Broadcast is Dying

By Lou Fargeot 

Broadcast is Dying

In the 1980’s, broadcast networks accounted for 90% of television viewership. Family and friends used to gather around the TV to watch their favourite programmes live together as they aired. There were only a handful of channels to choose from back then and there wasn’t a constant bombardment of smartphone notifications for television to compete with. 

40 years later, the landscape has changed and broadcast is dying. The rules are different in the engagement economy: Tech has taken over and it’s using every trick in the book to hack your better instincts and keep you glued. Community viewing has largely disappeared since you can access content on-demand and binge-watch a whole season on your mobile devices at your own convenience. 

But there’s still one type of entertainment that doesn’t taste quite the same unless it is truly live, and that is sport. 

Out with the Old

Sport is long-form content, usually 2 hours or more from start to finish and sometimes without a winner or even a goal.  Most sports rely on you being a bit of an expert too, either having participated or having watched loads of it before to really know what is going on in the moment. 

The one-to-many nature of traditional broadcasts prevents real interactivity and the high cost to deliver it commands professionally produced programming, but often with an impersonal experience that feels dated. Those are some seriously high barriers when everything from Tiger King to gaming to porn is fighting for your viewership. 

Attention Deficit

Sport has been blaming kids for ages, suggesting youngsters lack attention but that's more opinion than fact. A 3-hour sports game typically has 11 minutes of exciting action whereas on Instagram, you’re just a few seconds away from your next dopamine hit. 

Cognitive focus diminishes with age, so it’s actually more likely that the older generations struggle more with holding long-term attention. But humans are creatures of habit, we stick to what we know. See above: there weren’t many entertainment options to choose from until recent decades and you made do with what was available. 

People who have seen more years aren’t immune to social media’s psychology tactics, and if you stick your nan on SnapChat, it’s likely she’ll get sucked into using animal ears or the bold glamour filters too. 

Viewership Numbers

TikTok isn’t just for young people. 45% of TikTok users in the US are already age 30 and above. This number continues to grow each year.  

But TV is for old people. 60% of traditional broadcast viewers in the US are 55 and older. Fox News’s median viewer is 69, even older for MSNBC at 70+. These audiences have limited years left in them and the numbers are already dwindling as consumers shift to more convenient, more accessible and more interactive viewing elsewhere. 

10% of all American viewing time was spent watching YouTube, not on mobile devices, but on TVs. That’s also more than Netflix’s total market share of 8%. A Joe Rogan podcast typically pulls an audience of 11 million, comparable to the average Premier League match of 14 million globally but with much lower production costs.  Modern streaming platforms continue to grow each year as broadcast dies. 

Revolution Incoming

Sports is still cool. It’s exciting, it’s intrinsically human and it's here to stay. However, the delivery has barely changed since Sky Sports started showing football possession stats in the 90s. A revolution is required, sport needs harder-hitting content to pull its weight in the battle for eyeballs against other media. 

The 2024 Tyson v Paul fight might have been a meme but it captured attention and saw 165 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched sporting events of all time. Netflix had a few scrutinised infrastructure issues (that’s not good enough from a tech specialist) but it showcased a monumental shift in the audience not needing to pay-per-view or sign up for another sports channel subscription.

A New Network

You might not know it, but those expensive satellites orbiting our pale blue dot that receive and transmit traditional broadcast signals are moving from old-school methods to IP (Internet Protocol) technology. Mr Musk is also filling the skies with Starlink’s effective web-based satellites. When everything is on the web, we open new, affordable and scalable doors to distribution.

Robots haven’t taken everyone's job yet, but the individuals mastering AI’s power are using it to churn out the work of 100 people in record time already. Imagine you don’t need a broadcast truck full of pricey experts, but instead, your costs go towards automation that creates unique, hyper-personalised content to truly engage fans and keep them hooked. 

Engagement Economy

Engagement is when content temporarily wins the attention war and stops you from scrolling onward or changing channel. Engagement is better when it’s more consistent and you keep coming back to the same content. The goal is to monetise you by selling you something, show you a paid advert or have you pay to hide that advertisement. If the content itself is engaging enough, you might even pay to access it. 

Many sports revenues have relied on selling media rights for substantial sums, but when the audience is disappearing from the traditional channels, Rights Holders need to find new ways to recapture fans and create new ones. MrBeast gets it, watch his 22-minute-long attention-grabbing take on sports which received more than 50 million views in just 24 hours. Enjoy the YouTube Ads, unless you’re a paid premium member of course. 

Do it with Data

My proposal for sport to claw back a healthy share of attention is to make it more entertaining and more understandable by using data. Without graphics, sport is largely a couple of people running in circles or a larger group chasing a ball around, sometimes with sticks. When you add a back story to those people, tangible numbers to show how impressive their performance is and visuals that really convey the details - you suddenly have a very compelling watch that’s worth sticking around for. 

One of the most interesting and human data points is biometrics. Seeing the stats for exceptional top-tier athletic and psychological performance is sticky for fans, especially when it's put into the context of the game. The raw data holds a million untold stories, but they need uncovering and they need telling properly to create discussion and drive engagement. Who owns that data, those insights, or the crafted stories is for another blog post (or more qualified legal experts). 

The Next Play

The game is changing and sports Rights Holders must adapt if they want to be around in 10 years time. Broadcast may be fading quickly but there is an opportunity for reinvention. Sports is one of the few visceral pastimes that is all about being in the moment and worthy of being booked into a schedule with your closest companions. I believe that visualising data is the key to turning these ingredients into ongoing fandom. 

The stars are aligning for advancements in data capture, processing power and video distribution as the supply chain becomes completely web-based. Innovators who are prepared to make the investment in data today will be tomorrow's winners in the attention wars of the engagement economy. 

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Lou Fargeot is Co-CEO and Co-Founder of We Are Sweet.