The scariest chart in sports television
Despite all the craziness that's going on in the sports world and the diligent job ESPN has been doing in keeping us all informed, their subscribers simply continue to fall by the wayside.
Earlier this year, we saw that the number of homes with ESPN had fallen below 90 million for the first time in a decade. Since then, ESPN has only lost more subscribers and the pace appears to be accelerating.
According to Nielsen, ESPN has lost a whopping 2 million subscribers since the beginning of the year to put their current total subscriber count at 89 million. At this rate, the network will lose another 2 million subscribers before the end of 2016 to put their end-of-year total at 87 million, a 13% drop since its peak in 2011.
This is incredibly worrisome for a company that depends on its TV subscribers for the majority of their revenue, 60% of it in fact.
For a company whose networks were in 100 million households just 5 years ago, this news that ESPN is continuing to lose revenue does not bode well for a company that calls themselves "The Worldwide Leader in Sports."