Nielsen this week pulled a report showing massive ESPN subscriber losses after the sports programming giant complained. Originally, Nielsen's October subscriber estimates found that during the month of October, ESPN lost 621,000 homes, ESPN2 dropped by 607,000 and ESPNU was out in 674,000. If true those would be some of the worst monthly subscriber losses ever experienced by the sports channel, which has been losing subscribers by the millions in the face of cord cutting, cord trimming, and the rise of skinny bundles that exclude sports programming.
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But Nielsen subsequently pulled the report offline after ESPN complained about the numbers.
"The Nielsen numbers represent a dramatic, unexplainable variation over prior months’ reporting, affecting all cable networks," ESPN said in a statement. "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 (virtual MVPD platforms like Sling TV) entrants into the market."
While Nielsen's latest numbers may or may not be accurate. There's little doubt that ESPN continues to suffer significant losses, with previous data suggesting the sports channel has lost roughly 7 million subscribers in just the last three years. These losses highlight a huge swath of people who don't watch sports, and are tired of paying for it. One recent survey suggested that 56% of consumers would drop ESPN in a heartbeat if it meant saving the estimated $8 more the channel costs cable subscribers.
Meanwhile, Nielsen says it's investigating its monthly subscriber estimates.
"We take the accuracy of our data very seriously and are conducting a thorough analysis to determine whether or not there is an issue with these estimates," says the company. "We are working closely with clients and will alert them on the findings of our internal review."
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