Dear ESPN, WBD Sports, USA Network and Especially TUDN: Sorry for screwing up the Nielsen Cable Coverage numbers so badly

No good deed goes unpunished...

Above are the corrected April 2023 Nielsen cable coverage universe estimates for the sports networks versus Nielsen’s December estimates. All numbers are in thousands, that is, ESPN is now in 73,319,000 homes according to Nielsen.

To ESPN (Deportes & U), WBD Sports (TBS & TNT), USA Network and TUDN: sorry for so badly screwing it up initially. I feel awful about it.

For everyone else: the screw up involves how Nielsen counts networks who use dynamic ad insertion and subscribe to the Nielsen service that counts those households.

I didn’t include them in the original, incorrect post and as a result I shortchanged ESPN Deportes, TBS, TNT, and USA by a little, and TUDN and ESPNU by a lot.

In the previous, now deleted post, I’d also screwed up the numbers for those networks for the December 2022 numbers. That’s corrected here as well.

Yes, YouTube TV, Sling TV, Hulu + Live, DirecTVStream, Fubo TV, etc. are included in Nielsen’s estimates

The answer to any other questions is likely “sorry, I don’t know.” There is sometimes a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma aspect to Nielsen’s black box.

I was expecting a bigger drop for MLB Network given that YouTube TV dropped it in early February.

Where are SEC Network, CBS Sports Network, etc?

They don’t subscribe to the Nielsen national measurement service that would include them here.

Is the decline finally slowing?

From Nielsen’s January 2022 estimates to the December 2022 estimates, ESPN declined 8 percent. The 1.2 percent decline in the four months since puts ESPN on pace for a 3.6 decline for the year. If that pace holds, down 4 percent is a lot better than being down 8 percent! It’s worth keeping an eye on.