The Kagan study says LHN was "on the verge of being a bust" because of its early lack of full distribution by cable and satellite providers but was rescued when DIRECTV signed on last year, bringing in an estimated 1.8 million new subscribers within the LHN footprint of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. That grew LHN's reach to some 7.5 million subscribers, according to Kagan. So, despite a losing football team, Kagan projects the network will achieve its first profit in 2016, at roughly $2 million on net revenue of $32 million.

ESPN disagrees with Kagan's LHN subscriber numbers, but declines to say why, countering that LHN has 20 million subscribers. Most of those customers subscribe to a tier of programs that includes LHN. That doesn't indicate if they're watching LHN or not.