(08-05-2020 06:55 PM)Wedge Wrote: Most watched title game ever is Magic vs. Bird in 1979. 35.110M viewers.
Obviously there are other factors for the decrease in audience size, including first the huge increase in the number of TV options in the last 30 years as compared to 1979. Then came other electronic distractions. The first iPhone was introduced in 2007. In 2011, only about a third of US adults had a smartphone; today it's well over 80%.
Sports betting and office brackets are the only reason the tournament ratings haven't fallen even further. There are just more ways people can distract themselves without leaving home.
The WWII generation dying out between the late 90's to the 2000's and now the Boomer's dying out are affecting the numbers. Those born in '46 are now 74 or roughly at the average life expectancy. From now until 2034 we are going to have a huge die off. The big difference is that many of the WWII generation played baseball, basketball, and football in high school as did their children. Those who play sports watch sports for the most part. We now have several generations where the % of total boys playing team sports has radically declined.
Now add that to what you are saying Wedge and the most important reason is included, demographics. Everything you say about options and distractions is also true. And in today's world giving hours out of your week to just watching sports is now history. Many might pick one game and scan the scores and watch the highlights of those impacting the one they follow.
Add in the distasteful inability to get away from the political and social problems of the day when you sit down to watch sports and it simply has gotten intolerable. Sports is an escape that we once used to unwind or to project our pent up frustrations at the umpires and officials. Now we can't even turn off the stupid announcers pushing politics and social issues because the same stuff is plastered on the field or court.
I'm reminded of the 60's and Timothy Leary's alleged quote, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Only now instead of altering the state of one's mind through narcotics it's numbing one's mind with the trivial. So when that option is no longer viable through junk food, beer, and couch potato sports viewing, then people will seek to find that blissful repose of nothingness through some other experience.
For me that's the yard and gardening. I watch Auburn sports mostly and some SEC sports. I bought the season tickets for over 40 years. I quit when I couldn't talk to my friends because of the piped in noise and couldn't recognize the venue for all of the corporate logos. Now when ESPN talks about everything but my game and I pay them money to ruin it for me, I find myself retreating to my teenage years and listening to the games with an ear plug while I hunted dove. It feels so much more appealing.
When Boomers quit caring about the games they are toast. The subsequent generations simply don't have the numbers, or the numbers with the money, to keep it up.
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Final Four Ratings Through the Years
