Opinion : Sports Broadcasting

I have been watching a lot of ESPN lately (mostly background noise as I eat) and I am becoming disappointed.  I love sports, but I am not happy where cable sports broadcasting is heading.  There is very little actual sports shown and instead there is continuous news programming played on a minute loop.  While this is not a new format idea, several trends are making sports channels less watchable.
 First is the very narrow range of sports covered by the endless news programs.  Sportscenter yesterday spent hours yesterday talking about College basketball and NFL trades, with a little NBA and men's golf sprinkled in.  What about College Hockey or the NHL?  Soccer?  MMA? women's sports?  Baseball?   I understand that College hockey is not as popular as college basketball, but with over 6hrs of news a day, doesn't it warrant a few minutes of coverage?  

Second is the trend of airing news and documentaries instead of the actual sports.  At one point last week, ESPN was airing a documentary about Basketball players (Magic Johnson) when there were actual basketball games being played.  These are good stories, but ESPN is not the place.  as a fan who flips to a sports network, I want to see sports.  ESPN has a sister station ESPNnews  that was supposed to be the channel that allowed branded sports themed programming to be shown without displacing actual sports, but for whatever reason, ESPNnews is no longer in my cable package and its programming is constantly on the flagship network. I feel that this cheapens the whole brand.

Third, the competition is increasingly conforming to ESPN instead of innovating.  When NBC sports took over VS network, they started a branded sports news show and have moved away from the outdoor programming that defined the network.  They have even moved their offices to Connecticut.   Local sports networks keep getting bought out by the teams that they cover and get turned into a marketing exercise instead of a real sports broadcaster (See: Yes Network)  Networks founded by leagues seem to be an attempt to shake down cable companies as opposed to actually increasing the amount of programming available (see NFL network, Big Ten Network)

All of this has led mt to the following unfortunate point:  despite far more cable channels and broadcasting capabilities, there is no more live sports on TV than there was a decade ago (at least on my cable package on Comcast Philly).  This is a missed opportunity, as availability of sitcoms, reality TV and Movies has increased, sports has not kept pace.  I want to see more college and olympic sports and local coverage that extends past the major league level.  I can watch engineering lectures that are broadcast city wide by my college but I cant watch the school's lacrosse games.   The internet is great for stats and news but nothing beats watching sports live.