[Infowarrior] - Nielsen Forced To Pull Report Offline After It Shows ESPN Losing More Subscribers Than Ever

[Richard Forno]

Nielsen Forced To Pull Report Offline After It Shows ESPN Losing More Subscribers Than Ever

from the head-firmly-in-the-sand dept

ESPN has been losing hand over fist as consumers shift to streaming alternatives and new "skinny" TV bundles of smaller channels. The company is estimated to have lost roughly 7 million subscribers in just a few years, and a recent survey found that 56% of consumers would drop ESPN in a heartbeat if it meant saving $8 a month on their cable bill (the estimate of how much ESPN costs each subscriber). The losses are largely thanks to ESPN executives failing to see the cord-cutting threat coming. Apparently it's difficult to identify shifting viewership trends with your head buried squarely in the sand. 

Fast forward to this week, when viewer-monitoring firm Nielsen released a report stating that ESPN lost more subscribers than ever last quarter. According to the original Nielsen report, ESPN lost 621,000 homes in a single month, as well as losing 607,000 ESPN2 households, and 674,000 ESPNU homes. Interestingly, ESPN was quick to complain that these numbers were in error:

"The Nielsen numbers represent a dramatic, unexplainable variation over prior months’ reporting, affecting all cable networks. 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 entrants into the market."

As a result, Nielsen was forced to issue a statement saying it was pulling the findings for review ...

< - >

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161102/07332435942/nielsen-forced-to-pull-report-offline-after-it-shows-espn-losing-more-subscribers-than-ever.shtml

--
It's better to burn out than fade away.