Recently we learned that in just three months 1.2 million American households canceled traditional pay-TV. Now Disney has released their subscriber numbers that show in the last 12 months ESPN has lost 2 million subscribers. Now you may be thinking that many of them now subscribe to ESPN through a streaming service, but that 2 million number includes streaming services.
Disney is already putting a lot of hope into their ESPN+ streaming service that costs $5 a month and gives access to additional content not available on ESPN’s cable networks. According to Disney, ESPN+ already has 1 million hardcore sports fans helping Disney replace lost cable subscribers.
Disney has even gone as far as to hint that the future of ESPN+ may include access to some of their ESPN cable networks at some distant future date, so don’t expect it any time soon.
Disney Junior and Disney XD also got hit hard by cord cutting: both lost 3 million subscribers. Some of this comes as Americans downgrade from higher packages with Disney Junior and Disney XD to plans without them.
Disney is moving to get ready for life post cable as they launch a streaming service in 2019. This new service is hoped to offset the losses from traditional cable TV. With cord cutting growing faster than ever Disney better hurry as you never know when cord cutting could accelerate even faster.
Source: Variety
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