The New England market has to factor into that decline.

Aside from MNF, I've probably watched a total of 30 minutes of ESPN in the past 5 years. It's ridiculous how much they charge for it.

I used to like how the scores would be shown quickly at the bottom in a scroll fashion but then they went to show every damn stat for each game and it takes 1/2 hour just to find out the scores for just one league like baseball.

They spend way too much time talking and analyzing and not enough showing highlights. This is a growing problem with the other channels like MLB or NFL Network.

I hate all the female broadcasters discussing mens sports, a total turnoff.

Too many ESPN channels.

They are going down the tubes

You can blame fantasy sports for that.

It's only going to keep going down. People are cutting the cord and accessing almost everything online now. If it wasn't for live sports I would've done it a long time ago

They have sucked the Pats dry for YEARS ROFL Don't cheat if you don't want the negative part of the exposure. What a pathetic fan base and fake fan base.

No offense, but this isn't true at all. One of their most prominent baseball analysts is Curt Schilling, who may be the most politically outspoken former athlete in America. The guy's Twitter is a right wingers' dream.

And you could take Michael Sam or Bruce Jenner, who were a story for about 2 months, and raise you a Tim Tebow. They wouldn't shut up him for 3 years. Non stop coverage about a QB who can't accurately throw a football. They had entire SportsCenters focused on the guy. And when he finally ran out of chances, they hired him as an analyst.

Sorry, that just drives me nuts, but both political parties do it. It's like complaining about Joe Buck. Somebody does something that might appeal to the other side and people go nuts over it. When in reality they're just chasing ratings. Because they do know left wingers will love a story about Michael Sam, and the right wingers will love non-stop Tebow coverage. You don't notice it because you're so brainwashed by one side of the aisle you don't see anything else.

After a decade of telling us want we are supposed to like and forcing it down our throats their ratings are plummeting?

Who could have seen this happening?!

Pretty much this.

ESPN would talk about animal porn if it got them ratings

Before we waxed the Pats last year....

TOM BRADY, ROB GRONKOWSKI, JULIEN EDELMAN, DANNY AMEJDOLA, LEGARETTE BLOUJT AND THE HIGH FLYING PATRIOTS OFFENSE....take on the chiefs. Pathetic network.

I am old enough to remember when the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl games were all a big deal. Now they have corporate sponsors and are mixed in with 27 other ESPN Garbage Bowls. They have to be losing their ass on those crap games.

Pardon the Interruption is about the only show on ESPN that I watch other than live sports. SportsCenter is unwatchable and although I used to love College GameDay, all it is are analysts that suck up to the blue bloods.

The fans drove the Tebow coverage. Period. End of story. The MEDIA drove the Sam story. Big difference. Huge difference. Say what you want about Tebow, he's a polarizing character, but ESPN covered him because they knew people followed Tebow and whatever he was doing in the NFL.

Meh, I don't care for two people arguing back and forth with raised voices myself.

Interesting how the they both disagree with each other on nearly every subject.

I respectfully disagree slightly with you on this one. I think ESPN drove both stories. I honestly don't know one person who likes Tebow and I have lived throughout the Midwest, South, and West during his time as an athlete. I understand the social/cultural importance of Sam and enjoyed the feel good of breaking a barrier but was turned off pretty quickly with the over coverage. Ultimately there was wayyyy too much coverage on both guys who couldn't land a roster spot in the NFL.