no one watches live TV except sports

[SearchingforPeace]

Nobody Watches Live Television Anymore, Unless It's Sports

This seems so amazing to me given how locked in people used to be to the network TV schedule less than 2 decades ago.

Read the whole thing

Money quote

According to the Nielsen “Year in Sports Media” 2015 report, 93 percent of the top 100 live TV programs were sports content. This shows a dramatic increase from 2005, when sports programming made up only 14% of live TV viewership. Compare that to how only 66% of “General Drama” (shows that Nielsen would categorize as drama, family, or reality series) viewers watched their programs live, and the numbers are even more surprising.

Nice infographics at the link, too...

 

[miss fortune]

who really would watch live tv when you can stream it through another service and skip the commercials (and binge watch whole seasons!)?

apparently things like that are actually changing how tv storytelling goes, since when people watch entire seasons in one go they can be written as more of a season long arc than a more episodic structure that tv used to take, from what I've read elsewhere

 

[great_bay]

I don't care about sports except for how well looking the athletes are.

 

[ceecee]

I'll happily be in the minority and keep cable or whatever simply for news and sports but I use the DVR heavily, too.

 

[DerekE]

But all the people who don't want to pay for ESPN are getting rid of cable and dragging their subscriber numbers down. I don't get into sports until baseball season, even then I watch it on my phone. (MLB At Bat, FTW!)

 

[Cellmold]

who really would watch live tv when you can stream it through another service and skip the commercials (and binge watch whole seasons!)?

apparently things like that are actually changing how tv storytelling goes, since when people watch entire seasons in one go they can be written as more of a season long arc than a more episodic structure that tv used to take, from what I've read elsewhere

Yeah I was thinking the same. Plus that season long arc style generates a more forward looking narrative where new ideas can be encorporated on the fly and still tie in to the overall theme and structure of the narrative.

 

[ceecee]

But all the people who don't want to pay for ESPN are getting rid of cable and dragging their subscriber numbers down. I don't get into sports until baseball season, even then I watch it on my phone. (MLB At Bat, FTW!)

That app is worth every cent. I LOVE baseball.

 

[Imran520]

These days, you’re more likely to tune in to watch a Golden State Warriors game than the latest episode of Scandal.