Is ESPN Losing Viewers Yet?

ESPN was one of the original channels to burst onto the cable scene way back in September of '79. It was billed as the first Entertainment and Sports Network devoted to bringing America sports programs all day and every day. I found myself watching it continuously and eventually depending on it for all of my sports information. If you turned on any Television in my house they would all be set to ESPN or ESPN 2 (added in 1993). They were eventually purchased by ABC/Disney with a minor interest held by the Hearst Foundation.

I am giving the background because I consider myself an average Joe American who enjoys Sports in all forms..either playing or watching it. Lately I have been feeling my age and the playing has reverted to Fantasy Leagues in the big sports which makes my viewing habits much more intense and prolonged.

Recently within the past few years MLB followed by NFL and to a lesser extent NHL & NBA have all launched their own 24/7 cable channels and depending on the season I have found myself drifting over to those Networks for my information and sometimes I end up staying there if the programming is being paced well enough to keep me. We won't even mention NASCAR Channel, Golf Channel & Tennis Channel.

This has got to be detrimental to advertising revenue in the near future on the "Leader of Sports Programming"...ESPN. The impact of these professional sports channels will be felt next weekend as the ESPN holds their annual 2-day NFL draft coverage. I have never missed this particularly unique employment show since it was televised on ESPN over a decade ago. I find myself switching over to the NFL Network more often to follow the draft and team updates leading up to their needs and choices.

I know that ESPN is this monolithic behemoth that broadcasts in 150 countries in 15 languages and that may be the root of the problem of ESPN the channel. Having to cover the various sports of interest in all of those countries may leave not a few United States or should I say North Americans searching for a more "tailored" network. The NFL Network does a solid job in all things Pro Football from combines to two-a-days, they have gotten it down.The MLB Network is making strides in that direction even in their infancy as they give baseball a deeper coverage than even ESPN's Baseball Tonight which is a show I love.

The NBA and NHL channel are also newbies to the cable and satellite world of sports channels as they remain a work in progress, I'm attributing their lag time to either money devoted to them or prior contracts holding them back, either way they are still just fledgling channels with cheap sets and chicanery rules the day pretty much.
We will have to watch to see how ESPN handles this new competition or if they disregard them at their own peril, either way the viewer and the fan receives much more quality and opinion on their favorite sport or team. As of right now the talent to man these new Nets is available.