NEW YORK — ESPN has been quietly seething over comments from ex-ESPNer Jamie Horowitz of rival Fox Sports that its flagship "SportsCenter" show is a dinosaur and that on-air talent like Skip Bayless and Colin Cowherd prefer to work at FS1 rather than ESPN.
Both during and after ESPN's "upfront" presentation to Madison Avenue media buyers Tuesday, executives tried to hammer home the message that the network is the once and future king of sports TV. And that FS1 is more of a pretender than a real threat.
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When I asked global ad sales chief Ed Erhardt about Horowitz's comments to me that "SportsCenter" would continue to hemorrhage viewers, he said ESPN's mobile app draws more viewers than any FS1 TV shows.