Stephen A. Smith can see the future of sports media and it reminds him of almost a generation ago, when the internet’s arrival changed everything.
The ESPN personality appeared as a featured speaker Sunday at the Global Summit XVI, “The Future of Sports” session in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Someone asked Smith what he sees “coming down the line” in sports media in the next three to five years.
“I think everybody knows that the industry has moved more to streaming,” Smith said (via The Chris Gunther Show ). “People have leaned heavily toward streaming. They don’t want to buy TVs. They want to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch, how they want to watch. This means their smartphones, their tablets, their laptops, etc.
“They say that right now, just the other day I was informed, that approximately 8% to 9% of the cable audience is dropping off on average each year. All the same folks are still watching sports, it’s just how they’re watching it.”
Cable’s demise is accelerating. Pay-TV providers have been reporting record subscriber losses in 2024. The industry lost 1.62 million subscribers in Quarter 2 of 2024. That’s a 12.6% decline over the similar period in 2023, the 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage losses, according to MoffettNathanson’s Q2 Cord-Cutting Monitor report .