Disney has most of these cable companies by the short hairs...live sports is still the biggest draw. The rest of the dreck (besides actual breaking news) can be watched at viewers convenience.

Personally, I watch one procedural crime show (Blue Bloods) every week on TV and usually it isn't live. I really don't watch any other TV show religiously. The only thing I watch live is college sports (don't watch pro sports) and usually catch some news daily.

I believe people seem to forget the advantage in having Disney programming tied in as well. Helluva lot of mothers who know the value of Disney Jr, Disney XD, etc. Do you really think not having access to those channels is acceptable? Lot of these carriage companies will bark but there really isn't a ton of bite behind it when those Disney channels are at stake.

(12-31-2018 11:29 AM)Indytarheel Wrote:  I believe people seem to forget the advantage in having Disney programming tied in as well. Helluva lot of mothers who know the value of Disney Jr, Disney XD, etc. Do you really think not having access to those channels is acceptable? Lot of these carriage companies will bark but there really isn't a ton of bite behind it when those Disney channels are at stake.

SU AD John Wildhack was a lead executive for Disney negotiating these agreements in the past. He knows the business in and out as he started with ESPN during the infancy. I'm sure he is giving Greensboro some sage advice.

(12-31-2018 11:15 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  Disney has most of these cable companies by the short hairs...live sports is still the biggest draw. The rest of the dreck (besides actual breaking news) can be watched at viewers convenience.

Personally, I watch one procedural crime show (Blue Bloods) every week on TV and usually it isn't live. I really don't watch any other TV show religiously. The only thing I watch live is college sports (don't watch pro sports) and usually catch some news daily.

Same. All my viewing of "TV shows" are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or HBO related. HATE watching commercial TV shows now. I can wait to see them on either Hulu the next day or two or Netflix the next year.

Cheers,
Neil

(12-31-2018 11:58 AM)OrangeDude Wrote:  

(12-31-2018 11:15 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  Disney has most of these cable companies by the short hairs...live sports is still the biggest draw. The rest of the dreck (besides actual breaking news) can be watched at viewers convenience.

Personally, I watch one procedural crime show (Blue Bloods) every week on TV and usually it isn't live. I really don't watch any other TV show religiously. The only thing I watch live is college sports (don't watch pro sports) and usually catch some news daily.

Same. All my viewing of "TV shows" are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or HBO related. HATE watching commercial TV shows now. I can wait to see them on either Hulu the next day or two or Netflix the next year.

Cheers,
Neil

Besides live sports I mostly watch on demand too.

"The number of pay-TV subscribers who get ESPN fell 2.3 percent to 86 million last year. Less-popular Disney-owned channels, such as the SEC Network and ESPN News, experienced even greater declines."

Is this a measure of viewers lost on all platforms or just cable? If not, is there any data indicating whether the number of viewers watching via the ESPN app or other streaming services? Stated another way, is it a net loss of a couple million viewers, or just a loss of a couple million viewers who watch via cable?

(01-01-2019 08:00 AM)Buckminster Fuller Wrote:  "The number of pay-TV subscribers who get ESPN fell 2.3 percent to 86 million last year. Less-popular Disney-owned channels, such as the SEC Network and ESPN News, experienced even greater declines."

Is this a measure of viewers lost on all platforms or just cable? If not, is there any data indicating whether the number of viewers watching via the ESPN app or other streaming services? Stated another way, is it a net loss of a couple million viewers, or just a loss of a couple million viewers who watch via cable?

Since this report states "pay-TV" rather than "cable", I assume it's all platforms. That said, there's a difference between #subscribers and subscription $revenue. You may have noticed that Verizon is paying more for ESPN? So we are seeing fewer subscribers paying more per month to maintain roughly the same total revenue... in other words, when people who don't care about sports stop paying for it, those that do care must pay more.