ESPN Tops ComScore Rankings As Sports Media Consumption Down Big In January

The entire digital sports media category saw a significant decrease in consumption in January, according to monthly comScore data, with the ongoing U.S. political turbulence and interest in news related to the Trump administration a likely factor. The overall audience for digital sports media across online and mobile platforms during the month rose to 182.77 million, up 1% from the same month a year ago and up 0.7% from December. But average consumption fell to an average of 93.8 minutes per user last month, down 25% from January ’16 and down 32% from December. Conversely, overall digital content consumption regardless of genre grew last month. The 93.8 minutes per use of digital sports content during January is the lowest such figure comScore has published in any month since February ’15. ESPN led the category for the fifth straight month and for the 34th time in the last 35 months with a reach total of 86.65 million unique visitors, with the entire top 10 rankings unchanged from December. The newly merged entity of Fox Sports-SI Group-Perform Media, as well as Minute Media, each posted company bests in audience totals during the month.