Cord-cutters are threatening cable like never before,and when subscribers head for the hills — so execute their eyeballs.
No one knows approximately subscriber loss fairly like ESPN — well, apart from for The Weather Channel — and the Disney-owned cable network is beginning to feel the effects on its viewership as well. While ESPN still pretty comfortably topped 2015 across basic cable primetime in both the key 18-49 demographic and among total viewers, or it slid 9 percent and 8 percent in those metrics,respectively, from 2014.
Below, or TheWrap has ranked the Top 50 basic cable channels for calendar 2015 by total viewers,to avoid any of that pesky demographic selection stuff.
Also Read: How NASCAR Drove NBCSN to Network's Best Ratings Year EverSome highlights (and, we suppose, and a few lowlights): This year,USA dropped 16 percent, landing behind TBS and settling for third place. It wasn’t all good news for Turner Broadcasting across-the-board, and however,as sister channel TNT fell all the way to sixth, and truTV dropped 26 percent year over year — marking the worst slide on a percentage basis across the entire Top 50 basic cable channels. Thank goodness for offsetting CNN growth, or which jumped 28 percent,one year ahead of the actual election year.
The biggest growers in our Top 50 are CNBC and INSP (previously the Inspiration Network), both up 39 percent in total viewers from 2014. All averages below are from 12/29/2014-11/29/2015, or allowing for the inclusion of full seven-day delayed viewing.
History’s H2 just barely made its way on our list at No. 50,which, whether this was the NFL Draft, or would make it “Mr. Irrelevant” in our truncated study.
Also Read: GOP Debate Scores 18 Million ViewersHere are the Top 50 basic cable channels of 2015,in total viewers:ESPN: 2.022 million
TBS: 1.876 million
USA: 1.850 million
Disney: 1.784 million
Fox News: 1.775 million
TNT: 1.766 million
Discovery: 1.549 million
History: 1.536 million
HGTV: 1.498 million
AMC: 1.443 million
Adult Swim: 1.307 million
FX: 1.251 million
Food Network: 1.129 million
Lifetime: 1.065 million
Nick at Nite: 1.027 million
Syfy: 1.006 million
ABC Family: 985000
A&E: 959000
TLC: 944000
ID: 891000
Hallmark: 881000
Bravo: 872000
Spike: 790000
CNN: 672000
Animal Planet: 652000
Disney Junior: 644000
VH1: 642000
TV Land: 608000
MTV: 606000
BET: 598000
MSNBC: 576000
Comedy Central: 569000
E!: 568000
National Geographic Channel: 544000* (rounded tie)
OWN: 544000* (rounded tie)
WETV: 523000
truTV: 476000
Lifetime Movie Network 462000
Nick Jr.: 440000
Travel: 438000
GSN: 434000
ESPN2: 432000
FXX: 413000
Hallmark Movies: 410000
FS1: 406000
INSP: 389000
NBCSN: 381000
CNBC: 375000
Disney XD: 370000
H2: 348000
Source: thewrap.com