various people's perspectives. When there is a transition, there may be a paragraph or two to give some background, but over 95% of the book is direct quotes. It almost has a documentary type feel, which kind of goes with the ESPN way of storytelling. The downside to all these interviews is it can become wordy and is one of the reasons the book is so long. The upside is you get to hear both sides of controversial stories.

I thought it was hard to keep track of who was actually in charge. People were at different companies, different titles, moving up/down the ranks, mergers and acquisitions. It was tough to follow. But, it didn't really take away from the stories. Also, people did not hold back - they criticize each other. This is refreshing and feels real, but as the authors mentioned in the afterword, many apologies were needed afterwards.

A few interesting things I wanted to share...

• At the beginning, satellites were just becoming a thing. When ESPN began negotiating, the price was actually cheaper to use the satellite 24 hours a day than it was for 4 to 5 hours. They were the first customer to purchase it for 24 hours a day. The satellite provider wasn't sure if it would work 24/7.
• Even with the satellite, they still had to bring all the tapes back to their Bristol, CT location and then send up to the satellite. This literally meant filming a game in California and flying it back to Connecticut.
• In the beginning, they did not have rights to any popular sports. So they covered obscure sports to fill air time.  This would come in handy later (next bullet). At the same time, they really developed anchor personalities and capitalized on that.
• Stations made money by selling advertisements. ESPN was the first station to negotiate a fee from cable providers. At the start, they were asking for 2 cents a subscriber. Cable providers pushed back and threatened to take the channel off the air, but customers complained. It wan't the football or basketball fans complaining, but the bowling and sailing fans because there was no other channel they could watch their sports. The subscriber fee is now something like $6 per subscriber.
• The dynamic between sports leagues and ESPN is interesting. The NFL forced ESPN to shut down shows that the league did not like (for example, Playmakers was a hit show but pulled after one season). ESPN low bid for the NHL because the NHL did not want to do things ESPN requested, such as having players take their helmets off on the bench (this would help fans recognize players and build them into stars for ESPN).
• When a new head took over at ESPN, he was a soccer fan and really pursued the World Cup in 2010. The influence of ESPN is fascinating as soccer has become more popular in the last 5-10 years.

I enjoyed the stories and learning about the history of ESPN. I grew up watching SportsCenter, so clearly I found the book very interesting. But I think it can be very insightful for those in media or running a company. My only complaint is the book is too long for the casual reader.

My rating for ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun: 3.5 stars out of 5. Get it here!