ESPN viewership down

[GrayHare]

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.

 

[Dawg52]

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.

 

[gerntz]

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.

 

[kcowan]

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.

 

[HadEnuff]

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.

 

[JoeWras]

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.

 

[HadEnuff]

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.

 

[cathy63]

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.

 

[Dash man]

Never have watched it.

 

[COcheesehead]

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.

 

[Midpack]

Evidently it's not unique to ESPN. NFL viewership is down, part of it.

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-ratings-suffering-theyre-far-140000482.html

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/04/nfl-tv-ratings-crashed-2016/

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.

 

[Running_Man]

Evidently it's not unique to ESPN. NFL viewership is down, part of it.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/espns-ratings-suffering-theyre-far-140000482.html

Why the NFL's TV ratings crashed in 2016. And how they might rebound

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.

 

[RunningBum]

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.

 

[Texas Proud]

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....

 

[ziggy29]

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.

 

[Ronstar]

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.

 

[Jack_Pine]

They seem to focus in the coasts to me. Al ot of stuff about the eastern seaboard......

 

[gerntz]

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.

 

[RunningBum]

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.

 

[timo2]

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.

 

[Revlefty]

Two reasons

I have decreased my watching of ESPN for two reasons.
1. Much of what I want to watch is available on other cable channels. ESPN doesn't carry the best games.
2. It seems to me that they are trying to make the SportsCenter announcers into celebrity personalities--at the expense of reporting the news. I don't care what some of them have to say.Their egos seem to be over-inflated. i want highlights and scores.

 

[scrabbler1]

My decline in interest in sports began in the late 1980s and continued through the 1990s, before I even had cable TV and ESPN. I rarely, if ever, stop on the channel while channel surfing.


The last time I actually watched ESPN on a regular basis was back in 2007 when they aired a TV series based on Jonathan Mahler's book, "The Bronx Is Burning." That book, for those of you unfamiliar with it, describes several stories in New York City in 1977 such as the continuing pursuit and capture of David Berkowitz ("The Son of Sam"), the heavily contested Democratic primary and general election of New York City Mayor, the July blackout and its awful aftermath, and the tumult surrounding the New York Yankees.


As you would expect, the ESPN-made series focused on the Yankees and devoted token amounts of time to the other 3 stories. Had the series been made by C-Span, the Mayoral race would have received top billing. Had CourtTV (or whatever it's called these days) created the series, the Berkowitz capture would have been its top story. Had the Discovery Channel made the series, the blackout would have been tops. But it was ESPN so the Yankees were the main focus. [I actually saw a clip from a Yankees game I attended in person that year.]


Once in a while, ESPN has rerun one of the TBIB episodes and I have caught while channel surfing.

 

[48Fire]

I watch less. The internet is much better in a lot of ways. And the recent wave of new bimbos added dilutes sport content.

 

[I was misinformed]

I watch less. The internet is much better in a lot of ways. And the recent wave of new bimbos added dilutes sport content.

Hmm this may elicit get some interesting replies.... I would say that there are (and have been) many bimbos at ESPN, but they are of both genders. The standard daily fare of "news/highlights/talk" I find utterly unwatchable.

ESPN/ESPNU/SECN does provide access to some games of interest to me - college FB, an occasional college BB game (when when my local school is playing) and (on ESPN3) Canadian FB.

Many of the documentaries are also quite impressive.

 

[Mdlerth]

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.

+1

A dozen years ago I ditched "real" news for sports news, reasoning that while sports is every bit as controversial as political contests, the great thing about sports is that whichever team wins doesn't really matter. If the Packers beat the Bears or the Lakers lose to the Celtics, ordinary folks will still get up tomorrow and go about the business of living their lives.

So why do sports competitors and journalists subject us to their non-sports tirades? It is much more entertaining to see if the Crimson Tide rolls again or the Patriots play with deflated balls than it is to endure athletic celebrities giving lectures about the world's shortcomings.

Unfortunately, even sports reporting has become infected with impulsive commentary about issues having nothing to do with sports. The only way I can shut them up is to shut them off. I used to be an eager consumer of football news, both NFL and college, but in 2016 I have watched zero minutes of ESPN.