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ESPN Hemorrhaging Subscribers, Down To 76 Million As Disney Scrambles To Stem Tide
Nation and State ^ | 11/25/2021 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 11/25/2021 9:10:00 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Disney-owned ESPN subscribers dropped precipitously in the last 12 months, shrinking another 10% to end fiscal 2021 on Oct. 2 with 76 million US households, according to a Friday SEC filing noted by Deadline.

Within ESPN, college sports-oriented ESPNU fell from 62 million homes in 2020 to 51 million over the last year, while ESPN News slipped from 62 million to 50 million over the same period.

The company said the drop - based on data from Nielsen, includes traditional Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs) such as Comcast and DirectTV, as well as most digital Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming packages.

For reference, ESPN boasted just north of 100 million households almost a decade ago, a significant decay for one of Disney's longtime cornerstones. As Deadline notes, the drop in subscribers highlights one of the biggest conundrums in the media business - traditional TV networks are shedding subscribers due to cord-cutting.

Disney and ESPN execs are keeping a close eye on the subscriber declines and have fortified ESPN+ with increasingly robust programming. The billions at stake from traditional distribution and ad revenue, however, mean a wholesale shift to streaming isn’t likely anytime soon. The company firmly denied reports in October that it was considering a spinoff or even a sale of ESPN.

ESPN was at 84 million households at the end of fiscal 2020. Streaming service ESPN+, meanwhile, ended fiscal 2021 with 17 million subscribers, up 66% from the same time in 2020. It has posted significant growth since being bundled with other Disney offerings.

Disney is scrambling to right the ship, however, adding both ESPN+ and Disney+ to its Hulu Live TV package (along with a $5 per month increase in price), a move which will automatically boost subscriber levels. Hulu has approximately 4 million subscribers, while Hulu + Live TV is one of the leading pay-TV operators in the US, per the report.

The company plans to spend "as much as" $33 billion on programming in fiscal 2022, a 32% increase from the $25 billion outlay in FY2021.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: associatedpress; disney; espn; hatespeech; mediawingofthednc; mondaynightfb; nofansleft; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; subscribers; tylerdurden
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To: SeekAndFind

Tommy Sotomayor had a hilarious segment regarding ESPN the other night. He said white people should just stop watching it and let it go broke.


41 posted on 11/26/2021 5:33:39 AM PST by CFW
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh and let’s keep in mind there’s an estimated 120 million house holds. So being “down to” 79 million households as “customers” is hardly a death knell.


42 posted on 11/26/2021 5:37:45 AM PST by discostu (Like a dog being shown a card trick )
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To: SeekAndFind

Music to my ears.


43 posted on 11/26/2021 6:40:26 AM PST by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix) )
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To: dfwgator

I still remember that abomination of a Vandy game done by Beth Mowins when she:

Claimed McElwain iced his own kicker by calling timeout. Her co-announcer tried to save her by pointing out the Vandy coach had called the timeout but she ignored him and went on and on about it.

Later on a desperation 4th down play Treon Harris who was about to get sacked tossed one up into triple coverage to try to convert. Hey, might as well, it’s 4th down anyway. She went on and on about how that was a I’ll advised pass and he “needed to be smarter than that”. Yeah honey. He should have eaten it or thrown it away ON FOURTH FRICKING DOWN! Genius observation on your part.


44 posted on 11/26/2021 8:14:49 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: SeekAndFind

Got WOKE?


45 posted on 11/26/2021 8:20:43 AM PST by exPBRrat (.)
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To: PGR88

I expect many of those 76 million households are bundled cable subscriptions, where ESPN is one of the three-hundred channels you get for your monthly fee. That’s the case with me, but I can’t recall ever watching it.


46 posted on 11/26/2021 8:44:04 AM PST by PUGACHEV
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To: PGR88

I’m amazed they have 76 million households

Its just because its bundled with Hulu and Disney. And even then you can’t watch anything on it. Only time its worth a crap are the bowl games. After that worthless channel of crap of that midget mind Stephen Smith thinking he knows sh!t about sports.


47 posted on 11/26/2021 8:44:29 AM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (. Democrats are lawless because Republicans are ball-less!)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Learn how to read the Cash Flow section of the quarterly financial filing with the SEC and you’ll see why.


48 posted on 11/26/2021 8:46:46 AM PST by LRoggy (Peter's Son's Business )
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To: LRoggy

Where was the cash flow coming from? Were that many idiots continuing to buy Disney themed merch?


49 posted on 11/26/2021 7:37:27 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: sausageseller
My brother is a supervisor for Frontier in Florida.
They can't keep up.

The reason your brother in Florida is so busy is because it is full of Retirees.

Those older retirees still subscribe to cable while the younger folks have cut the cord and enjoy nearly all of their entertainment via streaming on their phone or tablet.

50 posted on 11/26/2021 10:14:28 PM PST by VideoDoctor
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To: VideoDoctor

Nope.
Cell streaming services cannot meet their demands.
The fiber does because it can handle all the demand of multiple devices, steaming video and all the other demands like security systems ,smart appliances, smart outlets and smart switches and on and on.
In this area of West central Florida the new developments are mixed but mostly families.


51 posted on 11/27/2021 6:07:14 AM PST by sausageseller (If you want to cut your own throat, don't come to me for a bandage. M, Thatcher)
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To: SeekAndFind

These are classic leftists.

They should bribe the ratings companies to fake the numbers!

If that does not work they should howl at their “Neanderthal former customers”!


52 posted on 11/27/2021 6:09:46 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Cable revenue is ENORMOUS. ESPN is BY FAR the biggest cost to a cable operator. The last numbers I saw is that ESPN is paid 6x as much as Fox News per subscriber for a simple comparison.

Here’s a 2020 story to give you some perspective:

How ESPN makes money
Disney doesn’t break out ESPN’s financial performance, so understanding the segment takes some detective work. The business falls under the company’s media networks segment, where Disney accounts for its numerous TV channels. Last year, the media networks segment generated $24.8 billion in revenue. Furthermore, it earned $7.5 billion in operating income — more than any other segment!

TV channels such as ESPN make money from affiliate fees (fees per subscriber charged to cable companies and other pay-TV operators), advertising, and online streaming.

Each cable TV channel charges a nominal fee to be carried in a cable package. ESPN is notorious for being the most expensive channel, and it’s not even close. As of 2017, cable subscribers were paying more than $9 per month for ESPN’s top four channels (ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU, and SEC Network), and affiliate fees have continued to rise since then. For comparison, most channels charge less than $1. ESPN has about 80 million subscribers. Even at 2017 affiliate fee rates, that would translate into roughly $8.6 billion in affiliate fees annually ($9 x 80m subscribers x 12 months).

Why does ESPN garner so much money from cable operators? Because ESPN is the highest-rated cable channel among men and reaches 200 million viewers per month. High ratings and reach also enable ESPN to generate strong interest from advertisers. SNL Kagan estimated $2.3 billion in ESPN advertising revenue for 2018.

Finally, ESPN has a streaming service called ESPN+, launched in 2018. ESPN+ isn’t a replacement for the ESPN channel; it is more of a companion. The app doesn’t broadcast the most-watched sports games, but it does have broadcasts from the MLB, NHL, UFC, and more. The service costs $4.99 per month and had 7.6 million subscribers as of February 2020. This equates to roughly $460 million in annual revenue, and it is growing quickly.

In total, ESPN likely generated at least $11.4 billion of revenue last year ($8.6 billion affiliate fees + $2.3 billion advertising + $0.5 billion streaming). This accounts for well over 40% of Disney’s Media Networks segment, making ESPN one of Disney’s highest-grossing businesses.

*****

Just to add a little more, when you see something new like the ACC Network, that’s a Disney/ESPN partnership with the Conference and as they also extend to streaming capabilities, with ESPN+, that is also generating more cash flow. Live Sports are the ONLY thing that can’t be easily replaced by TV on demand (in a time sense) because most people will not watch an event they already know the score of.


53 posted on 11/27/2021 6:17:21 AM PST by LRoggy (Peter's Son's Business )
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To: HighSierra5

To my family, ESPN is an unavoidable expense free with the streaming subscription.

there has never been an ESPN presentation on out TV screen

The 76 million households is a true figure but is meaningless because of households like mine

Thoroughbred jocks are a plague on America


54 posted on 11/27/2021 6:20:46 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Free Republic has gone to hell is a Covid handbasket)
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To: sausageseller
Nope

Have it your way... but, here's the direction the parade is going in.

Ad-supported streaming sports: the next big thing
https://adage.com/article/tubi/next-frontier-tv-advertising-streaming-sports/2366436

All told, Comcast's cable service -- you know it as Xfinity -- shed another 408,000 customers last quarter, bringing the attrition figure up to nearly 1.3 million through the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. That's more cable subscribers than it had lost through the first three quarters of last year when COVID-19 lockdowns gave consumers plenty of time and reason to cancel their cable service and look for cheaper alternatives.

That's a problem for an organization predominantly considered a "cable company."

55 posted on 11/27/2021 11:35:03 AM PST by VideoDoctor
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