That was a bit of a tangent, but I guess my question is -- if ESPN is dying because there are so many choices for sports talk and the like, then how is a place like FOX Sports PICKING UP talent (errr, "talent") like Cowherd and making it profitable? That seems like the opposite direction that the field is going.
I don’t think any sports network reports specifically sports news and scores. They all have opinionated type talk shows.
ESPN is losing 6 million subscribers a year. Average ESPN charge to the cable TV operators is $8.00 a month (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) per subscriber.
That is a loss of $576,000,000 a year. Their current revenue is a little over $8 billion from subscriber fees. That is a loss of $1 billion every two years. Subscriber fees account for 70% of their revenue. They have doubled their subscription fee since 2010 but further increases will be much more difficult. ESPN was so popular that they could require cable companies to include it in their basic cable package. Cable companies are moving to more flexibility to stop the cable cutting bleeding. A DigitalSmith survey stated that only 36% of current cable subscribers would subscribe to ESPN is it was not bundled with their basic package.
Papa Johns announced today that they are dropping their NFL commercials due to the backlash over the protests. That will impact all five carriers of NFL (FOX, ESPN, CBS, NFLNetwork, NBC). Other advertisers are also withdrawing from both national and local markets.
Fox sports grew by 500,000 subscribers last month. Their average charge per subscriber is $1.30.
ESPN is currently 30% of Disney revenues. If projections are right their revenue will decrease by at least 500 million a year for a couple more years then they will level off. A few actually predict the spiral of diminished revenue will increase. Somewhere that money has to be made up elsewhere in the business.
What the reason but just losses.
People cable cutting and ESPN being tied to cable or something?
ESPN is losing 6 million subscribers a year.
Source? ESPN peaked at 100 million households in 2011. Now it’s down around 87 million. That’s 13 million lost subscribers in 6 years.
Cable was we know it will be dead in ten years. Companies like YouTube are jumping all over the idea of streaming live events, and platforms like Netflix and prime are making the concept of needing cable for daily entertainment extinctEspns losses aren't about cloth and knees...
It's
1. Digital options not requiring cable
2. Exhorbinant fees to subscribers That are now being dumped for stream options
3. Lack of money in the average pocket forcing cancellation due to the frivolity of it and the rise of mobile devises that take the place of cable.
They actually had 111 from
What I remember seeing...
So that would make it 24 in 6 years or around 4 per year
I think espns issue is they try and hire opinionated people but then get mad when they actually express those opinions. Not necessarily political but look at their collaboration with barstool. Their relationship with Bill Simmons. They want to have edgy takes but not let those people say what they want.Maybe so, but they should keep politics out of it. People watch sports as an escape, they don't want to hear someone's own political views. We all have our own, and what gives them more merit than anyone else?
Cable was we know it will be dead in ten years.
...and platforms like Netflix and prime are making the concept of needing cable for daily entertainment extinct
Pretty easy to google. I have not seen a figure above 100 mil and change.
So upon further review...
They've lost 13 overall...but, that's accelerating rapidly...they lost 7000 per day in September - which is typically when they add their biggest numbers of the year...football re-ups...
So if they lost 280,000 in a typical + month...then their year end is gonna be awful...
Not as bad as 7,000,000 a year...but looking at getting that 3,000,000 range.
And when tech crashes...it goes down like a torpedoed ship. If espn drops to 75 mil subscribers...it will be crushed under its own weight. Nobody left to fire.
Standard Nielsen data doesn’t include the virtual MVPD streaming services like Sling, Playstation Vue and Directv Now. Sling claims to have over 2 million subscribers, although not all plans have ESPN. Directv Now is around 1mil with all having ESPN. Vue has been around long enough that it probably has 1 mil, all with ESPN. Newer services include Hulu TV and YouTube TV, both with ESPN in their packages. The raw data of subscriber losses by metered cable and satellite providers doesn’t tell the full story.
And from a revenue standpoint, Disney has still been successful in gaining rate increases. They recently reached a new deal with cable co Altice which represents about 3 million homes. Details aren’t available but it’s generally believed that Disney got some sort of increase. And contracts already in place have annual escalators. Disney isn’t benefitting from higher rates AND stable subscribers, but one is helping offset the other.
Nobody really knows when cord cutting will plateau. But it’s a given that there are tens of millions of people who want sports in their lives. When you “cut the cord”, you basically lose everything. Without a bundle, you aren’t getting NBA games on TNT, NCAA basketball on TBS and TruTV, MLB on FS1. Individual leagues have their on season passes, but those run $30-50 per month EACH for just 5-6 months of coverage. And that’s coverage with blackouts of local games and national broadcasts.
ESPN is criticized for the expensive pro sports contracts but the live sports ARE the network. ESPN is nothing without college bowl games, NBA 2-3 nights per week, Monday Night Football, etc. For the variety they provide—a dozen different channels including ACC network, Longhorn Network, etc.—I think $15 per month is a very obtainable fee for a standalone service marketed to cord cutters. They wont’ get 100 million people to buy in at that price, but the higher rates will again offset the lower audience.
Viewers aren’t paying for SportsCenter or the dozen different talking head shows. But they will pay to see college bowl games, Duke vs North Carolina basketball, the 20 times per year ESPN will show the Cavs, Warriors and Celtics, MNF, Yankees/Cubs/Red Sox and dozens of other contests with both regional and national appeal.
What the reason but just losses.
People cable cutting and ESPN being tied to cable or something?