Brian Kezer is an alumnus of George Washington University with an MA in Computer Science. Outside of his work, Brian Kezer enjoys playing video games, listening to music, and playing and watching sports.
The largest and most long-standing change in recent sports viewership is the decline of young people watching games, especially among baseball, football, and basketball. Two major reasons are the corresponding decline in youth sport participation, and their inability to pay for tickets to live events. Some ways to increase interest in sports at a young age could be for the NBA, NFL, and MLB to invest money in youth sports leagues, so the act of playing sports instills an interest in following them professionally later in life. Another way is to increase the pace of games by cutting out periods of idle air time, so viewers don’t lose interest.
In addition to sports fans’ demographics changing, the way people watch is different as well. Although fewer people watch games on traditional television, more people substitute it for streaming services, and consuming content on demand on YouTube. People still watch with friends, but they use devices like smart TVs instead, so they can rewatch something if they didn’t see it the first time.
Brian Kezer 