It doesn’t matter what network you look at – every player in the linear sports game invests a lot in highlight shows. Every player in the linear sports broadcasting game gives their viewer pregame, halftime and post game options surrounding a big game – not unlike hors d’oeuvres and dessert complimenting a fine meal. That’s been the formula for years, with FOX, CBS, NBC, Turner and ESPN understanding their real meal ticket lies with the rights to the actual game.
In recent years, outside of streaming, a real concern has been the attention span on younger fans. Fans who seem much more interested in watching scoring plays on Red Zone than actual football games on CBS or FOX.
Highlights have become so easily accessible, all you have to do is follow your favorite team or player on social media, and you get all the action on your phone without committing to a whole game on your couch. One outlet that has understood the transition of the sports world into social media better than anyone is Bleacher Report – and a new study they composed presents good news for their older network counterparts.
According to their data – 63% of soccer fans prefer watching a full game over highlights. One might overlook this number, as soccer is hardly a top priority for the main linear players, but the MLS fan base is the youngest in the nation with an average age of 40. Soccer culture is centered around the actual matches themselves. Getting together with other fans in a living room, garage or local watering hole is a must in the soccer experience.
A “we’re in this together” attitude already exists with hardcore NFL and college fan bases – but hardly at all with regular season NBA games. The difference could boil down to the length of the regular season and the marketing the league supports of it’s individual stars; 1) It’s hard to get excited for 1 of 82 regular season games when over half the league makes the playoffs in the Spring, and 2) a Kevin Durant fan in Atlanta can catch all of his guy’s plays on Instagram or YouTube right after the game.
So, while there will always be casual fans who prefer their sports concentrated into a 2-3 minute highlight package, there’s still real value in live event rights. This, of course, is good news to the networks who invest heavily in their partnerships with the major leagues in the world.