WORRY FOR TV EXECS ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND – AT 11:19 A.M. ET:   There's something wrong in TV land.  We saw viewership for the NFL drop earlier this season.  And now we learn that younger viewers are turning off to sports generally.  From Bloomberg: 

Young people are turning off sport on the box -- something that will strike fear into television executives who hoped live matches would be immune from the diversions of Netflix and video games.

European broadcasters like Sky Plc and Telefonica SA pay billions for sports rights and rely on the games' allure to attract people to their more expensive broadband and television bundles. Walt Disney Co., the owner of ESPN, and broadcasters including NBC also use sport to build audiences and sell advertising.

But there are signs it doesn't hold the same spell over young people as their parents. Viewers between the ages of 18 and 24 were the least interested in sport as a genre, according to a survey of 31,000 people across 10 countries carried out by research firm Ampere Analysis.

When asked what type of content they enjoy watching, young people express less enthusiasm for sport than other genres

The trend was most pronounced in the U.S. and U.K., the most advanced markets in terms of internet adoption and alternative sources of information and entertainment. In those countries, interest in sport among young people diverged the most from the average for the country as a whole. (France and Poland were the two exceptions, where young people are more interested.)

COMMENT:  Maybe they just get too upset when their team loses.   The TV companies should establish a "safe channel" for distraught viewers to go to if things just don't work out for their favorites.  Soothing music, films of past victories, the chance to be at one with other grief-stricken fans.  This is needed.

November 25, 2016