Cord cutting’s growth has continued now for over ten years. This has impacted cable TV networks hard, including the NFL Network. Now according to the Sports Business Journal, the NFL network has lost over 20 million subscribers over the last ten years. In 2013 the NFL network had 72.5 million subscribers. Now that number has dropped to 51.1 million subscribers.
This comes as the two largest cable TV providers, Comcast and Spectrum, continue to lose subscribers. In the most recently reported subscriber numbers, Comcast and Spectrum lost a combined 743,000 TV customers in the 2nd quarter of 2023. That works out to be just over 8,000 subscribers canceling cable TV every single day.
According to Comcast, it lost 543,000 video customers during the second quarter of 2023. That works out to almost 6,000 Subscribers Every Day.
Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, has once again lost 200,000 TV customers in the 2nd quarter of 2023.
The NFL Network has also struggled as many cable TV customers have switched to cheaper packages that do not offer the NFL Network. Even some live TV streaming services for cord cutters do not include the NFL Network in all of their packages. DIRECTV STREAM, for example, only includes it in the Choice and higher packages. This has meant cord cutters moving to cheaper streaming services has not resulted in new subscribers for many networks.
In just the first three months of 2023, it is reported that cable TV and live TV providers lost 2.31 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023. That works out to over 25,600 Americans cutting the cord every day. If this trend continues, cable TV providers could lose 9.3 million subscribers in 2023. These numbers come from a report over at MoffettNathanson, a research group that tracks cable TV and streaming services.
This all comes as it has been reported that the NFL and Disney are in talks to have the NFL buy part of ESPN. This deal would also include ESPN helping the NFL Network and NFL Redzone. With subscriber numbers dropping, you can understand why the NFL may be looking at new options for its TV efforts.