Bill Simmons hasn’t been very happy with is bosses over at ESPN lately and now reportedly he wants out from ESPN so that he can venture out onto his and start his own media network.
BUSINESS INSIDER’s Nicholas Carlson reported Bill Simmons “wants to leave ESPN, where he reportedly makes” more than $3M per year. It is said that Simmons “wants to start his own company, with investment from a platform that will help him with sales, tech, and publicity.” If so, that platform will “presumably need to write Simmons quite a large check to get going.” But Simmons will “need to raise more if wants to keep pulling” his $3M salary. But is Simmons “worth that kind of money?” An anonymous digital media CEO said that he is “not.” The person “pointed to the performance” of the Simmons-run Grantland and FiveThirtyEight. According to ComScore, Grantland “reached 4.8 million people” in August ’14, which is “pretty small” compared with the 25 million Deadspin reached in the same month. Grantland “grew 19% year-over-year,” while Deadspin grew 303%. The audience of “another competitor,” SB Nation, was 13 million. Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight, which launched in March, “has just under 2 million visitors” (BUSINESSINSIDER.com, 10/6).
Simmons wanting out from ESPN isn’t all that surprising given recent events, but him wanting to start his own network is a bit interesting. While Simmons has had some success with Grantland and FiveThirtyEight, stepping out his own like this would be a bit of a gamble and I’m not sure he is quite worth that kind of investment. If I was Simmons I would collect that 3 million a year and play nice with ESPN.