RealGM

The 37 percent decline is in line with the broader trend facing the sports industry since the wave of cancellations and postponements in March. The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs declined an almost identical 38% across NBC’s TV and digital platforms (from 1.53M to 953K) and the MLB Division Series sank 40% on TBS, FS1 and MLB Network (from 3.04M to 1.82M)

The decline in sports ratings comes amidst a broader decline in television viewing overall; an average of 76.2 million viewers were watching primetime television on the first five nights of the Finals, nearly eight million fewer than during last year’s Finals (83.8M).

Cable news viewing has taken up a greater portion of that diminished audience. Viewership on the “big three” cable news networks was 78% higher on the first five nights of the Finals than during last year’s series, rising from 3.8 to 8.4 million viewers combined.

A comparison to a similar Marist Poll conducted in March 2017 shows an overall decline in Americans who consider themselves fans of specific professional sports leagues. Self-described NFL fans fell from 67% at that time to 52% currently. The proportion of baseball fans fell from 51% in March 2017 to 37% now, and basketball fans fell seven points from 44% to 37%. NASCAR experienced a six point drop, 22% to 16% in its fan base.

bisme37 wrote:A Marist poll just came out on people's reasons for watching less sports. There are a number of factors and they vary by demographic.

Here's a chart but there's much more info in the links if anyone's interested.



http://maristpoll.marist.edu/marist-center-for-sports-communication-marist-poll-results-analysis/#sthash.iFlBniBt.BxjbFKcw.dpbs

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Marist-Poll_Sports-Communication_USA-Complete-Survey-Findings_202010091420-1.pdf#page=1

Jabroni Lames wrote:

Spoiler:

bisme37 wrote:A Marist poll just came out on people's reasons for watching less sports. There are a number of factors and they vary by demographic.

Here's a chart but there's much more info in the links if anyone's interested.



http://maristpoll.marist.edu/marist-center-for-sports-communication-marist-poll-results-analysis/#sthash.iFlBniBt.BxjbFKcw.dpbs

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Marist-Poll_Sports-Communication_USA-Complete-Survey-Findings_202010091420-1.pdf#page=1

They missed the most important factor for me: too many live sports options competing for your viewing time on any given day. I really love sports, but at most I can watch maybe 2 games of any sport in a day and then it's overload. And, tbh, I don't always like to watch sports every single day, like when you had 4 games per day, every day, in the NBA bubble regular season, at weird times.

elchengue20 wrote:Wow, people in 2020 doesn't watch much TV anymore, who would have tought it.

bisme37 wrote:A Marist poll just came out on people's reasons for watching less sports. There are a number of factors and they vary by demographic.

Here's a chart but there's much more info in the links if anyone's interested.



Also this:

A comparison to a similar Marist Poll conducted in March 2017 shows an overall decline in Americans who consider themselves fans of specific professional sports leagues. Self-described NFL fans fell from 67% at that time to 52% currently. The proportion of baseball fans fell from 51% in March 2017 to 37% now, and basketball fans fell seven points from 44% to 37%. NASCAR experienced a six point drop, 22% to 16% in its fan base.

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/marist-center-for-sports-communication-marist-poll-results-analysis/#sthash.iFlBniBt.BxjbFKcw.dpbs

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Marist-Poll_Sports-Communication_USA-Complete-Survey-Findings_202010091420-1.pdf#page=1

illuminati666 wrote:The WNBA benefitted from playing during the same time as the NBA, the co-promoting def had me paying a lot more attention to it. Maybe they should look into running the season over the same span, and maybe a little later so starved basketball fans right after the NBA finals got the WNBA finals.

Jabroni Lames wrote:

bisme37 wrote:A Marist poll just came out on people's reasons for watching less sports. There are a number of factors and they vary by demographic.

Here's a chart but there's much more info in the links if anyone's interested.



http://maristpoll.marist.edu/marist-center-for-sports-communication-marist-poll-results-analysis/#sthash.iFlBniBt.BxjbFKcw.dpbs

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Marist-Poll_Sports-Communication_USA-Complete-Survey-Findings_202010091420-1.pdf#page=1

They missed the most important factor for me: too many live sports options competing for your viewing time on any given day. I really love sports, but at most I can watch maybe 2 games of any sport in a day and then it's overload. And, tbh, I don't always like to watch sports every single day, like when you had 4 games per day, every day, in the NBA bubble regular season, at weird times.

Shock Defeat wrote:Those horses got too political. Only explanation for the lower Preakness ratings.

D.Brasco wrote:People are used to normal schedules. Watching the NBA and Stanley Cup finals in October was something people weren't used to.


Things should balance out as soon as the world gets back to normal from Covid. It wasn't the "politics".