Survey: 74% of Cable Subscribers Rate ESPN a ‘Must-Have’ Following Spectrum Dispute

There has inarguably been some turmoil in and around ESPN this year. Some of the network’s top talent was shown the door in a wave of firings over the summer, and the channel and its related streamer ESPN+ became the centerpiece of a high-profile carriage dispute between Spectrum and Disney which erupted in early September.

That dispute has now ended, and ESPN is back on the air for the 14.7 million Spectrum TV customers who lost the channel for 10 days. More good news came down the pipeline for ESPN this week, as a Beta Research survey cited by Cablefax states that ESPN is the most in-demand cable network of them all. Seventy-four percent of respondents to Beta Research said ESPN was a “must-have” channel, and its sibling network ESPN2 was second, as 67% of participants said they also had to have it.

ESPN was also the most frequently named channel when Beta Research asked men 18+ to identify their favorite cable network. Thirty-seven percent of men surveyed gave ESPN as their answer, with History coming in second at 23%. The same survey last year found that 78% of cable subscribers rated ESPN as a “must-have,” so the channel has essentially maintained its popularity in the intervening 12 months.

The numbers show why Disney had to give a little to get a little in its recent carriage dispute with Spectrum, the second-largest cable provider in the country. ESPN was one of the channels pulled from Spectrum airwaves in that dispute, and Disney simply could not let the most popular cable network out there remain unavailable to such a large segment of viewers.

Beta Research’s data also shows why Disney is starting from a place of strength with its customer base regarding its plan to launch a streaming version of the ESPN suite of channels by 2025 or 2026. The high demand for ESPN on cable shows that users, particularly younger viewers will respond when a version of the channel that doesn’t require a cable subscription is released.

The survey could also give Disney a reason to keep ESPN on the air for an extended period of time, even after a streaming version is launched. The new Disney-Spectrum agreement could signal the onset of an evolutionary phase in the industry, where cable providers serve as streaming aggregators and offer packages of channels and subscription video services together to customers at discounted prices. ESPN could be the main attraction to some of these packages, whether users choose to stream it or watch it within their cable plan.

Regardless of the tumultuous year that ESPN has had, the future for the network looks bright if Disney plays its cards correctly. It’s still the most popular basic cable channel on the market, and in a few years, customers could have more ways to watch the channel than ever before.