"This is starting to feel like a thing. ESPN's ratings were down in the first half of the year—alarmingly so in the spring—which prompted ESPN's PR machine to swing back hard, labeling the drop a bizarre fluke, an aberration. Well, July numbers are in and ...

On the heels of double-digit percentage drops in Q2, ESPN during the month of July saw an 8% drop in total-day viewership and a 12% drop in primetime compared to the same period in '12. Contributing to the drops was a shift in the Nielsen calendar, whereby ESPN this past month had neither the NBA Draft nor College World Series finals – both of which aired in July '12. The net also had a strong presence last July with the UEFA Euro '12 semifinals and final, as well as strong numbers around pre-Olympic programming.

More caveats, but also a bit more evidence that what we're seeing is a real trend. By the way, ESPY ratings were down this year, too; the awards show had 2.3 million viewers this year compared to last year's 2.41 million."


http://deadspin.com/espns-july-ratings-a...-967158007

Not good for us with the look in and new contracts in 6 years.

Good. I only watch ESPN for live sports these days.

I watch MLB network for all my baseball coverage now. ESPN has very little I'm interested in watching aside from live games.

I'd be interested in seeing the ratings of all sports channels or channels that heavily showcase sports. It would be interesting to see if more people are simply tuning out from watching all sports in general or if it's simply a change in platform where people are circumventing the networks via streaming feeds.

Who needs to watch sports center now a days when you got a smartphone?

(08-07-2013 07:47 AM)goofus Wrote:  Who needs to watch sports center now a days when you got a smartphone?

Exactly....you have the app that all you need....

ESPN's summer lineup is pretty garbage. I watch SportsSouth for Braves games. ESPN for ... uhh ....... nothing. Even College Football Live is an unbearable exercise in SEC gentle ball cupping by the "Worldwide Leader".

I rarely watch ESPN in the summer...I so wanna dump my cable. I've downgraded it.

E$PN needs content. Like games, content. Not all this filler they have now, so-called experts giving their opinions, which aren't any more accurate, maybe less accurate than those of people on this board.

There is really NOTHING to watch on ESPN right now (and for the past month). Why don't they at least show classic football & basketball game re-runs? Maybe I'd watch one of those occasionally...

No major live sports expect baseball = low ratings. Pretty common sense really.

(08-07-2013 10:47 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  E$PN needs content. Like games, content. Not all this filler they have now, so-called experts giving their opinions, which aren't any more accurate, maybe less accurate than those of people on this board.

This. Having Steve Smith and Skip Bayless (or countless wannabe talking heads just like them) argue over Tim Tebo all the time is all the reason I need to never watch unless it's a live event that I'd watch no matter what station it was on.

ESPN sucks. Bad. Really, really bad.

(08-07-2013 11:11 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  No major live sports expect baseball = low ratings. Pretty common sense really.

I believe they are comping year over year numbers, meaning for example they are comparing this year's baseball ratings to last year's baseball ratings. They aren't comparing July baseball ratings to March college basketball ratings.

(08-07-2013 11:12 AM)JunkYardCard Wrote:  

(08-07-2013 10:47 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  E$PN needs content. Like games, content. Not all this filler they have now, so-called experts giving their opinions, which aren't any more accurate, maybe less accurate than those of people on this board.

This. Having Steve Smith and Skip Bayless (or countless wannabe talking heads just like them) argue over Tim Tebo all the time is all the reason I need to never watch unless it's a live event that I'd watch no matter what station it was on.

ESPN sucks. Bad. Really, really bad.

I'd even be okay with replays of certain games if they need filler. Lets say they had a replay of the Fiesta bowl game between Boise and Oklahoma. That would be better than all the non-game content they have on there now.

(08-07-2013 11:11 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  No major live sports expect baseball = low ratings. Pretty common sense really.

Correct, which is why the Deadspin post in the OP is overreaching in its alarmist headline, particularly when it points out itself that ESPN didn't have several important live events in July 2013 beyond MLB that it had in July 2012 (NBA Draft, College World Series, Euro 2012). That's a pretty important distinction. Plus, this MLB season has not been TV friendly at all when it comes to those sitting in the executive suites. The Red Sox are really the only national draw that's playing well. The Yankees are mediocre with their dominant storyline being the A-Rod suspension, while the Cubs are still in the middle of their 100-year rebuilding process. The Dodgers are a decent draw, but don't carry anywhere near the national interest as the Red Sox, Yankees and Cubs when they're playing well. The secondary teams in the 3 largest markets (Mets, Angels and White Sox) are also all way out of playoff contention, so all of MLB's TV partners are losing out on a lot of viewers in those areas. So, with apologies to all the fans of teams like the Pirates, Rays, Tigers, A's and Orioles out there, the dearth of marquee MLB franchises playing well is a drag on ratings for ESPN, Fox and TBS this year. People are NOT tuning out ESPN simply because it's ESPN.

As a result, for those that hope/wish ESPN goes into the death spiral, I don't think that the ratings over the past couple of months has any bearing on ESPN's potential ratings this fall when the NFL and college football come back, as those ratings are pretty much going to be driven by the quality of those games. That is why ESPN and every other sports network has been trying like hell to buy up as many quality games as possible, as even the greatest studio show in the world won't get good viewership without exclusive live events surrounding it.

(08-07-2013 11:15 AM)JunkYardCard Wrote:  

(08-07-2013 11:11 AM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  No major live sports expect baseball = low ratings. Pretty common sense really.

I believe they are comping year over year numbers, meaning for example they are comparing this year's baseball ratings to last year's baseball ratings. They aren't comparing July baseball ratings to March college basketball ratings.

Articles that I have read over the last couple of months show that baseball ratings are even lower this year than they were last year; and apparently they were pretty low last year. So a lot of these sports stations ratings are dragging because of it.

The flagship station is pretty much talking-head nonsense when there isn't a sporting event aired. Seriously...between airing what you can hear on the radio, or watching the theme and variation chat shows, it's literally nothing...

...and then after it airs on ESPN, it repeats on "The Deuce."

I pine for the days when they used to fill in their slots with all sorts of random programming, like Magic: The Gathering tournaments. As bad as those were ("He plays a...HOWLING MINE!!!"), they kept it on the actual event...not the interpretation.

(08-07-2013 07:41 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  I watch MLB network for all my baseball coverage now. ESPN has very little I'm interested in watching aside from live games.

+1 MLB network blows away anything espn does with baseball

(08-07-2013 12:36 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  The flagship station is pretty much talking-head nonsense when there isn't a sporting event aired. Seriously...between airing what you can hear on the radio, or watching the theme and variation chat shows, it's literally nothing...

...and then after it airs on ESPN, it repeats on "The Deuce."

I pine for the days when they used to fill in their slots with all sorts of random programming, like Magic: The Gathering tournaments. As bad as those were ("He plays a...HOWLING MINE!!!"), they kept it on the actual event...not the interpretation.

This might be all true, but it isn't what is causing the ratings decline (as much as some people wish it were to be the case in order to slam ESPN's talking head shows). Instead, it's simply the lower number of quality ratings-drawing events compared to last year. If anything, the lower ratings numbers are actually giving ESPN more ammunition against another common fan complaint, which is that ESPN concentrates too much on the marquee teams like the Yankees, Heat, Lakers, Cowboys, etc. The ratings this summer are bearing out to show that America truly isn't as interested in watching plucky small market teams like the Spurs and Pirates no matter how good they might be competitively (even though a lot of sports fans *say* that they are tired of the talk about the Yankees and Lakers), so ESPN is showing that it makes perfect business sense to pimp the most popular teams as much as possible to draw in the largest number of viewers.