Yahoo! + Eurosport = big money, disgruntled fans

Yahoo! has now taken over content and advertising distribution for Eurosport, the Continent’s largest cable and satellite TV sports network. (Read release) While the deal will probably make a lot of money in the long term, it has made some enemies in the short term.

Specifically, some of the loyal Eurosport audience doesn’t like the change. Here are a few comments:

Ofcourse there’s a lot to like about the new site, and I’m sure Yahoo! will bring some improvements to the overall experience. Yahoo! is supposed to add more “community” features (i.e. social networking) to the sites. So that should be interesting to watch. Here’s a look at the UK site, one of the first to go live:

As we draw ever closer to the public launch of our social net, I’m thinking more and more about the reactions we will get from our loyal audience, especially those who frequent our fan forum. Right now we’re not planning to import much of the historical conversation. No doubt we’re going to upset some applecarts…all in the name of community, er, progress, um…money!