It’s wash, rinse, repeat for the cable sports networks in the latest Nielsen household coverage estimates. If it is a month that has at least 28 days, then it means that the major networks like ESPN, FS1, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NBCSN and NFL Network have lost homes.
The latest
For the bundle of ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, the Disney networks lost 542,000, 552,000 and 608,000 homes respectively. ESPN is now in 87,859,000 million homes after a peak of 100 million five years ago. ESPN2 is in 87.730 million and ESPNU has dropped to 69.2 million. And it means that ESPN/ESPN2 has fallen to covering under 75% of the television households.
FS1 is in just under 87.725 million homes. But over 2016, it has managed to gain more homes while ESPN was losing them. However, the December losses by FS1 gave ESPN an increased lead over Fox for the first time in several months.
The biggest shedders of homes were Golf Channel (-1.240 million), MLB Network (-1.09 million) and NBA TV (-f926K).
This is not just a sports issue, but cablewide as entertainment mainstays A&E, TBS/TNT and USA have lost homes as well.
Nielsen plans to phase in the streaming services like Sling, PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now in its estimates over the next half year so we’ll see if they have an influence on the numbers.
As for now, the cable networks are seeing erosion among the traditional pay TV subscribers and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.