ESPN Reclaims Title as Most-Watched Cable Network in Prime Time

Viewing sports is back.

ESPN was the most-watched cable network in prime time in the fourth quarter, after losing that title a year earlier when people turned to Fox News during the presidential election.

The Walt Disney Co.-owned sports network averaged 3.05 million total viewers in the evening time period across both regular TV and streaming, an increase of 13 percent from a year earlier, according to an emailed statement. The network had taken the top spot every fourth quarter from 1999 through 2015, before last year’s race between Hillary Clinton and eventual winner Donald Trump led people to switch to political news.

Fox News downplayed the importance of winning the fourth quarter, saying in an emailed statement that 2017 was the second full year that it was the most-viewed cable network in both prime time and total day viewers.

ESPN, like other TV networks, has had to cope with more viewers switching to online video and canceling their cable TV subscriptions.

For all of 2017, ESPN said its audience rose 7 percent in prime time to an average of 2.06 million viewers. The network benefited from live events including six New Year’s bowl games, Monday Night Football and the Manny Pacquiao versus Jeff Horn fight, among other programming.