Nielsen Pulls Report After it Shows Massive ESPN Losses Nielsen this week pulled a report showing massive ESPN subscriber losses after the sports programming giant complained. Originally, Nielsen's October subscriber estimates found that during the month of October, ESPN lost 621,000 homes, ESPN2 dropped by 607,000 and ESPNU was out in 674,000. If true those would be some of the worst monthly subscriber losses ever experienced by the sports channel, which has been losing subscribers by the millions in the face of cord cutting, cord trimming, and the rise of skinny bundles that exclude sports programming.

But Nielsen subsequently pulled the report offline after ESPN complained about the numbers. "The Nielsen numbers represent a dramatic, unexplainable variation over prior months’ reporting, affecting all cable networks," ESPN said in a statement. "We have raised this issue with Nielsen in light of their demonstrated failures over the years to accurately provide subscriber data. The data does not track our internal analysis nor does it take into account new DMVPD (virtual MVPD platforms like Sling TV) entrants into the market." While Nielsen's latest numbers may or may not be accurate. There's little doubt that ESPN continues to suffer significant losses, with previous data suggesting the sports channel has lost roughly 7 million subscribers in just the last three years. These losses highlight a huge swath of people who don't watch sports, and are tired of paying for it. One recent survey suggested that 56% of consumers would drop ESPN in a heartbeat if it meant saving the estimated $8 more the channel costs cable subscribers. Meanwhile, Nielsen says it's investigating its monthly subscriber estimates. "We take the accuracy of our data very seriously and are conducting a thorough analysis to determine whether or not there is an issue with these estimates," says the company. "We are working closely with clients and will alert them on the findings of our internal review." "We take the accuracy of our data very seriously and are conducting a thorough analysis to determine whether or not there is an issue with these estimates," says the company. "We are working closely with clients and will alert them on the findings of our internal review."







News Jump WISPs Get CBRS Range As Great As Six Miles At 100 Mbps Speeds; Windstream Officially Exits Bankruptcy; + more news Charter Relaunches Free 60-day Internet And Wi-Fi Offer; NCTA: FCC Should Stick With 25/3 Speed Threshold; + more news Comcast Shuts Off Internet for Subs Who Were Sold Service Illegally; AT&T, Verizon Team To Stop T-Mobile 5G; + more news California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 27 comments

thehammer86

join:2015-10-18 16 recommendations thehammer86 Member Fudging the numbers I guess someone at Nelson forgot to massage the data a bit more. Chuck_IV

join:2003-11-18

Connecticut 15 recommendations Chuck_IV Member I'll bet there's nothing wrong with the data... it's just that ESPN didn't like what they showed, so they pushed/paid Nielsen to pull them.



ESPN wants to continue to bury their head in the sand on this. However, influencing the messenger(Nielsen) to hide the numbers, WON'T make the problem magically go away.

JohnKirchner

join:2005-04-30

Great Falls, MT 7 recommendations JohnKirchner Member ESPN programming sucks Problem with espn is they are making themselves cost so much. Do they really need 50 different commentary shows? They could can most of their tv morons that are biased anyways and save money and not raise rates for retrans fees for tv providers. Hell, I would just be happy if they fired Jon gruden, he is terrible on MNF. He always seems to think he knows everything and it's annoying as all get out. I might start muting the tv for that game.

Anonffa14

@netelligent.ca 7 recommendations Anonffa14 Anon ESPN not carrying sports people watch



»www.outkickthecoverage.c ··· s-050715 quote: 1. ESPN $6.61 x 94.5 million homes = $7.5 billion

2. NFL Network $1.31 x 73.6 million homes = $1.16 billion

3. FS1 .99 x 91.2 million homes = $1.08 billion

4. ESPN2 .83 x 94.5 million hiomes = $941.2 million

5. SEC Network .66 x 69.1 million homes = $547.3 million

6. Golf Channel .35 x 79.4 million homes = $332.2 million

7. NBC Sports Network .30 x 83.1 million homes = $299 million

8. Big Ten Network .39 x 62 million homes = $290.2 million

9. MLB Network .26 x 71.3 million homes = $222.5 million

10. FS2 .28 x 64 million homes = $215 million

11. NBA TV .29 x 57.2 million homes = $199 million

12. ESPNU .22 x 74.9 million homes = $198 million

13. CBS Sports Network .26 x 61 million homes = $190.3 million

14. NHL Network .32 x 37.4 million homes = $143.6 million

15. Pac 12 Network .39 x 12.3 million homes = $57.6 million Nielsen folded to the heat from ESPN because if those numbers stuck, ESPN would lose billions in advertising revenue. And Nielsen isn't as independent as they claim. Their customers include Disney and others that can end contracts with Nielsen. Not just less people watching sports, it is also the fact that ESPN channels carry less of the sports that people watch. Fox Sports; college football league networks; Golf; NFL; NBA; NHL; NBC; CBS have all sucked viewers away from ESPN over the years as they lost exclusive contracts.Nielsen folded to the heat from ESPN because if those numbers stuck, ESPN would lose billions in advertising revenue. And Nielsen isn't as independent as they claim. Their customers include Disney and others that can end contracts with Nielsen. bop75

join:2013-11-08

0000 5 recommendations bop75 Member How does one cancel ESPN without canceling cable? Tied at the hip, are they not?