Welcome to the blog of Dr. Lisa Burns' Media Studies senior capstone class (Section B) at Quinnipiac University. If you're looking for the latest on media industry trends and insightful media analysis, you've come to the right place.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Sports Blog 7, Question 3 (April 11th)
Has sports media reached a tipping
point in its reliance on traditional media? What changes, if any, do you expect
to see over the next 3 – 5 years? Limit: 7 responses
Sports media has reached its tipping point in its reliance on traditional media. However, this shouldn’t cause a panic. There is simply a fragmentation of consumption. Sports cannot solely rely on traditional media anymore. Some leagues experienced a decrease in viewership this year on traditional platforms. The NFL showed the most visible decline. In the 2016 season, “at one point…Sunday Night Football’s audience was down by nearly 20 percent—one of several steep drops for America’s most watched sports” (O’Connell “Sunday Night Football”). It seems as if only the big events in sports draw a decent viewership these days. Some analysts “have cited a multitude of reason’s for the NFL’s dips in the fall. Attention on the presidential election, poor team matchups and the increasing number of Thursday Night Football airings have all been blamed” (O’Connell “Sunday Night Football”). However, the NFL still has some draw. When exciting moments happen during games, viewership is boosted. The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys showdown during the NFC championship was “the most-watched telecast in over a year and the most-watched NFL playoff tilt of all time” (O’Connell “TV Ratings”). NFL’s most exciting games, along with other major sports events boosted traditional media’s numbers. However, that was the only time that traditional media thrived. The Rio Olympics drew a considerable viewing for certain events. “An average U.S. audience of 33 million watched the broadcast featuring Michael Phelps winning gold medals 20 and 21, and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team winning gold in a dominating performance over Russia” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). There will soon be a major shift from sports media being featured on traditional media, to sports media being featured on other devices and social media.
There will be a significant amount of changes in sports media within the next 3-5 years. According to a Nielsen report, “U.S. adults ages 18-24 spent over 57 hours per week consuming media. Over 20 hours (35.6%) of their media time was spent on their smartphones, while 15.5 hours (27.1%) was spent watching TV. This was the first year that consumption on mobile devices surpassed television across any demo” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). From the data collected about sports media in 2016, it was concluded, “despite the proliferation of devices and unprecedented media fragmentation, sports programming continues to thrive” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Therefore, sports media will not suffer or subside, it will simply change. As overall consumption habits change, sports media consumption will naturally change as well. Some major examples of these changes that are already happening include Twitter and Facebook fighting over MLB rights. Last summer Twitter “inked a pact with MLB for rights to live-stream one baseball game per week, which will be exclusive among free over-the-top distributors” (Spangler). Facebook has recently begun “discussions with MLB to secure rights to stream one game per week free on the social platform” (Spangler). The sports media industry should anticipate content over multiple platforms in the near future.
Works Cited O’Connell, Michael. “’Sunday Night Football’ Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1.” The Hollywood Reporter. 04 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017. O’Connell, Michael. “TV Ratings: NFL Playoff Nabs 48.5 Million Viewers, Best Telecast Since Super Bowl.” The Hollywood Reporter. 16 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017. Spangler, Todd. “Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season.” Variety. 22 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017. “The Year in Sports Media Report: 2016.” Nielsen. 15 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Sports are real one of the last few things keeping traditional media alive. To watch live sports you must have a cable subscription, but this is beginning to change. Viewers are beginning to watch their sports more and more through streaming, but you still need a cable subscription if you want to do that. There was a drop in viewership slightly in the most popular league, NFL, but it was mostly due to the Presidential Election. This is proven by the increase in popularity after the election was over, “There was a 12% decrease in the number of average minutes viewed versus the prior year, as viewers diverted their time to news coverage leading up to the presidential election. Eight of the top 10 rated regular-season NFL games occurred after the 2016 presidential election,” (Master). Sports are keeping many cable subscribers, but with cord cutters it is harming sports networks like ESPN. ESPN’s sports shows are becoming obsolete because of the Internet, where you can find highlights and sports opinions of all kind. These threats have forced sports media to start adapting. Sports media is always a necessity because of its popularity year after year.
The Internet is the driving force in adaptation of sports media. Social media is the first to capitalize on the adaptation. Twitter was live streaming Thursday night football games online for free, which works out because those games are normally the lowest rated games. The Internet saw this success and two companies, Facebook and Amazon, are trying to get streaming rights of their own. Facebook is trying to stream MLB games, which Twitter already owns, “For MLB, a deal with Facebook would give it the potential to expose the league to a global audience of more than 1.8 billion people. One possible sticking point for MLB: Facebook doesn’t currently have an established advertising model for live video, although the social player says it has been testing different approaches,” (Spangler). Facebook has their new Facebook Live feature that puts those videos at the top of your timeline when you enter the website. Baseball is a very regional sport, where the audiences for the teams are popular in the local regions and not nationwide. By opening it up to Facebook, this could help grow the nationwide audience.
Amazon has just acquired the rights to the Thursday night football games after seeing how well it went with Twitter. Amazon’s streaming service is struggling to break out and this may help, “Agreements with Amazon and other internet companies are an attempt by the N.F.L. to reach younger fans, even though the league risks alienating the broadcast networks that pay hundreds of millions of dollars in rights fees. For Amazon, the N.F.L. agreement is an attempt to fill one of the biggest holes in its lineup,” (Wingfield). If this is successful, sports fans who are looking to become cord cutters are about to be pushed over the edge into it.
I predict that if this is successful the NFL may sell the streaming rights to a streaming provider to recapture their missing audience. This is beginning to happen already when you buy the Sunday Ticket package. You have access to watch the games whenever and wherever. People want this freedom when it comes to their media consumption, and eventually the sports media market will have to answer to these calls if they want to survive. Master, Stephen . Nielsen Year in Sports 2016. Rep. New York: Nielsen, 2016. Print.
Spangler, Todd. "Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season." Variety. N.p., 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
Wingfield, Nick. "Amazon Will Stream N.F.L.’s Thursday Night Games." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Apr. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
I believe that sports media has reached the tipping point, but that doesn’t mean that sports content will completely abandon traditional media. Sports broadcasts constantly put up the largest ratings on television. It seems that the Super Bowl breaks records every year, along with basically becoming its own holiday. However the non-traditional route of sports consumption has grown to big to ignore. In keeping with the spirit of non-traditional I pulled an article from Bleacher Report, a sports app that is beginning to give giants like ESPN a run for their money. A great line from the article reads “but traditional media is not dead. It is just part of a broader spectrum of choices than we have ever had before” (JoeSportsFan 1). This perfectly describes the current dilemma of oversaturation of sports content. There was a time when we all sat down to watch the “big game” on a single channel. However now with streaming and over the top services the means to reach that game have branched out. This is a nightmare for advertisers, as they no longer can find their consumers. However this might be beneficial for the actual sports shown in the broadcasts. One example is how Facebook is trying to acquire streaming rights for MLB network. Now Twitter already has the rights for the current season, which is showing this social media trend. The reason it is good for baseball is because “for MLB, a deal with Facebook would give it the potential to expose the league to a global audience of more than 1.8 billion people” (Spangler 1). Through taking a non-traditional route the MLB can take advantage of globalization and work on constructing a global brand of baseball. This is simply not possible with traditional media, which is why I believe a tipping point has been reached. The benefits from traditional media are now stagnant. Meaning that there is still value but little room for growth. Non-traditional is where growth can occur as content can be delivered in countless ways.
For the sports world the future is always an interesting concept, because these sports are so entrenched in our history. However there is a new player on the scene, E-sports. Video games are now a part of every person’s life in some way and form. There is a strong base for fandoms and there is definitely the existence of competiveness. Add all these factors together you create the E-sports scene. According to Nielsen’s Year in Sports Media Report 2016, “more ‘traditional’ media companies have successfully jumped into the fray, giving eSports a broader platform to reach new fans.” People are beginning to recognize the value in competitive video games and traditional media wants in. E-sports are very profitable due to large oversea markets and increasing sponsorship from top tech companies. Over the next couple over years I see E-sports growing by a great deal.
Danial Donnelly With the way of consuming regular media changing and the push for streaming over regular TV, if leaves professional sports asking what their next move is. The NFL this past season experienced a major decline in viewership compared to years in the past. Is that because people no longer watch regular or live TV, or because football as a whole is on the decline? It could be both or neither, but I do not think that sports media should be too concerned with their reliance on traditional media. Even though the NFL had a down year in viewership compared to other years, it was still ranked number one in viewership. What separates sports from regular TV is that sports are live. Nobody likes to watch a game that has already been played, unless it is the Giants Super Bowl win over the Patriots. That in itself is going to keep sports on television, but sports media in general should make a change. Sports shows on ESPN like First Take and Around the Horn are getting worse ratings than usual as well. For me personally, I used to watch SportsCenter every day. Now I never even look to see if it is on. It is a mixture of not wanting to see a bunch of nonsense stories that SportsCenter fills time with, and the fact that I do not watch as much TV as I used to. With everything else being available to stream, regular TV often takes a back seat, and that includes sports shows. I think if they make a change in their sports media, it should start with the programs that are on TV. ESPN is already adjusting to this by being heavily used on social media and offering short clips and stories on their app that play when you open the app.
Even though I do not think that it is an immediate problem, finding new ways for viewing live sports other than traditional TV should be sought out. The NFL used Twitter to live stream their Thursday night games this year. I did not watch any of the games on twitter, but I do like the idea of using social media for a game. It gives you the ability to be on twitter and look for updates and scores from other games, while watching on the same outlet. The NFL is going to be streaming through Amazon this year, and I think that would be more utilized than twitter was because of devices like the Amazon Firestick. Facebook is also trying to work out a deal with the MLB to live stream one game per week on Facebook. Twitter has a deal already where they show a weekly game. I do not watch baseball really, so I can’t imagine watching on social media or TV, but showing signs of adjustment are positive for the future of sports viewing.
Works Cited Jason Dachman, Chief Editor Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 3:33 Pm Print This Story. "NBC's Playmaker Media, Turner's IStreamPlanet Combo Aims To Reshape Booming OTT/VOD-Services Market." Sports Video Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017. O'Connell, Michael. "'Sunday Night Football' Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 04 Jan. 2017. Web. 11 Apr. 2017. Spangler, Todd. "Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season." Variety. N.p., 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
As our lives become more mobile physically and literally we can’t rely on one platform to meet our needs. Sports have almost been the last line of defense to keep cable on top of the pyramid. However, cable is not going to meet the needs of the consumer in the future. People need on the go access to what they want to view. They cannot be tied down to one platform simply because other things are happening in the world and in their lives. While sports are still bringing in a large audience on cable they are starting to have set backs by things like, “attention on the presidential election, poor team matchups and the increasing number of Thursday Night Football airings have all been blamed” (O’Connell). This just shows that the sports leagues need to start catering to their audience or else their ratings will decrease. Cable should not be the only place to view a game the audience is demanding other ways to view that meet their needs. Shorter games and streaming are what they need. Streaming is just more convenient. It wouldn’t necessarily take away from the ratings on cable but, instead compliment the platform. The audience that is unable to watch on cable will now have access to the games. Many people would agree that, “One thing is certain: the live-streaming OTT and VOD market for sports continues to expand at an exponential rate, and, as sports-content owners look to make their programming available for fans on as many platforms as possible” (Dachman). Everything else is heading towards streaming why shouldn’t sports. The generations are changing and the viewing platforms need to change with them. The average attention span of a human has decreased to about 8 seconds this seriously affects how they view sports. People don’t want to watch a whole game they’re used to the same old thing. Another positive thing is that when viewed on streaming services they will retrieve better data and as a result have the information needed to make a better experience. When the platform is twitter than they will have more interaction among the audience and learn what they need to improve on. Last year many people were upset with the poor match ups and length of games. This information will prevent them from upsetting their audience. Ultimately, cable is not dead it’s just no longer as powerful. The future is more options that cater to the needs of the consumer.
O’Connell, Michael. “’Sunday Night Football’ Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1.” The Hollywood Reporter. 04 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Dachman Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 3:33 pm Print This Story, Jason. "NBC's Playmaker Media, Turner's iStreamPlanet Combo Aims To Reshape Booming OTT/VOD-Services Market." Sports Video Group. N.p., 10 Jan. 2017. Web.
Hadley, Greg. "Millennials and their short attention spans have the NBA considering rule changes." Sacbee. N.p., 16 Jan. 2017. Web.
Ever since social media started becoming popular the world around us has started to change, especially the sports world. However, at this point I feel that sports media has reached a tipping point in the reliance on traditional media. One big example of that is the fact that Sunday Night Football which has crushed numbers in the past, this year had a slight problem as viewership was down by ten percent. Now although this is not a huge drop it is a possible sign of things to come and things that might need to change. (O’Connell, 2017) However could this be because the sports world reached that tipping point or because the NFL ratings as a whole were down. I feel that this is both because the NFL ratings were down but also because for the first time ever sports media reached the tipping point and will now need to make changes to bring the ratings up and higher than the past.
Another sign that sports media has reached is tipping point is the situation going on between Facebook and Twitter battling for MLB Live-Streaming Rights. The deal is about “Facebook streaming on game per week free” which is exciting however, twitter and the MLB already have a similar deal in place which if you think about it shows how similar every social media platform has the same features and are looking to show the same things. (Spangler, 2017) This shows that sports media has reached a tipping point. There is nothing new for media platforms to do to grow the game or help promote the games then with the things they are already doing. Over the next 3-5 years or so I think that is going to be a big challenge for sports teams and league on how they are going to be able to fight to grow their numbers but also prevent them from dropping as they reach the tipping point.
The Interesting thing is when you look at the Nielsen ratings it looks like in most cases twitter is more popular and used more by fans about the game rather then it being watched on TV, with of course not including the Super Bowl. However, Super Bowl numbers were still slightly down until the end of the game. (Master, 2016) This shows that not only is social media the direction that sports are headed and although its good it will be interesting to see how sports leagues react and start to use this to their advantage to help grow the game. Over the course of the next couple of years I think there are going to be changes I don’t know how big these changes are going to be or how effective, but there will be changes and they need to be made for sports teams and sports leagues to be able to continue to grow the game even as sports media has hit and reached a tipping point in the media market.
Work Cited: O'Connell, M. (2017, January 04). 'Sunday Night Football' Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/sunday-night-football-wraps-season-slightly-humbled-at-no-1-960783 Spangler, T. (2017, February 22). Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/facebook-mlb-live-streaming-games-twitter-1201993761/ The Nielsen Company. Year in Sports Media Report 2016. New York, NY: The Nielsen Company, 2017. PDF.
Angie King
ReplyDeleteSports media has reached its tipping point in its reliance on traditional media. However, this shouldn’t cause a panic. There is simply a fragmentation of consumption. Sports cannot solely rely on traditional media anymore. Some leagues experienced a decrease in viewership this year on traditional platforms. The NFL showed the most visible decline. In the 2016 season, “at one point…Sunday Night Football’s audience was down by nearly 20 percent—one of several steep drops for America’s most watched sports” (O’Connell “Sunday Night Football”). It seems as if only the big events in sports draw a decent viewership these days. Some analysts “have cited a multitude of reason’s for the NFL’s dips in the fall. Attention on the presidential election, poor team matchups and the increasing number of Thursday Night Football airings have all been blamed” (O’Connell “Sunday Night Football”). However, the NFL still has some draw. When exciting moments happen during games, viewership is boosted. The Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys showdown during the NFC championship was “the most-watched telecast in over a year and the most-watched NFL playoff tilt of all time” (O’Connell “TV Ratings”). NFL’s most exciting games, along with other major sports events boosted traditional media’s numbers. However, that was the only time that traditional media thrived. The Rio Olympics drew a considerable viewing for certain events. “An average U.S. audience of 33 million watched the broadcast featuring Michael Phelps winning gold medals 20 and 21, and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team winning gold in a dominating performance over Russia” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). There will soon be a major shift from sports media being featured on traditional media, to sports media being featured on other devices and social media.
There will be a significant amount of changes in sports media within the next 3-5 years. According to a Nielsen report, “U.S. adults ages 18-24 spent over 57 hours per week consuming media. Over 20 hours (35.6%) of their media time was spent on their smartphones, while 15.5 hours (27.1%) was spent watching TV. This was the first year that consumption on mobile devices surpassed television across any demo” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). From the data collected about sports media in 2016, it was concluded, “despite the proliferation of devices and unprecedented media fragmentation, sports programming continues to thrive” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Therefore, sports media will not suffer or subside, it will simply change. As overall consumption habits change, sports media consumption will naturally change as well. Some major examples of these changes that are already happening include Twitter and Facebook fighting over MLB rights. Last summer Twitter “inked a pact with MLB for rights to live-stream one baseball game per week, which will be exclusive among free over-the-top distributors” (Spangler). Facebook has recently begun “discussions with MLB to secure rights to stream one game per week free on the social platform” (Spangler). The sports media industry should anticipate content over multiple platforms in the near future.
DeleteWorks Cited
O’Connell, Michael. “’Sunday Night Football’ Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1.” The Hollywood Reporter. 04 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
O’Connell, Michael. “TV Ratings: NFL Playoff Nabs 48.5 Million Viewers, Best Telecast Since Super Bowl.” The Hollywood Reporter. 16 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Spangler, Todd. “Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season.” Variety. 22 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
“The Year in Sports Media Report: 2016.” Nielsen. 15 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Sports are real one of the last few things keeping traditional media alive. To watch live sports you must have a cable subscription, but this is beginning to change. Viewers are beginning to watch their sports more and more through streaming, but you still need a cable subscription if you want to do that. There was a drop in viewership slightly in the most popular league, NFL, but it was mostly due to the Presidential Election. This is proven by the increase in popularity after the election was over, “There was a 12% decrease in the number of average minutes viewed versus the prior year, as viewers diverted their time to news coverage leading up to the presidential election. Eight of the top 10 rated regular-season NFL games occurred after the 2016 presidential election,” (Master). Sports are keeping many cable subscribers, but with cord cutters it is harming sports networks like ESPN. ESPN’s sports shows are becoming obsolete because of the Internet, where you can find highlights and sports opinions of all kind. These threats have forced sports media to start adapting. Sports media is always a necessity because of its popularity year after year.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet is the driving force in adaptation of sports media. Social media is the first to capitalize on the adaptation. Twitter was live streaming Thursday night football games online for free, which works out because those games are normally the lowest rated games. The Internet saw this success and two companies, Facebook and Amazon, are trying to get streaming rights of their own. Facebook is trying to stream MLB games, which Twitter already owns, “For MLB, a deal with Facebook would give it the potential to expose the league to a global audience of more than 1.8 billion people. One possible sticking point for MLB: Facebook doesn’t currently have an established advertising model for live video, although the social player says it has been testing different approaches,” (Spangler). Facebook has their new Facebook Live feature that puts those videos at the top of your timeline when you enter the website. Baseball is a very regional sport, where the audiences for the teams are popular in the local regions and not nationwide. By opening it up to Facebook, this could help grow the nationwide audience.
Amazon has just acquired the rights to the Thursday night football games after seeing how well it went with Twitter. Amazon’s streaming service is struggling to break out and this may help, “Agreements with Amazon and other internet companies are an attempt by the N.F.L. to reach younger fans, even though the league risks alienating the broadcast networks that pay hundreds of millions of dollars in rights fees. For Amazon, the N.F.L. agreement is an attempt to fill one of the biggest holes in its lineup,” (Wingfield). If this is successful, sports fans who are looking to become cord cutters are about to be pushed over the edge into it.
I predict that if this is successful the NFL may sell the streaming rights to a streaming provider to recapture their missing audience. This is beginning to happen already when you buy the Sunday Ticket package. You have access to watch the games whenever and wherever. People want this freedom when it comes to their media consumption, and eventually the sports media market will have to answer to these calls if they want to survive.
Master, Stephen . Nielsen Year in Sports 2016. Rep. New York: Nielsen, 2016. Print.
Spangler, Todd. "Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season." Variety. N.p., 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
Wingfield, Nick. "Amazon Will Stream N.F.L.’s Thursday Night Games." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Apr. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
I believe that sports media has reached the tipping point, but that doesn’t mean that sports content will completely abandon traditional media. Sports broadcasts constantly put up the largest ratings on television. It seems that the Super Bowl breaks records every year, along with basically becoming its own holiday. However the non-traditional route of sports consumption has grown to big to ignore. In keeping with the spirit of non-traditional I pulled an article from Bleacher Report, a sports app that is beginning to give giants like ESPN a run for their money. A great line from the article reads “but traditional media is not dead. It is just part of a broader spectrum of choices than we have ever had before” (JoeSportsFan 1). This perfectly describes the current dilemma of oversaturation of sports content. There was a time when we all sat down to watch the “big game” on a single channel. However now with streaming and over the top services the means to reach that game have branched out. This is a nightmare for advertisers, as they no longer can find their consumers. However this might be beneficial for the actual sports shown in the broadcasts.
ReplyDeleteOne example is how Facebook is trying to acquire streaming rights for MLB network. Now Twitter already has the rights for the current season, which is showing this social media trend. The reason it is good for baseball is because “for MLB, a deal with Facebook would give it the potential to expose the league to a global audience of more than 1.8 billion people” (Spangler 1). Through taking a non-traditional route the MLB can take advantage of globalization and work on constructing a global brand of baseball. This is simply not possible with traditional media, which is why I believe a tipping point has been reached. The benefits from traditional media are now stagnant. Meaning that there is still value but little room for growth. Non-traditional is where growth can occur as content can be delivered in countless ways.
For the sports world the future is always an interesting concept, because these sports are so entrenched in our history. However there is a new player on the scene, E-sports. Video games are now a part of every person’s life in some way and form. There is a strong base for fandoms and there is definitely the existence of competiveness. Add all these factors together you create the E-sports scene. According to Nielsen’s Year in Sports Media Report 2016, “more ‘traditional’ media companies have successfully jumped into the fray, giving eSports a broader platform to reach new fans.” People are beginning to recognize the value in competitive video games and traditional media wants in. E-sports are very profitable due to large oversea markets and increasing sponsorship from top tech companies. Over the next couple over years I see E-sports growing by a great deal.
ReplyDeleteWork Cited
JoeSportsFan. "Traditional Sports Media Outlets Dead?" Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
Spangler, Todd. "Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season." Variety. N.p., 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
The Nielsen Company. Year in Sports Media Report 2016. New York, NY: The Nielsen Company, 2017. PDF.
Danial Donnelly
ReplyDeleteWith the way of consuming regular media changing and the push for streaming over regular TV, if leaves professional sports asking what their next move is. The NFL this past season experienced a major decline in viewership compared to years in the past. Is that because people no longer watch regular or live TV, or because football as a whole is on the decline? It could be both or neither, but I do not think that sports media should be too concerned with their reliance on traditional media. Even though the NFL had a down year in viewership compared to other years, it was still ranked number one in viewership.
What separates sports from regular TV is that sports are live. Nobody likes to watch a game that has already been played, unless it is the Giants Super Bowl win over the Patriots. That in itself is going to keep sports on television, but sports media in general should make a change. Sports shows on ESPN like First Take and Around the Horn are getting worse ratings than usual as well. For me personally, I used to watch SportsCenter every day. Now I never even look to see if it is on. It is a mixture of not wanting to see a bunch of nonsense stories that SportsCenter fills time with, and the fact that I do not watch as much TV as I used to. With everything else being available to stream, regular TV often takes a back seat, and that includes sports shows. I think if they make a change in their sports media, it should start with the programs that are on TV. ESPN is already adjusting to this by being heavily used on social media and offering short clips and stories on their app that play when you open the app.
Even though I do not think that it is an immediate problem, finding new ways for viewing live sports other than traditional TV should be sought out. The NFL used Twitter to live stream their Thursday night games this year. I did not watch any of the games on twitter, but I do like the idea of using social media for a game. It gives you the ability to be on twitter and look for updates and scores from other games, while watching on the same outlet. The NFL is going to be streaming through Amazon this year, and I think that would be more utilized than twitter was because of devices like the Amazon Firestick. Facebook is also trying to work out a deal with the MLB to live stream one game per week on Facebook. Twitter has a deal already where they show a weekly game. I do not watch baseball really, so I can’t imagine watching on social media or TV, but showing signs of adjustment are positive for the future of sports viewing.
DeleteWorks Cited
Jason Dachman, Chief Editor Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 3:33 Pm Print This Story. "NBC's Playmaker Media, Turner's IStreamPlanet Combo Aims To Reshape Booming OTT/VOD-Services Market." Sports Video Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
O'Connell, Michael. "'Sunday Night Football' Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 04 Jan. 2017. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Spangler, Todd. "Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season." Variety. N.p., 22 Feb. 2017. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
As our lives become more mobile physically and literally we can’t rely on one platform to meet our needs. Sports have almost been the last line of defense to keep cable on top of the pyramid. However, cable is not going to meet the needs of the consumer in the future. People need on the go access to what they want to view. They cannot be tied down to one platform simply because other things are happening in the world and in their lives. While sports are still bringing in a large audience on cable they are starting to have set backs by things like, “attention on the presidential election, poor team matchups and the increasing number of Thursday Night Football airings have all been blamed” (O’Connell). This just shows that the sports leagues need to start catering to their audience or else their ratings will decrease. Cable should not be the only place to view a game the audience is demanding other ways to view that meet their needs. Shorter games and streaming are what they need.
ReplyDeleteStreaming is just more convenient. It wouldn’t necessarily take away from the ratings on cable but, instead compliment the platform. The audience that is unable to watch on cable will now have access to the games. Many people would agree that, “One thing is certain: the live-streaming OTT and VOD market for sports continues to expand at an exponential rate, and, as sports-content owners look to make their programming available for fans on as many platforms as possible” (Dachman). Everything else is heading towards streaming why shouldn’t sports. The generations are changing and the viewing platforms need to change with them. The average attention span of a human has decreased to about 8 seconds this seriously affects how they view sports. People don’t want to watch a whole game they’re used to the same old thing. Another positive thing is that when viewed on streaming services they will retrieve better data and as a result have the information needed to make a better experience. When the platform is twitter than they will have more interaction among the audience and learn what they need to improve on. Last year many people were upset with the poor match ups and length of games. This information will prevent them from upsetting their audience. Ultimately, cable is not dead it’s just no longer as powerful. The future is more options that cater to the needs of the consumer.
O’Connell, Michael. “’Sunday Night Football’ Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1.” The Hollywood Reporter. 04 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
DeleteDachman Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 3:33 pm Print This Story, Jason. "NBC's Playmaker Media, Turner's iStreamPlanet Combo Aims To Reshape Booming OTT/VOD-Services Market." Sports Video Group. N.p., 10 Jan. 2017. Web.
Hadley, Greg. "Millennials and their short attention spans have the NBA considering rule changes." Sacbee. N.p., 16 Jan. 2017. Web.
Ever since social media started becoming popular the world around us has started to change, especially the sports world. However, at this point I feel that sports media has reached a tipping point in the reliance on traditional media. One big example of that is the fact that Sunday Night Football which has crushed numbers in the past, this year had a slight problem as viewership was down by ten percent. Now although this is not a huge drop it is a possible sign of things to come and things that might need to change. (O’Connell, 2017) However could this be because the sports world reached that tipping point or because the NFL ratings as a whole were down. I feel that this is both because the NFL ratings were down but also because for the first time ever sports media reached the tipping point and will now need to make changes to bring the ratings up and higher than the past.
ReplyDeleteAnother sign that sports media has reached is tipping point is the situation going on between Facebook and Twitter battling for MLB Live-Streaming Rights. The deal is about “Facebook streaming on game per week free” which is exciting however, twitter and the MLB already have a similar deal in place which if you think about it shows how similar every social media platform has the same features and are looking to show the same things. (Spangler, 2017) This shows that sports media has reached a tipping point. There is nothing new for media platforms to do to grow the game or help promote the games then with the things they are already doing. Over the next 3-5 years or so I think that is going to be a big challenge for sports teams and league on how they are going to be able to fight to grow their numbers but also prevent them from dropping as they reach the tipping point.
The Interesting thing is when you look at the Nielsen ratings it looks like in most cases twitter is more popular and used more by fans about the game rather then it being watched on TV, with of course not including the Super Bowl. However, Super Bowl numbers were still slightly down until the end of the game. (Master, 2016) This shows that not only is social media the direction that sports are headed and although its good it will be interesting to see how sports leagues react and start to use this to their advantage to help grow the game. Over the course of the next couple of years I think there are going to be changes I don’t know how big these changes are going to be or how effective, but there will be changes and they need to be made for sports teams and sports leagues to be able to continue to grow the game even as sports media has hit and reached a tipping point in the media market.
DeleteWork Cited:
O'Connell, M. (2017, January 04). 'Sunday Night Football' Wraps Its Season Only Slightly Humbled at No. 1. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/sunday-night-football-wraps-season-slightly-humbled-at-no-1-960783
Spangler, T. (2017, February 22). Facebook Wants MLB Live-Streaming Rights, Which Twitter Already Has for 2017 Season. Retrieved April 11, 2017, from http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/facebook-mlb-live-streaming-games-twitter-1201993761/
The Nielsen Company. Year in Sports Media Report 2016. New York, NY: The Nielsen Company, 2017. PDF.