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ESPN Starts New Year Ranked 10th Among Cable TV Network Distribution

ESPN is distributed in 99.1 million U.S. homes to start '12, down slightly from the start of last year and ranked 10th among all cable TV nets. The Weather Channel leads all nets with 100 million homes, followed by TBS with 99.98 million. The start of last year had eight cable nets in over 100 million homes; January '12 sees only one net with that level of distribution. Among sports nets, ESPN2 is also slightly below its level at the start of '11, while ESPNU and ESPNews are up. The league-owned networks are also up from the start of '11. Listed below are U.S. distribution figures for the top 10 nets, as well as figures for nets with a heavy dose of sports content (THE DAILY).

CABLE TV NETWORKS DISTRIBUTION DURING JANUARY
NET
'06
(000)
'07
(000)
'08
(000)
'09
(000)
'10
(000)
'11
(000)
'12
(000)
The Weather Channel
89510
91,989
96,645
98,796
99,866
100,569
100,046
TBS
89506
91,714
97,417
99,014
100,100
100,951
99,983
Discovery Channel
90279
92,544
96,889
98,747
99,750
100,474
99,660
Food Network
88017
91,136
95,773
97,918
99,202
100,096
99,602
Nick-at-Nite
89508
91,940
96,454
98,429
99,564
100,309
99,581
Nickelodeon
89508
91,940
96,454
98,429
99,564
100,309
99,581
USA Network
89709
92,051
96,465
98,368
99,077
99,950
99,373
CNN
89909
92,273
96,528
98,343
99,219
100,029
99,253
TNT
89774
92,140
96,485
98,054
99,114
100,288
99,200
ESPN
90111
92,337
96,679
98,092
99,016
99,792
99,113
ESPN2
89315
91,812
96,285
97,696
98,713
99,699
99,045
Spike
89558
91,654
96,076
97,817
98,671
99,397
98,798
FX
87896
90,414
94,636
95,194
95,859
95,825
98,182
Golf Channel
67797
74,319
75,232
81,246
82,013
83,343
84,577
Speed
64206
69,530
72,319
73,273
74,865
77,548
79,157
NBC Sports Network*
63402
71,419
72,789
73,801
63,809
75,360
76,227
ESPNews
45748
54,326
63,015
67,982
71,344
73,210
74,160
ESPNU
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
72,338
72,658
MLB Network
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
54,872
68,241
NFL Network
n/a
39,692
43,171
41,908
55,411
56,696
58,125
NBA TV
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
54,181
55,810
Fox Soccer
n/a
n/a
n/a
34,576
35,823
38,472
40,929
Fuel TV
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
36,571
ESPN Classic
58408
64,398
62,835
63,355
59,539
38,535
32,822
 

NOTES: Figures not available for nets that do not subscribe to regular Nielsen ratings, including NHL Network, Universal Sports, Tennis Channel, Fox College Sports, Big Ten Network, Longhorn Network and CBS Sports Network. * = Formerly Versus.

CORRECTION: Wednesday’s issue of THE DAILY should have noted that NBA TV has no year-over-year comparison for primetime and total-day viewership as the net only became rated in October ’10. THE DAILY regrets the error.

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