Game lengths

[Harlan Huckleby]

One sport that will have to change is baseball. The average age of viewers is up in 50s. They are going to have to pick up the pace somehow.

The slow football games at night are the worst. During the day, it is much easier to DVR and fast forward. Recording games to watch the next day is unappealing because you might hear the score somewhere, and somehow the DVR copy grows a little stale overnight.

[mraynrand]

The slow football games at night are the worst. Recording games to watch the next day is unappealing because you might hear the score somewhere, and somehow the DVR copy grows a little stale overnight.

true, but you can always watch during your morning soak in epsom salts.

[Striker]

One sport that will have to change is baseball. The average age of viewers is up in 50s. They are going to have to pick up the pace somehow.

The slow football games at night are the worst. During the day, it is much easier to DVR and fast forward. Recording games to watch the next day is unappealing because you might hear the score somewhere, and somehow the DVR copy grows a little stale overnight.

I'd say the problem with baseball is that there are 162 games on various days/times. It's easy for casual football fans to catch games during the NFL/college season because there are so few for teams they follow, and they usually only have to worry about one a week. I don't know of many people who will watch/listen to all the games in a season. Most will tune in if their teams are still in the playoff hunt/in the playoffs, but they can wait until the end of the season for that.

Also, as to the original point about the length of the OSU/Bama game, it also probably doesn't help when there are 77 points scored in a game. That usually pushes game length up.

[mraynrand]

I'd say the problem with baseball is that there are 162 games on various days/times. It's easy for casual football fans to catch games during the NFL/college season because there are so few for teams they follow, and they usually only have to worry about one a week. I don't know of many people who will watch/listen to all the games in a season. Most will tune in if their teams are still in the playoff hunt/in the playoffs, but they can wait until the end of the season for that.

Also, as to the original point about the length of the OSU/Bama game, it also probably doesn't help when there are 77 points scored in a game. That usually pushes game length up.

Baseball is a game made for young men to play and old men to follow. As I get older, I find myself enjoying the slow, deliberate tempo of the game. The strategies within strategies. Pitches, pitch count, changing strategies with alignments in the field, with runners in scoring position, substitutions, left handers versus right handers, I could go on. I'm no expert at baseball - at all - I might enjoy trying to become one, if I survive until retirement.

[pbmax]

Baseball is a game made for young men to play and old men to follow. As I get older, I find myself enjoying the slow, deliberate tempo of the game. The strategies within strategies. Pitches, pitch count, changing strategies with alignments in the field, with runners in scoring position, substitutions, left handers versus right handers, I could go on. I'm no expert at baseball - at all - I might enjoy trying to become one, if I survive until retirement.

Just don't write a book about it while also contemplating verdant expanses, morning dew and the rebirth announced with the Spring.

[channtheman]

I discovered I can login with my ISP (Cox) but I only receive access to network VOD's of some games. I can't watch anything live, and have no access to the Spider cam. Almost completely useless.

[mraynrand]

You would immediately get a better value by offering NFL Ticket on more than one platform, regardless of the ask set by the monopoly that is the NFL.

yes, the monopoly is the NFL, not DirecTV. I wrote incorrectly - If there are more platforms for NFL Sunday ticket, it's going to zap the free local broadcast and everyone will then pay more, but pay less on average than those who have to buy exclusively through DirecTV. I haven't thought far enough ahead to think what losing the local broadcast and those advertising dollars would do to the cost of the Sunday ticket average price, but you'd expect it to go up, no? Because the NFL is the monopoly, and not DirectTV, it seems like there is going to be a price for the Sunday Ticket feature that is relatively inflexible, no matter how many carriers offer it.

[pbmax]

yes, the monopoly is the NFL, not DirecTV. I wrote incorrectly - If there are more platforms for NFL Sunday ticket, it's going to zap the free local broadcast and everyone will then pay more, but pay less on average than those who have to buy exclusively through DirecTV. I haven't thought far enough ahead to think what losing the local broadcast and those advertising dollars would do to the cost of the Sunday ticket average price, but you'd expect it to go up, no? Because the NFL is the monopoly, and not DirectTV, it seems like there is going to be a price for the Sunday Ticket feature that is relatively inflexible, no matter how many carriers offer it.

That is a hard call to make. Compared to 1994 or whenever they hatched the Sunday Ticket scheme, Nielsen and Hollywood know how to count viewers who have cut the cord and stream the content, avoiding the affiliate. They have numbers for people who are online for the Live broadcast and those that pay and watch on delayed schedules. So its easy to put a number on it and sell advertising through the Live streaming, though they must cut out a few commercials to allow the live streaming event to 'catch up' to the live broadcast (there are always buffering delays). And, at least according to my Hulu channels, they can pinpoint your location enough to give you the local affiliates schedule and possibly local commercials.

And unless they have completely mucked it up, they should have vastly better and more accurate numbers from online subscription than from Nielsen.

The mystery is how that would affect advertisers on the OTA broadcast. There might be some loss of eyeballs (though if the price is somewhat inflexible, it might not dip a lot). However, football remains attractive to advertisers not because it delivers the same shares it used to (not as many TVs are tuned in during games due to increased competition) but because football is one of the few properties to deliver that big of an audience regularly. While just about every other form of TV draws much smaller ratings, the NFL is almost impervious. So despite a smaller share overall, they offer a huge audience that few TV shows can match. That keeps the advertiser dollars flowing.