ESPN Loses 621K Subscribers

[MikeSU02]

I'm not posting on the OT board because that's the de facto politics board.

ESPN Loses 621,000 Subscribers; Worst Month in Company History

These 621,000 lost subscribers in the past month alone lead to a drop in revenue of over $52 million and continue the alarming subscriber decline at ESPN. Couple these subscriber declines with a 24% drop in Monday Night Football ratings this fall, the crown jewel of ESPN programming, and it's fair to call October of 2016 the worst month in ESPN's history. But this isn't just a story about ESPN, the rapid decline in cable subscribers is hitting every channel, sports and otherwise. It just impacts ESPN the most because ESPN costs every cable and satellite subscriber roughly $7 a month, over triple the next most expensive cable channel.

 

[Stern]

When you run off every entertaining and interesting personality you once had under contract it was bound to happen.

I'm no Chris Berman fan, I can't watch the guy I hate his act. But the fact they are going to run him off after this NFL season is criminal! The man helped build the empire and they are kicking him to the curb.

ESPN made their bed, they have to lay in it. Aside from Saturday Morning's in the fall for COLLEGE GAMEDAY, the only thing I watch on ESPN is the games. Their programming sucks overall. They even found a way to kill SportsCenter and ruin a highlight show over the years.

 

[Briancuse]

When you run off every entertaining and interesting personality you once had under contract it was bound to happen.

I'm no Chris Berman fan, I can't watch the guy I hate his act. But the fact they are going to run him off after this NFL season is criminal! The man helped build the empire and they are kicking him to the curb.

ESPN made their bed, they have to lay in it. Aside from Saturday Morning's in the fall for COLLEGE GAMEDAY, the only thing I watch on ESPN is the games. Their programming sucks overall. They even found a way to kill SportsCenter and ruin a highlight show over the years.

The only time I watch espn is when one of my teams is playing on the network.

 

[upperdeck]

i wonder how true this really is.. i get the whole cutting the cord thing , but so many the only sports they watch is ESPN. they are getting their fix some place.

 

[Stern]

i wonder how true this really is.. i get the whole cutting the cord thing , but so many the only sports they watch is ESPN. they are getting their fix some place.

You can stream almost anything these days. That's how this is happening. And nobody is going to keep cable or ESPN for garbage shows like Around the Horn, First Taken, Jalen & Jacoby...etc

 

[OburgOrange]

The only time I watch espn is when one of my teams is playing on the network.

^^This^^.

 

[MikeSU02]

When you run off every entertaining and interesting personality you once had under contract it was bound to happen.

I'm no Chris Berman fan, I can't watch the guy I hate his act. But the fact they are going to run him off after this NFL season is criminal! The man helped build the empire and they are kicking him to the curb.

ESPN made their bed, they have to lay in it. Aside from Saturday Morning's in the fall for COLLEGE GAMEDAY, the only thing I watch on ESPN is the games. Their programming sucks overall. They even found a way to kill SportsCenter and ruin a highlight show over the years.

To me, the biggest indication that there was an issue was when ESPN was pushing out how much it was spending on its new SportsCenter studio.

And my thought was, that would be great, if this were the 90s. SportsCenter is just a bad cable news show with a sports filter now.

As noted above, the only reason I watch ESPN is for actual sporting events. I have no interest in any of the "entertainment" shows that the company has.

 

[Alsacs]

ESPN fired their workers who were the behind the scenes 2 years ago. The network programming sucks now. Nothing is must watch PTI is 5 years old. You couldn't pay me to watch blowhards argue which is their programming from First Take until 6pm.
Also for me as a patriots fan there slanted ball washing pro-NFL coverage of Deflategate was the final straw.
Other people complain they have gone lean left politically that doesn't bother me as much as the network just sucks now. They want all their hosts to be like Mike Greenberg cookie cutter, bland and boring.

 

[MikeSU02]

ESPN fired their workers who were the behind the scenes 2 years ago. The network programming sucks now. Nothing is must watch PTI is 5 years old. You couldn't pay me to watch blowhards argue which is their programming from First Take until 6pm.
Also for me as a patriots fan there slanted ball washing pro-NFL coverage of Deflategate was the final straw.
Other people complain they have gone lean left politically that doesn't bother me as much as the network just sucks now. They want all their hosts to be like Mike Greenberg cookie cutter, bland and boring.

Have to find the link, but I believe one report stated that analysts determined ESPN would have to charge $36 a month to be profitable if they went the route of HBO Now.

Edit: link for $36 claim - ESPN will cost $36.30 per sub in a la carte world priced by 'reach', analyst says | FierceCable

 

[upperdeck]

You can stream almost anything these days. That's how this is happening. And nobody is going to keep cable or ESPN for garbage shows like Around the Horn, First Taken, Jalen & Jacoby...etc

most people streaming are still doing it in ways that count towards subscriptions though.. sling and apple tv and the like still count..

kodi streams who knows how many do that.. but it wont take much to eliminate much of that if they want to spend the time to make it harder to transmit the streams with encoding.

 

[upperdeck]

so people cut the cord.. espn goes belly up and all these games we watch for free stop being broadcast and suddenly we are back in the 70s again with games only on the radio..

just like the stock market made all the american companies go over seas and we lost all the jobs that helped build the country.. everyone wants things to be better and cheaper except when its them and then they want more money, we shoot ourselves in the foot

 

[jncuse]

And yet networks were willing to pay record amounts (way above prior levels) for all sorts of sports programming at the national and local level the past 2-5 years.

I get in the DVR world that sports programming is viewed as more valuable, but streaming existed and has been developing for several years as well.

 

[CuseCPT]

Sorry if this was already posted. Rather than being wrong or overblown, if anything, it looks like it was just a little early.

The Sports Bubble Is About to Pop

 

[OrangeDW]

You can stream almost anything these days. That's how this is happening. And nobody is going to keep cable or ESPN for garbage shows like Around the Horn, First Taken, Jalen & Jacoby...etc

Jalen and Jacoby I like. Though I liked it better when it was a podcast. That's it though. I basically only watch ESPN if my team is playing.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Sorry if this was already posted. Rather than being wrong or overblown, if anything, it looks like it was just a little early.

The Sports Bubble Is About to Pop

They all focus on the impact to the network and the loss of subscribers and how much they'd have to pay to keep ESPN revenues level. Newsflash, that doesn't matter. ESPN isn't going to be able to keep their revenues level. They're going to drop, a lot.

What the real end game here is what happens to all the rights fees. The professional sports teams collective bargaining agreements and player salaries are going to take a huge hit over the next decade. Colleges are going to have a hard time, too, because we are only going to be receiving $25M from the ACC until the next contract. So the Dome better be paid for before that contract comes up for renewal. Universities are not going to have the money to keep the endless arms race going. It's coming to an end in about 10 years, and then the fees are going to start coming down.

 

[Alsacs]

They all focus on the impact to the network and the loss of subscribers and how much they'd have to pay to keep ESPN revenues level. Newsflash, that doesn't matter. ESPN isn't going to be able to keep their revenues level. They're going to drop, a lot.

What the real end game here is what happens to all the rights fees. The professional sports teams collective bargaining agreements and player salaries are going to take a huge hit over the next decade. Colleges are going to have a hard time, too, because we are only going to be receiving $25M from the ACC until the next contract. So the Dome better be paid for before that contract comes up for renewal. Universities are not going to have the money to keep the endless arms race going. It's coming to an end in about 10 years, and then the fees are going to start coming down.

The ACC has a contract with ESPN till 2036. The school will be receiving 20+ million for the next 20 years.

ESPN overpaid for MLB, NBA, and MNF more than college sports. ESPN revenues are dropping because their non-sports programming turns a lot of people off. ESPN used to target the male 18-40 audience. That was their bread and butter but to increase revenue they have tried to target women with their website/programming. This has turned off a portion of their old loyal following and has hurt ratings. ESPN is hoping their changes brings in more woman and their ratings go up more with more woman viewers and still enough 18-40 males. Thus, far it has failed as millennial males are dumping ESPN for Netflix/Hulu broadcasting.

ESPN will either see their woman audience bail them out or it will continue to hemorrhage subscriptions.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I love Jalen Rose regarding his input on the NBA, he has great insight and player analysis. I also love Bill Simmons. I don't think some are comfortable with the new breed

 

[PhatOrange]

How does ESPN lose subscribers, they're on basic cable? Does this just mean 612K people cut the cord from the cable companies?

 

[Stern]

How does ESPN lose subscribers, they're on basic cable? Does this just mean 612K people cut the cord from the cable companies?

Probably and if so that number is kind of low. The cord cutting movement is growing very rapidly

 

[IthacaMatt]

How does ESPN lose subscribers, they're on basic cable? Does this just mean 612K people cut the cord from the cable companies?

On some systems they leave ESPN on basic, but put the others on a sports tier. Those may be included.

 

[Cusefan0307]

The ACC has a contract with ESPN till 2036. The school will be receiving 20+ million for the next 20 years.

ESPN overpaid for MLB, NBA, and MNF more than college sports. ESPN revenues are dropping because their non-sports programming turns a lot of people off. ESPN used to target the male 18-40 audience. That was their bread and butter but to increase revenue they have tried to target women with their website/programming. This has turned off a portion of their old loyal following and has hurt ratings. ESPN is hoping their changes brings in more woman and their ratings go up more with more woman viewers and still enough 18-40 males. Thus, far it has failed as millennial males are dumping ESPN for Netflix/Hulu broadcasting.

ESPN will either see their woman audience bail them out or it will continue to hemorrhage subscriptions.

I'm in the 18-40 age bracket and I'm turned off by them.

Everytime I hear the Mike Greenberg's of the world input their idiotic opinion, I tune out.

 

[Delmar]

When you run off every entertaining and interesting personality you once had under contract it was bound to happen.

I'm no Chris Berman fan, I can't watch the guy I hate his act. But the fact they are going to run him off after this NFL season is criminal! The man helped build the empire and they are kicking him to the curb.

ESPN made their bed, they have to lay in it. Aside from Saturday Morning's in the fall for COLLEGE GAMEDAY, the only thing I watch on ESPN is the games. Their programming sucks overall. They even found a way to kill SportsCenter and ruin a highlight show over the years.

ESPN was at its best when it was a start up trying to get a piece of the action away from the major 3 networks.

Today it is fat and lazy.

Chris Berman is unwatchable, and should be off the air. His act was old 20 years ago.
SportsCenter is unwatchable, and perhaps the worst bit of television on the air.
College Gameday is unwatchable.

24/7 programming is hard to sustain, and ESPN has run out of ideas.

 

[Marsh01]

The only time I watch espn is when one of my teams is playing on the network.

Ditto. I havent watched sportcenter in probably 5 years

 

[Stern]

SportsCenter stopped being a highlight show years ago. Now it is a "hype" show for ESPN to promote what games and what talk driven shows will appear on ESPN later in the day.