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ESPN viewership down
Old 12-11-2016, 03:02 PM   #1
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ESPN viewership down

Recent reports have ESPN viewership declining. If you are not watching ESPN as much as in the past, why not? Several factors haved turned me away: cameras constantly moving, particularly with fisheye lens, create motion sickness, too much focus on football at the expense of other sports, screen bottom ticker with incomplete or interrupted info, excess video game graphics as substitute for real content, better online access to event results info, and too many commercial breaks.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:15 PM   #2
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College football is about it for me. So the rest of the year I rarely turn it on. Mike and Mike early in the mornings is sometimes entertaining.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:15 PM   #3
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Don't think it's commercials since you can DVR it & bypass them. Results? Can get those anywhere. NFL viewership down = ESPN down ( I haven't watched a down today.). But I think it could be too much talking heads time vs. real sports.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:15 PM   #4
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I can record a game and watch it in about 45 minutes by skipping timeouts replays and commercials. I probably don't get counted as a viewer.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:21 PM   #5
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As far as ESPN goes:
1. too many shows featuring arguing people trying to talk over each other. It's like listening to drunken college roommates .
2. too many commercials
3. Too much emphasis on NBA, as I am not much of an NBA fan.
On the other hand, before ESPN bought rights to NFL, MLB and NBA, as well as College Football and Basketball, it was much harder to find these things on TV, and I do enjoy them. Way more than DW enjoys them.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:28 PM   #6
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Sports is a release for me, a get-away-from-real-life.

Recently, ESPN has been interested in injecting a lot of real life issues. And on top of it, they do it with guys yelling at each other. Those subject should be on the news.

So, I turn the channel.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:32 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by JoeWras View Post
Sports is a release for me, a get-away-from-real-life.

Recently, ESPN has been interested in injecting a lot of real life issues. And on top of it, they do it with guys yelling at each other. Those subject should be on the news.

So, I turn the channel.
Yes, I agree. they feel the need to acknowledge the very things I'm trying to escape.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:37 PM   #8
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I still watch ESPN when they are showing a live sporting event I want to see. Otherwise, I normally use ESPN's mobile app rather than waiting for scores and info to show up in the TV crawl.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:39 PM   #9
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Never have watched it.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:39 PM   #10
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Too many sports available in other places and networks. I can watch on Twitter, CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, TNT, plus add in the local affiliates and you have too many other options.
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Old 12-11-2016, 03:41 PM   #11
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Evidently it's not unique to ESPN. NFL viewership is down, part of it.
Quote:
More than 70 percent of the most widely distributed channels have lost subscribers in the last year, according to Nielsen data. Most television network owners have a channel that has done as bad or worse than ESPN's percentage loss since December 2015.

Overall, the number of households with cable or satellite hookups in the U.S. fell by 1.6 percent — those are people who disconnected entirely, so that figure represents a sort of minimum loss for widely distributed networks like ESPN (if you're already in every cable household, there's nowhere to go but down). That's why the median losses were around 2 percent for the most popular channels.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/espns-...140000482.html

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/04...-crashed-2016/
Quote:
For the first time since the 1990s the NFL’s supreme dominance of televised sports has faded. Ratings through the first nine weeks plunged by double digits. “Monday Night Football” ratings are down by more than 20 percent.
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:01 PM   #12
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Yes while overall viewership is down for the top ESPN has declined double the average decline, I believe it began when they became the Johnny Manziel/ Tim Tebow network where no matter what sport was on they were doing breaks on either promoting a show on both or the latest news of how far Tim Tebow could push a tire or Johnny Manziel throw a bottle. I used to be a big ESPN viewer I now only watch Monday night Football and do not watch ESPN. I think it is the basic problem of getting successful and trying to promote what they felt would be a marginal additional viewer at the expense of the average viewer and not caring why they were tuning in as they were assumed to be a captive audience. When you add in the additional yelling at each other and constant bringing in of social issues on top of this it has made announcers famous but less interest in the games, which is really what ESPN should be about.
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:04 PM   #13
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Don't think it's commercials since you can DVR it & bypass them. Results? Can get those anywhere. NFL viewership down = ESPN down ( I haven't watched a down today.). But I think it could be too much talking heads time vs. real sports.
I think sports is the one thing people usually don't record and watch later. You'd have to turn off your phone to not get texts from friends who want to talk about the game, not look at facebook or any other online sites where you might accidentally see a score, etc. Certainly you CAN do this, but I'm just saying I don't think people do normally.

I agree with a lot of the posts here.

- Too many commercials. TD, followed by commercials, kickoff, more commercials.

- Basketball is almost unwatchable to me because the late game strategy is to break the rules (foul) to try to come from behind. The game just becomes a free throw shooting contest without too much action unless the lead is going back and forth.

- The talking heads are just unbearable. Five people all need to shout over each other to make their points? No thanks.

- I think the athletes and coaches are overpaid, and most of them just don't see likeable or respectable. I admire their talents and I get that it's whatever the market will bear, but I just don't like to contribute to it. I would love to see TV contract money go down, bringing down salaries, ticket prices, and endorsement deals which add to the cost of products I might buy. I can dream, can't I?

- Video review is a good idea but it also is a drag on the game.

- All the fantasy leagues and talk about it really turn me off too.

Like Dawg, I mostly watch college football. If not for that, I would cut the cord and watch a few shows over the air, and the rest online, via subscription if needed.
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:14 PM   #14
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I watch ESPN for some sports only.... I do not watch for any scores or commentary... they are not interesting to me...



Now, I am one who does DVR almost any sporting event... I quickly go through the commercials and if the game is not that interesting I can speed it up pretty quick... I can watch a soccer game in 30 minutes...

I do not watch many NFL games on ESPN... the other networks have the games I am interested in... even if on ESPN the home team is usually on a local station...

I have almost no interest anymore in basketball or baseball... heck, add golf, tennis and other sports... I do like racing, but like soccer will fast forward off and on to make it quick...

Now, for football... including college.... I actually do watch most of the game even between plays.... it does add to the game... I do FF the replays and the extra points and commercials and especially half time.... but, if the game is starting to get boring I do skip between plays and have even deleted the game...


I wish I could get my cable package without the big cost of ESPN... I would not miss it at all.... sure, I would miss some of the college football games and maybe some March Madness games but I could live with that....
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:16 PM   #15
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Because of the cost of cable/satellite leading to more cord cutters, in part. And the ESPN empire is the leading cause of major rate increases.
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:20 PM   #16
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I used to watch ESPN a lot before I retired. Now not so much. Too busy. I DVR Bears games and fast forward through commercials. But the Bears are seldom on ESPN.
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Old 12-11-2016, 04:29 PM   #17
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They seem to focus in the coasts to me. Al ot of stuff about the eastern seaboard......
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Old 12-11-2016, 06:06 PM   #18
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Originally Posted by RunningBum View Post
I think sports is the one thing people usually don't record and watch later. You'd have to turn off your phone to not get texts from friends who want to talk about the game, not look at facebook or any other online sites where you might accidentally see a score, etc. Certainly you CAN do this, but I'm just saying I don't think people do normally.

I agree with a lot of the posts here.

- Too many commercials. TD, followed by commercials, kickoff, more commercials.

- Basketball is almost unwatchable to me because the late game strategy is to break the rules (foul) to try to come from behind. The game just becomes a free throw shooting contest without too much action unless the lead is going back and forth.

- The talking heads are just unbearable. Five people all need to shout over each other to make their points? No thanks.

- I think the athletes and coaches are overpaid, and most of them just don't see likeable or respectable. I admire their talents and I get that it's whatever the market will bear, but I just don't like to contribute to it. I would love to see TV contract money go down, bringing down salaries, ticket prices, and endorsement deals which add to the cost of products I might buy. I can dream, can't I?

- Video review is a good idea but it also is a drag on the game.

- All the fantasy leagues and talk about it really turn me off too.

Like Dawg, I mostly watch college football. If not for that, I would cut the cord and watch a few shows over the air, and the rest online, via subscription if needed.
First, I'm not glued to my phone so I wouldn't see scores there.

I do watch lots of sports delayed by an hour or two simply to avoid all the stops. I watch lots of soccer, often on FF - EPL, Bundesliga, Champions League, bit of MLS, WC qualifying. College football is my favorite too, but don't watch much on TV as I'm tailgating & going to games. I've heard of fantasy sports, but irrelevant. First pro game I watched today was GB/SEA & turned it off after two plays when it was 28-3.
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Old 12-11-2016, 06:15 PM   #19
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First, I'm not glued to my phone so I wouldn't see scores there.
Oh, I know it can work, but the more important it is to me, the more likely I am to find out early.

First time I remember this was the 1980 Winter Olympics. The US-USSR hockey game was played mid day but would not be broadcast until prime time. I purposeful drove home from my part time job that afternoon with the radio off and avoided the news, so I could watch it and enjoy the game not knowing the outcome. I was in my bedroom 15 minutes before the start of the broadcast, and my dad yells out from the living room, "Hey, we beat the Russians!"

Apologies if I spoiled it for anyone who taped that game and has not yet watched it.
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Old 12-11-2016, 06:20 PM   #20
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This might be, in part, related to the cord cutting. ESPN is not that available to people that have totally cut the cord. For instance, when I watch ESPN on my Roku, I have to verify that I have TV service via a cable or dish. If a cord cutter has cut cable, dish, and did not sign up for sling or something else, they can still watch various tv show, just not ESPN.
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