ESPN has the challenge of filling more than 200 hours of programming each day without live sports

The New York Times

The sports network, which has nine domestic cable channels and a streaming service, has been sending out its schedule for each day only one day in advance. "That seems about as far out as it is possible to plan for a reality that changes each day, each minute," reports The New York Times' Kevin Draper. "With little time to plan alternative programming — or even to update some channel guides — most sports networks are opting for older versions of their originally scheduled programming, borrowing the strategy endemic to ESPN Classic. CBS ran the Big Ten men’s basketball conference championship games from 2018 and 2019 this weekend. NBCSN showed a Premier League match from earlier this season. Fox played the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot instead of an M.L.S. match....SportsCenter has gained prominence in ESPN’s lineup. Sports documentaries, like those from ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, are in heavy rotation. They are not live sports, but at least they aren’t rerun sports. The strength of live sports on television is in the very name: They are live. They are appointment viewing. They cannot be missed. In a DVR and streaming world, sports are practically the only thing that needs to be viewed on a specific channel at a specific time. If a network has enough live sports media rights, cable companies are all but forced to carry it — and to pay a hefty monthly fee for the privilege of offering the games to their customers — and advertisers have to pay large sums of money to reach the vast audience of sports fans. Live sports are the star of the show, and the surrounding programming is just window dressing."

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