Many of the big sports TV franchises -- the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL and PGA Golf -- continue to focus on one demographic group, mostly older male viewers, when it comes to
advertisers.
What if much of this were to change -- especially in a world where incremental TV gains are tougher to come by?
In an upcoming wild-card playoff game, the NFL is looking to
explore this -- adding Disney-ABC’s young, female focus cable network, Freeform, to its group
of main sports networks -- ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.
This isn’t to say young viewers, particularly women, haven’t been interested in sports. Big-rated NFL games draw can
draw sizable number of female viewers.
In the recent two-week period, NFL games pulled in women viewers representing 42% of its total audience, according to iSpot.tv. For the last two months of
its regular and post season, Major League Baseball, pulled in 40% of its total viewers from women.
Traditional sports TV/media platforms need to ramp up efforts -- especially as young viewers
seek new sports-related content, such as esports on the internet and on TV.
Separately, Amazon continues to stream NFL games on Thursday night. We don’t have specific data. But generally
speaking, virtually all traditional TV content moving to streaming platforms post a higher percentage of younger media consumers.
All this comes as many of the sports TV franchises -- starting
in August/September after months of pandemic delay -- were hit with massive 30% to 40% declines in sport TV viewership.
The NFL, the biggest sports TV franchise and largest TV program in terms
of average viewership, is in the process of negotiating a new long-term TV sports contract among its TV networks partners. It outlines what is still expected to be big sports fee increases.
With
this hanging over TV executives, you can be sure all will be seeking ways to lift revenue -- by whatever means -- and grow their audiences, of all types.