I’ve been following Nielsen’s cable coverage estimates for nearly a decade. Usually it’s best to focus on the long term trend and ignore month-to-month differences. The long term trend is down and none of the networks dispute that, but the acceleration of the declines for many of the networks over the last few months has been eye-popping.

Two tables below: first is the change versus the September estimates, second is the change versus the November estimates.

Nielsen cable (includes satellite & telco services) coverage estimates for the nationally measured cable sports networks for December 2016:

If you’re on a mobile phone these tables should be much easier to read if you tilt your phone to landscape mode.

Network name Dec 2016 Estimate (000) Sept 2016 Estimate (000) Change Since Sept (000) BEIN SPORT 23,317 24,149 -832 BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 18,267 18,256 11 ESPN 88,401 89,856 -1,455 ESPN2 88,283 89,740 -1,457 ESPNU 69,815 71,548 -1,733 FOX DEPORTES 21,795 22,564 -769 FS1 85,358 85,931 -573 FS2 50,334 51,806 -1,472 GOLF CHANNEL 77,638 76,231 1,407 MLB NETWORK 65,503 67,116 -1,613 NBA-TV 52,654 54,367 -1,713 NBC SPORTS NETWORK 83,197 84,520 -1,323 NFL NETWORK 71,612 70,892 720 UNIVISION DEPORTES 47,154 47,887 -733 Total Cable 98,103 99,250 -1,147

Network name Dec 2016 Estimated # of Homes (000) Coverage % Nov 2016 Estimated # of Homes (000) Change Since Nov (000) BEIN SPORT 23,317 20% 23,542 -225 BEIN SPORT ESPANOL 18,267 15% 18,358 -91 ESPN 88,401 75% 88,956 -555 ESPN2 88,283 75% 88,878 -595 ESPNU 69,815 59% 70,525 -710 FOX DEPORTES 21,795 18% 21,906 -111 FS1 85,358 72% 85,616 -258 FS2 50,334 43% 50,808 -474 GOLF CHANNEL 77,638 66% 75,378 2,260 MLB NETWORK 65,503 55% 66,254 -751 NBA-TV 52,654 44% 53,072 -418 NBC SPORTS NETWORK 83,197 70% 83,817 -620 NFL NETWORK 71,612 60% 71,660 -48 UNIVISION DEPORTES 47,154 40% 47,397 -243 Total Cable 98,103 83% 98,388 -285

All data ©Nielsen (data provided by a variety of TV network sources and not directly from Nielsen)

—