In the first quarter of Nielsen's 2017 (concluded March 26), ESPN was the top-rated full-time cable network in both total day and prime time among six important demographic groups: Men 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, and among Adults in the same three age ranges.
Significantly, while ESPN's leadership in the male demos for every quarter goes back for years, the network's ranking among all viewers has risen in recent years. Just three years ago, for the first quarter of the year in prime time ESPN ranked third in the three demos for adults; 2017 was the first time the network claimed the top spot in all three. In fact, in no quarter in history (back to at least 2002) has ESPN previously ranked no. 1 among Adults 25-54.
"Thanks to the allure of live sports, ESPN's strength among the key young male demographic groups has been its strong suit since our 1979 launch," said Artie Bulgrin, ESPN senior vice president, global research and analytics. "However, our relative strength vs. the competition in a wider range of viewers is a newer development. "In an on demand world, sports has moved up in the hierarchy of choice for live TV viewing."
For the three months, both ESPN and ESPN2 saw their prime-time audience grow nine percent. Indicative of the networks' growing appeal to Adults 25-54, they both were also up nine percent in that demographic.
Also, with the continuing uncommonly strong viewership to the news networks, for the quarter ESPN trailed only FOX NEWS channel among full-time cable networks among all viewers, in both total day and prime time.
