Declining sport viewership shows why we should keep it on free TV
In this cross-posting from The Conversation, sports and marketing specialists Heath McDonald and Daniel Lock discuss consumer drift and how changing viewer preferences is affecting free-to-air and subscriber sports broadcasting.
Declining television viewership for sporting events might suggest that those of us who heralded sport as a potential saviour of traditional broadcast media had it all wrong.
In Australia, ratings for the recent one-day cricket matches were dire and the Australian Open tennis was mixed.
In the UK, viewership for the British Open golf collapsed by 75% and even the once untouchable English Premier League (EPL) has seen declines in certain time slots. Meanwhile, Formula 1 is in a slow decline that has been ongoing for almost a decade, and the NFL is down year over year as well.
But putting the numbers under closer inspection reveals other explanations. Many of these leagues are moving onto pay TV or are the victims of changing sporting tastes. Rather than dampening broadcaster enthusiasm for live sport, they show why sport should remain on free TV.
And anecdotally at least V8Supercars has died in the bum. And Foxtel Play for AFL is pathetic as if don’t follow a local team (ie in your city) you can’t get to see the matches ie: Dockers and WEagles.
This is one of the most convuluted, ridiculous articles I’ve ever read in my life. It’s incredible to think that this was co-authored by 2 “specialists”. Leagues benefit from maximum investment within their code. From wherever that may come from – STV, FTA or both. Do these peanuts think that the A-League was better off exclusively on SBS? Sorry, what relevance does UK viewership of the British Open and declining numbers on F1 (the world’s most boring sport ) have in this market?A Little less time at Uni and a little more real world experience for these two would be good.
Rugby league decline is predominately due to private ownership, this has created an upside down period for over 20 years. It is extremely unfair to the teams which are community owned and represent most of Sydney’s population.