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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) by jmorris on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:46PM (1 child)

    by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:46PM (#590685)

    Douchebags aren't people who put their career in jeopardy...

    Except they aren't and knew they wouldn't be punished in any way. The inmates DO run the asylum and they know it, push comes to shove they can remove any owner. Their contracts are not tied to financial performance of the team or league. They are blowing up the NFL, but slowly enough that it only ruins the opportunity for those who will follow them.

    But with the traumatic brain thing that was already baked in, so the Progs figure to convert the accumulated goodwill of the NFL into SJW points while it is still a going concern. They don't have to care about the future because there isn't one, other Progs already assured us that football is going to sink into a sea of lawsuits soon. I'm hoping more than a few college endowments get wiped clean before it is over.

    The basic question being asked today: "..is that because of the NFL anthem protests or because cord-cutting.." is best answered with "yes" because live sportsball is the primary motivation for keeping the cord, once you quit sports in disgust you might as well pull the plug on the whole cable package, especially since it is the only way to deny ESPN your ~$10/mo fee. I'm betting sports free cable packages become a thing within a year.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:12PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:12PM (#590702)

    I'm betting sports free cable packages become a thing within a year.

    Maybe, but my opinion is that it won't change things for the cablecos. As you said, sports are the only thing propping up cable TV now; it's the sports fans who still have subscriptions. Everyone else with a brain has already cut the cord and moved to streaming services or doesn't care enough about TV to bother. Sports-free cable packages aren't going to attract people who've now gotten used to on-demand streaming services; who wants to go back to the bad ol' days of "channels" and having to tune in at a certain time? How quaint.

    As soon as the sports leagues offer their own streaming services, cable TV is dead.