ESPN just had its best ratings month in a decade
ESPN just had its best ratings month in a decade
The sports cable channel attracted nearly half of all sports viewership during the month by itself.
ESPN is the one cable channel that seems able to weather just about any storm. Despite continued declines in the number of Americans who have a pay-TV plan, ESPN continues to rack up impressive viewership statistics. That trend continued in January, as the channel announced that it saw its best viewership in a decade over the course of the month.
Key Details:
- ESPN averaged 1.6 million viewers for the entire month of January, its best audience for any month since January 2015.
- In total, 81.4 billion minutes of sports were watched on ESPN and ABC.
- ESPN accounted for 42% of all sports viewership across its Nielsen-rated networks.
ESPN says that it averaged 1.6 million viewers through the entire month of January, its best average minute audience of any month since January 2015. The channel says that its College Football Playoff lineup and NFL playoff games were most responsible for this jump in viewership.
Related: How to stream ESPN for free
When combined with ABC’s sports content during the month, ESPN’s viewership numbers look even more impressive. Altogether, 81.4 billion minutes of total sports programming were watched on ABC and ESPN in January, representing a new eight-year high.
ESPN’s family of Nielsen-rated networks garnered nearly half of all sports viewership during the month of January. It accounted for 42% of sports viewing minutes during the month, with its closest competitor drawing 20%. No matter how you slice it, it was an impressive month for the network.
The question now becomes, is that success sustainable? January is always a big month for sports, with the College Football Playoffs and NFL playoffs in full swing, alongside the NBA and NHL regular seasons. ESPN’s ability to lock up exclusive rights to the College Football Playoff in the first year of the playoff’s expansion to 12 teams looks especially shrewd in hindsight, and its decision to sublicense a few games to TNT clearly didn’t hurt the bottom line.
Continued declines in cable viewership could eventually hurt ESPN, but the upcoming launch of its Flagship streaming service has the chance to offset those issues. For a price of $20 to $30 per month, viewers will be able to stream ESPN without a cable subscription for the first time when Flagship launches, and that could help guarantee big ratings for the channel even as pay TV continues to spiral.
ESPN Select
ESPN Select is a streaming service that replaced ESPN+ and provides access to live NHL, MLB, and MLS games, PGA Tour Golf, international sports events, ESPN original programming, and a complete archive of “30 for 30.” Find out our review of the service and how to start streaming ESPN Select.