It is absolutely no surprise ESPN chose TODAY, the day before the draft, to begin their massive layoffs, which will now reportedly include up to 100 on-air personalities across all mediums.

In a letter to employees, ESPN President John Skipper explained it thusly:

A necessary component of managing change involves constantly evaluating how we best utilize all of our resources, and that sometimes involves difficult decisions. Our content strategy – primarily illustrated in recent months by melding distinct, personality-driven SportsCenter TV editions and digital-only efforts with our biggest sub-brand – still needs to go further, faster…and as always, must be efficient and nimble. Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent—anchors, analysts, reporters, writers and those who handle play-by-play—necessary to meet those demands. We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week. A limited number of other positions will also be affected and a handful of new jobs will be posted to fill various needs.

And in a post on ESPN’s PR page, the company laid out the plan for MORE PERSONALITY:

Perhaps the most noted example of this strategy is our recent approach to our flagship program, SportsCenter. SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, the launch of SC6 with Michael Smith and Jemele Hill, and the debut of more digital-only content socially and on our App means SportsCenter in its many forms is easily accessible, informative and primed with personality.

This all makes sense. The days of guys in expensive suits telling you about sports are over. People see right through the contrived BS and faux debates. But the problem with being personality driven, for a big company like ESPN, is that there will inherently be lines – big, thick lines – that hosts are not allowed to cross and likely wouldn’t even think about crossing. There are too many conflicts of interests in ESPN’s business model for the casual exchange they want to foster to feel natural.

Of course, none of this mentions the fact that viewers are cutting the cord and ESPN is losing the $7 carriage fees it gets from every cable subscriber. It’s those fees that pay for ESPN’s broadcast rights deals. It’s the broadcast rights deals that justify the fees. You see the problem? The best personalities in the world won’t be able to command $7 from every cable subscriber in a America, and they certainly won’t be able to generate enough to pay BILLIONS to sports league, like the NFL and NBA, when ESPN’s contracts are up with them in a few years.

The other networks have this problem, too. But the broadcast networks use sports to promote their other revenue generating content, and streaming outlets like Netflix and Amazon – particularly Amazon – have other ways to monetize their audience than with ads and forced cable fees. Amazon likely wouldn’t care if it lost money on a sports rights deal, because they could use it to promote the hell out of their products, and it’s not that far-fethced to imagine a scenario where a viewer could order a player’s jersey while watching the game and have it delivered to them before the game ends. ESPN simply can’t compete with that sort of model.

Anyway, layoffs coming. We’ll keep track of the big ones.