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TV Ratings for Sports are way down -- why?

CH1

CH1

The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Got this from Tyler Cowens's site, Marginal Revolution. Pretty interesting.

It is not about NBA politics:
  • US Open (golf) final round: down 56%
  • US Open (tennis) was down 45% and the French open is down 57% so far
  • Kentucky Derby: down 43%
  • Indy 500: down 32%
  • Through four weeks, NFL viewership is down approximately 10%
  • NHL Playoffs were down 39% (Pre Stanley Cup playoffs was down 28% while the Stanley Cup was down 61%).
  • NBA finals are down 45% (so far). Conference finals were down 35%, while the first round was 27% down. To match the viewership, activity on the NBA reddit fan community is also down 50% from the NBA finals last year.
That is from Daniel Frank, here are a few of his hypotheses:
  • Sports are very social. People love talking about sports with their peers and without interacting with as many people, people have less opportunities to talk about sports with others. This has the effect of making fans feel less engaged and more casual fans less likely to start watching, creating a cascading effect on engagement.
  • Watching sports is a great way for people to tune out, relax and distract themselves from normal life. With so many people working from home, having a less defined break from work to non-work, and potentially working less hard, watching sports feels like less of an escape than it used to.
  • People have started consuming politics like they do sports and their interest in sports has been cannibalized by political fanaticism.
  • Lots of people are experiencing mental health challenges and struggling and don’t have the same interest in things they used to enjoy like sports.
 
It's no wonder people are revolting. The distractions have been sidelined.

Personally, I don't think I've ever spent so much time focusing on the Leafs in the offseason.
 
The sports distractions all returned, but less people are watching. NFL is the only sport that has held up pretty well...a 10% drop could be partly explained by more streaming and god awful teams in major markets (I'm looking at you Jets and Giants)

But all the other sports are suffering unprecedented haircuts. This could have cap/salary implications for several years.
 
1. There's almost too many sports right now. Cannibalism is happening.
2. The break weaned us all off it a bit, and the weather has made it even easier to avoid watching.
3. The sports don't actually feel like legit seasons or tourneys right now, unfortunately. They're all weird ass.
 
zeke said:
1. There's almost too many sports right now. Cannibalism is happening.
2. The break weaned us all off it a bit, and the weather has made it even easier to avoid watching.
3. The sports don't actually feel like legit seasons or tourneys right now, unfortunately. They're all weird ass.
Click to expand...

Stuff like tennis/golf/horse racing shouldn't be affected by point 3....and I always thought that The US Open and Kentucky Derby draw a different audience than team stuff.
 
CH1 said:
Got this from Tyler Cowens's site, Marginal Revolution. Pretty interesting.

It is not about NBA politics:
  • US Open (golf) final round: down 56%
  • US Open (tennis) was down 45% and the French open is down 57% so far
  • Kentucky Derby: down 43%
  • Indy 500: down 32%
  • Through four weeks, NFL viewership is down approximately 10%
  • NHL Playoffs were down 39% (Pre Stanley Cup playoffs was down 28% while the Stanley Cup was down 61%).
  • NBA finals are down 45% (so far). Conference finals were down 35%, while the first round was 27% down. To match the viewership, activity on the NBA reddit fan community is also down 50% from the NBA finals last year.
That is from Daniel Frank, here are a few of his hypotheses:
  • Sports are very social. People love talking about sports with their peers and without interacting with as many people, people have less opportunities to talk about sports with others. This has the effect of making fans feel less engaged and more casual fans less likely to start watching, creating a cascading effect on engagement.
  • Watching sports is a great way for people to tune out, relax and distract themselves from normal life. With so many people working from home, having a less defined break from work to non-work, and potentially working less hard, watching sports feels like less of an escape than it used to.
  • People have started consuming politics like they do sports and their interest in sports has been cannibalized by political fanaticism.
  • Lots of people are experiencing mental health challenges and struggling and don’t have the same interest in things they used to enjoy like sports.
Click to expand...
That’s what Forum Ice is for, spread the word like COVID.
 
CH1 said:
People have started consuming politics like they do sports and their interest in sports has been cannibalized by political fanaticism.
Click to expand...
This is the problem in the US, they’re taking sides like sports teams and reacting emotionally instead of logically.
 
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zeke said:
1. There's almost too many sports right now. Cannibalism is happening.
2. The break weaned us all off it a bit, and the weather has made it even easier to avoid watching.
3. The sports don't actually feel like legit seasons or tourneys right now, unfortunately. They're all weird ass.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
As soon as Kawhi vs LeBron didn't happen I was out. Don't watch football and hockey was boring.
 
As soon as the Raps were out, I was out. Don't care who wins once Toronto teams are gone, and don't follow NFL.
 
CH1 said:
Yeah....I'm big into the NFL but find myself watching only half as many games as last year.
Click to expand...
I record games. I like having them on in the background. I do watch Habs/Bills though. I watch maybe 15-20 Heat games a year plus the playoffs. Baseball is dead to me.
 
I watch every Viking snap but not consuming the other games wall to wall.
 
Sports needs to align with nexflix or something. It's too expensive or complicated for cable cutters.
 
Probably also somechord cutters who realized, with all the time at home, that they were only watching Netflix, prime, Disney etc and that there’s nothing worth watching on cable (outside of sports which were out of sight out of mind.)
 
CH1 said:
Got this from Tyler Cowens's site, Marginal Revolution. Pretty interesting.

It is not about NBA politics:
  • US Open (golf) final round: down 56%
  • US Open (tennis) was down 45% and the French open is down 57% so far
  • Kentucky Derby: down 43%
  • Indy 500: down 32%
  • Through four weeks, NFL viewership is down approximately 10%
  • NHL Playoffs were down 39% (Pre Stanley Cup playoffs was down 28% while the Stanley Cup was down 61%).
  • NBA finals are down 45% (so far). Conference finals were down 35%, while the first round was 27% down. To match the viewership, activity on the NBA reddit fan community is also down 50% from the NBA finals last year.
That is from Daniel Frank, here are a few of his hypotheses:
  • Sports are very social. People love talking about sports with their peers and without interacting with as many people, people have less opportunities to talk about sports with others. This has the effect of making fans feel less engaged and more casual fans less likely to start watching, creating a cascading effect on engagement.
  • Watching sports is a great way for people to tune out, relax and distract themselves from normal life. With so many people working from home, having a less defined break from work to non-work, and potentially working less hard, watching sports feels like less of an escape than it used to.
  • People have started consuming politics like they do sports and their interest in sports has been cannibalized by political fanaticism.
  • Lots of people are experiencing mental health challenges and struggling and don’t have the same interest in things they used to enjoy like sports.
Click to expand...
"and potentially working less hard"

Absolutely the opposite of what I'm experiencing. I've never worked this much in my life. There is no defined "log off" time. No "hey wanna grab a coffee" time. No "let's take an hour for lunch". I work right through. Having said that, I hope to never go back to the office.
 
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