ESPN Loses 621,000 Subscribers; Worst Month In Company History
Things got a ton worse for ESPN this month.
As if that weren’t enough, ESPN would be caught in an intractable business problem, one that looks awfully familiar to print newspapers as the Internet rose online. You’d have to run two different businesses – the cable and satellite ESPN, which would continue to lose subscribers, but still bring in most of your money – and the over the top ESPN model, which cost much more and have infinitely fewer subscribers. As you promoted the over the top model then the cable and satellite companies would rebel and ask, “Why are we paying you so much to carry your network as part of our packages? We’re cutting your channel from basic cable so we can lower consumer costs.”
ESPN Loses Another 555,000 Subscribers Per Nielsen
ESPN lost another 555,000 subscribers per Nielsen estimates, following up its worst month ever with its second worst month ever.
Presently ESPN is on the hook for the following yearly sports rights payments: $1.9 billion a year to the NFL for Monday Night Football, $1.47 billion to the NBA, a deal I told you flat out wasn’t sustainable back in July because it meant every single cable and satellite subscriber in the country was paying an average of $30 a year for the NBA whether they watched or not, $700 million to Major League Baseball, $608 million for the College Football Playoff, $225 million to the ACC, $190 million to the Big Ten, $120 million to the Big 12, $125 million a year to the PAC 12, and hundreds of millions more to the SEC.
Note: Moved to football since this will have an impact on the next TV Contract.
Remember Aresco is pushing for a major deal, but from online media. Would it be a gamble? people are cutting Cable/Sat and a trendy pace, as outlined by this and other sources. I was at Best buy the other day and the digital antennas were sold out. I’ll look for the link about Aresco’s deal and update, if Pray10 doesn’t beat me to it.
At this point, he might have to. Problem is trying to get online carriers to pony up the money as they don’t have the viewers that cable does.
Of course, all the other networks will have the same problems;sports rights fees are about to take a tumble in the next decade. Could be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Since ESPN is the entity that created and funds the current college football cartel, as far as I’m concerned it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of shmucks. It’s going to be fun watching all those P5 programs scramble to make ends meet once the goose that has been passing out all those golden eggs dies. And it will die.
Yes, something else will emerge to replace it because the market is there. But from the looks of things the payouts are more likely to be tied to the product than to a contrived system. Thus if UH fields an interesting product and viewers respond we will reap the benefits. Programs like TCU or Texas Tech will have to downgrade their whole program just to make ends meet. Then we will see some serious realignment. And programs like Texas will learn the hard way that they get fat off the smaller programs. They need those programs to survive.
Outside of a few nationally-desired programs, I think adaptability will be the key to survival. Our time spent just trying to get by will bode well in the future. We’re already learning how to adapt and thrive.
ESPN’s (as we’ve known it) death cannot come soon enough.
The only sports network listed in the top 20 desirable networks was ESPN chosen by 41.3% of those responding. And ESPN was 19th.
FS1 was the next sports network coming in at position 33, NFL Network was 36th while NBCSN was 38th. The next sports network in the survey is MLB Network at number 56. Golf Channel was 66th, Sportsman Channel was at number 68 and the last sports network on the survey was Tennnis Channel which was 77th.
Ryen Russillo is one of the few remaining personalities I enjoyed listening to on the radio along with Scott Van Pelt. Sad to see them go. But its what the network deserves for prioritizing toxic shows like First Take.
This article continues to be updated as more layoffs are announced. Interesting that the BIG10 division is losing reporters.
And they dumped how many billions into the LHN and the B12??? I feel for those who lost their jobs, but ESPN is horrible. If not for their contract w/ the AAC showing our Coogs I wouldn’t watch at all.
All the teams in the so-called P5 conferences are about to find out how the other half lives - as soon as their present contracts expire! Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.
There will still be money available for live sports and ESPN will find a way to compete for college sports along with FOX and the others as well as some streaming options.
The workers are suffering the cuts due to bad decisions by management (LHN being #1 on the list). Normal corporate restructuring. Sad, but most of these guys will find another job somewhere so don’t feel too bad for them.
This falling tide is going to sink a lot of boats. I hope our budget isn’t too reliant on what little we do get from them, because our contact is at least as vulnerable as those of the other conferences.
I’ll look for the link about Aresco’s deal and update, if Pray10 doesn’t beat me to it. 