In what appears to be yet another example of a fragmenting, niche-oriented outdoor media landscape, sports powerhouse broadcaster ESPN announced it would soon drop all its outdoor programming (from the BassFan site):

There’d been rumblings for a few weeks that things weren’t quite right with the ESPN2 outdoor blocks, but today’s news that the ESPN network would dump all its outdoor programming at the end of this year was nonetheless a shock to the entire outdoors industry.

And with the news comes logical speculation over the future of BASS, which the network owns.

It’ll be weeks or months until the full ramifications of the news materialize, but clearly, the unstable world of outdoor media was dealt another serious blow today.

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But as the network proceeds with a core mission to focus on live and event-based broadcasting, such programming is out the window. The weekend block will now be filled by other properties, such as English Premier League soccer, NASCAR and SportsCenter, which are all either live or event-based programs.

Thus the only show in the current outdoor block that will continue to air on ESPN2 is The Bassmasters, which focuses on Elite Series events, as well as Bassmaster Classic programming.

By the Underground’s count, there are five channels in the outdoors space (not including ESPN), and presumably ESPN was making more money elsewhere.

Fly fishermen – at least the couch potato-ish among us – won’t feel a big bite. A quick glance at ESPN’s Saturday and Sunday outdoors programming reveals:

Saturday
Poveromo’s World
Fishing Adventurer
ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series
Beat Charlie Moore
Wanna Go Fishing
World’s Greatest Fishing Show
Bassmaster Elite Series
ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series
ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series
Beat Charlie Moore
World’s Greatest Fishing Show

Sunday
Pirates of the Flats
Going Coastal
ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series
Spanish Fly
World’s Greatest Fishing Show
ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series
Bassmaster Tournament Trail

Right now, the Celebrities Pirates of the Flats TV show remains one of the only fly fishing specific titles, and frankly, I’d rather watch Premier League soccer than outdoor programming anyway.

Still, for the many “columnists” on the ESPNOutdoors.com site, the news is probably not thrilling.

So far, this is being played up as a simple refocusing on ESPN’s part, though you have to wonder if they’re not simply bailing on an increasingly polarized outdoor media situation, where politics seemingly enter into every conversation.

And not your kinder, gentler politics, but the spittle-filled kind.

Earlier this year – when a BASS writer and columnist (BASS is an ESPN property) went birther-level crazy about the end of sportfishing – ESPN was dealt a black eye when it was later forced to apologize for the story.

To a network happy to focus on stick & ball sports, fantasy leagues (and your American-as-apple-pie sex & drugs scandals), the prospect of more of the same isn’t appealing.