ESPN's drastic TV subscriber drop is bad news for sports fans
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - APRIL 20: ESPN camera at a game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Memphis Showboats at The Dome at Americas Center on April 20, 2024 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/UFL/Getty Images)
Streaming is taking over sports.
Look no further for proof of that than the NFL, America's most popular sport. Amazon has been airing "Thursday Night Football" on Prime Video for the last couple of seasons. Peacock aired the first ever exclusively streamed NFL playoff game in January. This year's Christmas games will be streamed exclusively on Netflix.
But the NFL is only one example. The MLB, MLS, WNBA, and English Premiere League are just some of the leagues that have aired games exclusively on a streaming platform in some capacity. The NBA is expected to sign a deal with Amazon to air regular season and playoff games on Prime Video starting in 2025.
There is a reason for it though. The consumer behavior of cord-cutting and choosing on-demand services has existed for over a decade, and it's continuing. Media companies are trying to find a way to adjust, especially with many seeing sports as a bridge between linear and direct-to-consumer services.
ESPN sees another subscriber drop
In the fall, ESPN is expected to launch Venu Sports, a streaming platform that is a joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. On top of that service, ESPN is also expected to launch another direct-to-consumer service within the next two years.
The Disney-owned (DIS) sports network is not abandoning its linear product, but it's easy to understand why ESPN would want to invest in streaming services. According to a report by Puck's John Ourand, ESPN is presently in fewer than 68 million homes in the US, a number that was as high as over 100 million in 2013.
The downtick isn't exclusive to ESPN as the Puck report indicated that other sports outlets like FS1, TNT, the NFL Network, NBA TV, and MLB network have also seen drops in their subscriber counts.
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Media companies are beginning to recognize that live sports properties are able to bring over subscribers that it may be losing from the linear side over to its streaming platforms. Peacock saw a 10% increase in subscribers in Q1 2024, crediting the NFL Wild Card game it aired. Prime Video also had a record-breaking subscriber day when it first aired NFL "Thursday Night Football" two seasons ago.
Fans aren't exactly happy about the decision of networks and sports leagues to partner up, which has created a more complicated and, for some, a more expensive sports viewing experience. But given where the eyeballs — and money — are going, sports and streaming is going to be the norm for the foreseeable future.