ESPN has made a huge announcement concerning its TV viewership this year.
The network’s latest reveal comes after giving Stephen A. Smith a $100 million contract last month.
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ESPN has had a more than successful start to 2025 regarding viewership.
The network shared in a press release that it averaged 868,000 viewers across the first 90 days in 2025.
That mark is the average per-minute audience in the first quarter since 2017 and a 22 percent increase from last year.
The biggest gains occurred during primetime.
“Isolating primetime 98-11 p.m. ET), ESPN averaged 2,299,000 viewers on each of the 90 nights, its best within the Nielsen Q1 since 2012,” the press release added.
“The nearly 2.3 million viewers is a 36% increase year-over-year.”
ESPN’s viewing figures come after the network handed Stephen A. a five-year deal worth $100 million.
The 57-year-old was previously making $12 million per year with ESPN but now he is making at least $20 milliion per year.
Smith is a mainstay on ESPN’s First Take and NBA pregame show, NBA Countdown.
It’s easy to see what gave ESPN such a big viewership increase through the first three months of 2025.
In January, the network broadcast the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
Instead of having one game after the usual bowl season, ESPN received an extra semifinal round after the new year hit, and the championship game.
The game also included big-time schools like Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, and Penn State.
Then, in February, ESPN was the home of the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was an absolute success for the sport of hockey.
It was the first in-season international tournament and featured the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden.
Stephen A. Smith’s journey through media
STEPHEN A. Smith is now the face of ESPN and an executive producer on First Take having initially started working for the company back in 2003.
Smith has held various roles with the network, including hosting radio shows, SportsCenter contributions, and appearing on NBA Countdown.
He was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994 to 2010.
His began as an NBA writer before becoming a general sports columnist.
Before that, Smith worked as a reporter with Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News, and the New York Daily News.
An astounding 9.3 million viewers watched the USA-Canada final that saw the Canadians win in overtime.
It’s the largest hockey audience for a non-Olympic game in the modern era.
In recent years, ESPN has looked to invest in major events and drop other properties (Around the Horn next month, for example).
The network is also expected to lose its TV deal with Major League Baseball.
But ESPN is looking to continue its TV with the NFL Draft while also trying to acquire ownership of NFL Network.
Nonetheless, ESPN is off to a productive start in 2025 as it gets ready to broadcast the NFL Draft, which is set for next week.