How much bigger is ESPN than NBCSN? – May 2018 Cable Coverage Estimates

According to Nielsen as of the May cable universe coverage estimates ESPN is in 2.58 million more homes in the USA than NBC Sports Network.

**DO THESE NUMBERS INCLUDE STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SlingTV, Vue and DirecTV Now?**

Yes, Nielsen currently counts 2.9 million homes that access exclusively through OTT services like Vue, YouTube TV, etc. In the aggregate those services may have a few more subscribers that aren’t counted in the 2.9 million because some households subscribe to a traditional cable bundle and also subscribe to one (or more) of the OTT services.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED AT XYZ NETWORK?

It’s best to use these monthly estimates directionally over the long haul and not pay any/much attention to the goings on in any particular month. But the usual reasons for big monthly spikes are carriage squabbles or a change in tier (from less expensive to more expensive or vice versa).

Nielsen cable (includes satellite & telco services) coverage estimates for all nationally measured cable networks for May 2018:

Here, the May 2018 estimates are compared to the May 2017 estimates*. If you want to compare to last month here are all the “How Much Bigger is ESPN?” posts I’ve done on this site over the past few years. If you’re a “wayback machine” sort, here’s July 2011

I don’t normally do the Y/Y comparisons because the way I get the data only the “versus last month” comparison is automated and the Y/Y comparison adds a lot of room for human error. But it’s a very interesting look because for a lot of the networks (ESPN, FS1 and NBCSN come to mind) it really smoothes out the month-to-month stuff in ways that don’t look nearly as bad Y/Y as some of you might think.

Golf Channel though whoo boy/no human error there.

If you’re on a mobile phone these tables should be much easier to read if you tilt your phone to landscape mode.

All data ©Nielsen (data provided by a variety of TV network sources and not directly from Nielsen)
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