Live audience optional
Do we really still need live audiences for sporting events, particularly basketball? It would appear that the answer is no, considering that most sporting events choose to be online where their audience can find them. Paying high rates for airtime on mainstream broadcast networks seems to be an afterthought or is no longer necessary. Ironically enough, streaming appears to go directly to your target audience nowadays.
When the NBA was first study, studying television, they were afraid that having people watch at home, would discourage them from coming to the games. Luckily, that did not prove to be the case instead, it became a measure of success. After that, all major sporting events had to be on television to reach a wider audience. There were no exceptions. Even smaller events were on local regional channels in the US. It helped attract advertisers sponsors, who were guaranteed exposure to bigger and bigger markets.
In the 1980s, the market share of the three broadcast networks in the US, ABC, CBS and NBC started to decline. Cable television and the eventual arrival of CNN (Cable News Network) started eating into their market share. By the 1990s, the three majors had far less than half of the audiences in their country. In the Philippines, meanwhile, the dismantling of Martial Law meant an explosion of media, including more than a handful of TV networks. But it still took time for sports to become a staple. Because of its organic nature, you could not fit it into exact airtime blocks, which made programming after the games very challenging. In the late 1980’s, ABS-CBN also made news programs profitable. It was therefore difficult to have regular newscasts if you had basketball or other sports on primetime.
With today’s decentralizing of the broadcast media by streaming services and social media, people are no longer by the strict schedules. Netflix changed the game by making it possible to binge watch your favorite shows. Social media made broadcasting accessible to the general public. Apparently, advertisers now look for the eyeballs on Facebook, YouTube and other socmed. Therefore, the live audience is no longer as important as it used to be.
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