🏈 ESPN down 7M subscribers in 2 years

[planomateo]

@RollllTide! @Birdman37

Just caught something on twitter about ESPN losing 7 million subscribers for ESPN and ESPN2 channels over last two years. So I went back and looked at their fiscal year reports...kinda interesting. ESPN is back to FY06 (Fiscal Year 2006) subscriber numbers of 92 million (see below image), the last two years have been significant drops in their subscriber footprint. There have been a few discussions on RTB about ESPN reducing their operating costs this year by layoffs, etc.



TV households in millions hasn't increased that significantly, 2005 Neilson reported 109.6M and 10 years later they reported 116.4M. Looking at the number of ESPN subscribers in that same time frame, ESPN went from 84% of TV households (92M subscribers of 109.6M available) to 79% (92M subscribers of 116.4M available households), so they've lost 5% of the available market for ESPN/ESPN2 channels. ESPN is the primary channel they make most of their revenue from in terms of subscribers, ESPNU, ESPN2, SEC Network, etc are significantly cheaper than ESPN in terms of subscriber fees.

I'm not sure what they get from their international channels, but I would imagine they are trying to offset their domestic loses by increasing their international footprint.

Walt Disney's FY 10k filings can be found here SEC Filings | The Walt Disney Company

 

[TheChief]

If they're not showing Bama football, I'm not watching. Who wants to watch people talk about how much money professional athletes make? I also don't watch pro basketball, so there's nothing left to watch on their channels.

 

[Sgt. Lincoln Osiris]

I wonder when the majority of the decline occurred? Wonder if it has something to do with all the ghey rights pub Michael Sam got a couple years ago for several weeks and even months.

7million in decline would be about the amount of enough traditional households that would oppose ghey rights and the like.

Sent from my ASUS ZenFone 2E using Tapatalk

 

[TerryP]

I wonder when the majority of the decline occurred?

It's my opinion that it started when they started hiring a lot of ex-athletes and paying them a hell of a lot of money for opinions that a lot don't consider worth .02 cents.

IF ESPN would have concentrated on hiring more "Mike Greenburg" types instead of the Kannell types these cuts in programming (sports) and the addition of more opinion shows wouldn't have happened.

 

[OldPlayer]

These are cable subscribers. The surprising thing is that most basic cable packages include ESPN. IMO, the decline is due to the fragmentation of media. More and more viewers are watching on their phones and computers (which wouldn't show up in these numbers). Networks don't get a list of subscribers from the cable companies to count and they can't cross-match with their database of online subscribers. It's one of the dilemmas facing the ad industry in getting a true measure of advertising reach.

 

[RollllTide!]

Here is a good article about reduced subscribers. It ain't just ESPN, it is the pay tv in general. Content providers are eventually going to bypass the pay tv providers and deliver direct to the end user.

Cutting the cord.

 

[planomateo]

These are cable subscribers. The surprising thing is that most basic cable packages include ESPN. IMO, the decline is due to the fragmentation of media. More and more viewers are watching on their phones and computers (which wouldn't show up in these numbers). Networks don't get a list of subscribers from the cable companies to count and they can't cross-match with their database of online subscribers. It's one of the dilemmas facing the ad industry in getting a true measure of advertising reach.

You can't watch on your phone/computer without an ESPN3 account, which you get by either having cable/satellite TV or slingTV account. Perhaps there are other ways, but it's currently all bundled with TV. As far as I know, ESPN has yet to unbundle this from cable/satellite subscribers. So believe the numbers indicate that people are doing without cable/satellite TV or finding lower programming options to the tune of 7m over the last two years.

By the way, Nielsen has been tracking viewing habits via all the mediums for a while now, example here http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/...015-reports/total-audience-report-q1-2015.pdf.

 

[TerryP]

The surprising thing is that most basic cable packages include ESPN. IMO, the decline is due to the fragmentation of media. More and more viewers are watching on their phones and computers (which wouldn't show up in these numbers).

While their measurements are far from accurate, Neilsen started compiling data from smart devices in 2006.

 

[planomateo]

A different take by John Ourand with SBJ Networks+ho-hum+about+password+sharing+%e2%80%a6+so+far

At the very bottom, he has an interesting chart that indicates this is more about people getting TV packages w/o the ESPN channels vs cord cutting.

 

[BamaFan334]

No one is too big to fail, so that needs to be understood first and foremost.

Secondly, I feel the decline started as they started turning PC beyond belief, gushed and poured support over stories like Michael Sam and Bruce Jenner. People watching ESPN want sports, not Entertainment Tonight. If they wanted that, they could watch TMZ.

Also, all of the new anchors brought in suck. Sportscenter was awesome growing up due to the personalities and these days they bring in fresh college graduates and force gimmicks and lines on them to try and create another Stewart Scott, Chris Berman, Dan Patrick etc. It's all too forced and scripted for me, and add in personalities like Galloway and Kannel strictly brought in to fight the "SEC bias" and they are chasing their own tails looking dumb. I only watch GameDay anymore and when alabama plays. Their 30 for 30 is the only other legitimate spot.

 

[Haganah]

This has little to do with ESPN and more to do with cord cutting in general. Cable/Satellite packages aren't cheap and people are starting to realize they are better off getting rid of cable packages and just getting monthly memberships with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and HBO Now etc. You can catch most major sporting events with a simple tv antenna and can stream (or go to a bar) and watch whatever else is left.

 

[Vertical]

You can't watch on your phone/computer without an ESPN3 account, which you get by either having cable/satellite TV or slingTV account. Perhaps there are other ways, but it's currently all bundled with TV. As far as I know, ESPN has yet to unbundle this from cable/satellite subscribers. So believe the numbers indicate that people are doing without cable/satellite TV or finding lower programming options to the tune of 7m over the last two years.

By the way, Nielsen has been tracking viewing habits via all the mediums for a while now, example here http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/...015-reports/total-audience-report-q1-2015.pdf.

You can get ESPN through slingTV without cable or satellite.

 

[planomateo]

You can get ESPN through slingTV without cable or satellite.

Yup, I mentioned that in the post you quoted. I'm a SlingTV customer.

 

[AFF]

I hate, hate, hate the cable company. There are so many bad experiences that I could go into. Bottom line, they're liars and cheats. I'm forced to buy their internet service but I cut out their cable several months ago. Quality of OTA broadcasts is better for the ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and several other Atlanta stations. I get over 70 channels with about 35 that I actually watch. That plus Amazon Prime, Sling, BTN, and SceneAccess gets me everything I would want to watch. I've got a setup that pulls in OTA shows, strips out the commercials, and throws them out to Plex within 10 minutes after the broadcast - so my wife doesn't miss any of her shows. As soon as Google fiber is available up here at the lake, I'm ditching Comcast internet altogether.

 

[BamaFan334]

I hate, hate, hate the cable company. There are so many bad experiences that I could go into. Bottom line, they're liars and cheats. I'm forced to buy their internet service but I cut out their cable several months ago. Quality of OTA broadcasts is better for the ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and several other Atlanta stations. I get over 70 channels with about 35 that I actually watch. That plus Amazon Prime, Sling, BTN, and SceneAccess gets me everything I would want to watch. I've got a setup that pulls in OTA shows, strips out the commercials, and throws them out to Plex within 10 minutes after the broadcast - so my wife doesn't miss any of her shows. As soon as Google fiber is available up here at the lake, I'm ditching Comcast internet altogether.

What lake in Georgia?

 

[OldPlayer]

You can't watch on your phone/computer without an ESPN3 account, which you get by either having cable/satellite TV or slingTV account. Perhaps there are other ways, but it's currently all bundled with TV. As far as I know, ESPN has yet to unbundle this from cable/satellite subscribers. So believe the numbers indicate that people are doing without cable/satellite TV or finding lower programming options to the tune of 7m over the last two years.

By the way, Nielsen has been tracking viewing habits via all the mediums for a while now, example here http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/...015-reports/total-audience-report-q1-2015.pdf.

I used to work for Nielsen and yes they've been measuring multiple device viewership for several years. But viewership is different from an account and they are still struggling with the cross viewing (using multiple devices that require membership to watch in addition to traditional TV). Traditional TV ratings are based on total households or households with a TV which is "easy" to measure. When reporting viewing based on account usage, some of the early numbers reported more viewing than accounts. The numbers in the Nielsen report in your link do not reflect unique household or individual viewing, just total by medium or device (so many viewers could be counted more than once if you add them up).

 

[AFF]

What lake in Georgia?

Lanier

 

[BamaFan334]

Ahh, ok. Pass by there on my way to Cherokee about once a month. I live in Dallas, Georgia and from Conyers, Georgia.

 

[ColoradoTide]

We haven't had cable/satellite TV in about ten years and I really cannot remember the last time I missed a Bama game on ESPN or any of their affiliates. There are internet streaming sources for pretty much all "cable" content to be found with a little looking. Every so often when traveling on business I'll flip through channels in my hotel room and conclude "nope, not missing a darn thing by not having cable".

 

[JoshB]

You can get ESPN through slingTV without cable or satellite.

If Sling TV manages to get more ESPN-like partners they will destroy the current cable and satellite model.