ESPN Subscriber Numbers Decline Again

ESPN lost about two million subscribers last year, marking the lowest number of subscribers for the sports powerhouse since 2005, according to a Walt Disney Co. filing issued Wednesday.

ESPN had 90 million subscribers at the end of the 2016 fiscal year ended Oct. 1, according to Disney's annual report. It was another year of gradual decline for the network, which had about 100 million subscribers in 2010.

Investor concerns about customers "cord-cutting" their cable-television subscriptions and leading to a fall in ESPN sign-ups has weighed on quarterly earnings at the world's largest media company since August 2015, when Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said "some subscriber losses" were hitting the network.

The declines have been especially pronounced in the last three years. In 2013, ESPN had 99 million subscribers. It lost four million in the year after that, and was down to 92 million in 2015.

Earlier this month, declining income at ESPN weighed on Disney's fourth-quarter results. Operating income for Disney's cable networks segment, which includes ESPN, fell 13% to $1.45 billion. A 13% fall in ESPN ad revenue contributed to the slump.

Declining subscriber numbers have overshadowed other company landmarks in the past year, such as the successful launch of new "Star Wars" films and the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort.

Since then, Disney made a $1 billion deal to acquire a 33% stake in BAMTech, a streaming-video unit created by Major League Baseball. Disney plans to use BAMTech to help launch a digital-sports service that would operate separate from traditional cable bundles and offer more direct-to-consumer offerings.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 23, 2016 21:25 ET (02:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.