Monday Breitbart News reported that TV viewers are dropping cable subscriptions in droves for cheaper internet platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, posing an existential threat to ESPN.
Tuesday an online rating service spelled out exactly how disastrous that fallout is just in the last month. According to SportsTVRatings.com, the world’s premier global cable and satellite sports television channel, ESPN, lost a stunning 422,000 viewing homes between February and March 2017. Fox Sports 1 didn’t fare very well either losing 77,000 homes.
Overall, 390,000 homes canceled their cable TV subscriptions in that same period of time.
Breitbart also reported on Monday that, according to a Sports Illustrated report, ESPN management is cutting “tens of millions” of dollars of staff salaries and that “on-air personalities are on the chopping block.”
A 2016 Breitbart story on ESPN’s new public editor, Jim Brady, indicated dissension even within the ESPN boardroom, and that the sports cable network “has become far too liberal,” which could be having an effect on the downward spiral of sports viewing across the USA.
After watching an ESPN NFL game last season with more cameras focusing on Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem than on the American flag and those honoring it, they may be on to something.
Click here to see the complete list of the ratings by SportsTvratings.com.