Defying the notion that ESPN is keeping the entire pay-TV universe from collapsing, TiVo-owned research company Digitalsmiths has found that only 35.7 percent of consumers would put the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" in a personal a la carte channel package.
In fact, ESPN ranked 20th in Digitalsmith's survey, which asked consumers to list what channels they'd choose in their own hypothetical a la carte universe. For its part, ESPN's sibling broadcast network, ABC, was among the leaders, with 66.7 percent of consumers selecting it.
Discovery Channel (62 percent), History Channel (57.7 percent), Comedy Central (43 percent) and even The Weather Channel (39.9 percent) ranked ahead of ESPN in the survey.
Digitalsmiths said that in their ideal pay-TV world, consumers on average want to spend around $38 for a selection of about 17 channels.
Digitalsmiths quizzed 3,144 consumers in the U.S. and Canada for its Video Trends Report for the first quarter.
You can read a full summary of the report on FierceOnlineVideo.