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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 01 2017, @11:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the American-game-of-FOOTball-which-is-played-using-your-HANDs dept.

Is ESPN done for?

ESPN pays $2 billion a year to the NFL for Monday Night Football and one NFL wild card playoff game. I've written for the past couple of years that as ESPN's business collapses that ESPN's decision on whether or not to bid to keep Monday Night Football would be the first big test of how rapidly that business is deteriorating.

What's a deteriorating business look like? In the month of October ESPN lost over 15,000 subscribers a day in October per the latest Nielson estimates.

15,000 a day!

Losing 15,000 subscribers per day is a lot, but is that because of the NFL anthem protests or because cord-cutting has finally reached a tipping point?


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:22PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:22PM (#590628)

    The NFL is playing the part of the Wizzard of OZ right now (don't look behind this curtain...).

    They are hoping that some benefactor with deeper pockets will come along and rescue them by giving them more money than ESPN currently gives them and so they can continue to go on as if nothing had happened.

    What I'd very much like to see happen instead is ESPN drops NFL, and no one else picks it up. That would be the single best outcome. Let the NFL start loosing revenue, lots of revenue, and then maybe they will themselves disappear.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:19PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:19PM (#590706)

    Despite the stupidity, they are still king of the ratings, so someone will pick them up and they will continue.

    After all, as a comment below implies, isn't it great to see those one-percenters get tackled and thrown around?
    Maybe the rating would be even higher, at least in liberal circles, if the millionaires got bludgeoned by Joe Plumber and Jane ArtsDegree. Remove the rules that stop the ball, give some weapons and spiked armor to offset the professionals being on steroids, and/or put more players on the amateurs' team ... I'd watch! Need a catchy gory name, thought, like maybe Blood Bowl?

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:22PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:22PM (#590709)

    Maybe, maybe not. What I'm curious about is why the sports leagues like NFL, NBA, etc., haven't tried setting up their own streaming services just like HBO, CBS, etc. I'm guessing their existing distribution contracts prevent it, but that can change (esp. if ESPN drops them, or tries to renegotiate for a much lower fee).

    By cutting out the middle-man and going to direct streaming, they could perhaps get the same profit.

    Personally, I'd rather see American Football die out because it's a horrible and stupid sport that causes debilitating long-term brain injuries for its players, but I'm just speaking to the economic/business aspects here. And this same advice applies to the other sports leagues too, which aren't nearly as horrible as American Football. I'm sure there's a bunch of people who'd be happy to cut the cord and just sign up for NHL streaming or whatever.