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