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New Threat To Traditional Sports Leagues: Millennials Prefer Watching eSports (venturebeat.com)
Professional sports leagues "officially have a millennial problem," writes VentureBeat, citing some interesting findings from L.E.K. Consulting.
- 40% of millennials prefer watching esports to traditional sports
- 26% of millennial eSports enthusiasts reported a significant uptick in eSports viewing over the past year
- 61% of esports followers said they spent less time watching TV over the past 12 months, and 45% said they had cut back on traditional sports viewing
- Together millennials -- ages 17-34 -- and Generation Z peers -- age 16 and under -- comprise 45% of America's consumer base
"At a certain point, this comes down to a new form of media better serving an upcoming generation of consumers," concludes VentureBeat. "Esports leagues are all online. Most matches stream for free on sites like Twitch. They are available on the web or through smartphone apps. Competitive gaming is easily accessible, and it lives where Millennials are already spending their time."
Maybe that's why Major League Baseball's video streaming company recently paid $300 million for the right to stream League of Legends through 2023.
Esports doesn't:
Require tax hikes to pay for bazillion dollar stadiums every decade lest the team pitch a fit and threaten to leave. Then, to add insult to injury, make you pay for parking, overcharge for shitty food and watered down beer, then make you pay through the nose for tickets. Good tickets are reserved for those with very deep pockets.
Have competitors who make $20, $50, $100M dollar contracts. They throw a fucking ball for fucks sake.
Require a subscription to E$PN or some giant Sports Package just to watch your team play.
I don't really watch neither of them but if I had to make a choice, it wouldn't be traditional sports. Fuck those greedy bastages.
Depends mostly on their parents' income and how much of it they let them squander.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Fun fact: "soccer" came from the brits. It was the upper-class and correct term for the sport, with "football" being a term for other games. It was British class hatred of the upper class which drove the term "soccer" into disuse, not some American misunderstanding.
ESPN value to cable companies is that men will tend to buy a cable package that includes it, in the same that families will buy Disney and old people will buy Fox News. These channels attract a premium in the carriage fees because they will attract subscribers. But still, a majority of views do not watch these channels, so they mostly make their money, as the poster suggests, through a sociality system in which people who never use the system are forced to subsidize.
In a free market al a cart world in which the consumer only paid the carriage fees for the elected channels Fox and ESPN could not survive. The fees would no longer be hidden from the consumer, so the free market would set much lower fees that would not support the cost structure. An article was posting a few day ago that claimed ESPN could have saved itself by embracing technology. That would have happened only if was able to monetize the technology to consumers. As it has no experience at this, I don't see who it could work.
Disney likely provides enough value to families as free babysitting to survive.
In any case, most sports are toast for the same reason. They depend on inflated broadcast deals that in turn are funded at least in part by carriage fees that are funded in a large part by people who never watch sports. These fees are becoming more scarce by cord cutters.
Streaming deals are funded only by people who stream, i.e. a baseball fan who wants to steam has to pony up at least $100. This is only a month of cable, but it is not longer a hidden cost that might have been included in other bills, so baseball fans might be less likely to subscribe.
So fans go to other less expensive options. Also, schools are not doing nearly as a good a job at indoctrinating students into believing expensive sports are a good use of their hard earned money. Frankly you can get an excellent soccer ticket at the same cost as a nosebleed baseball ticket, and univision is broadcast.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Depends mostly on their parents' income and how much of it they let them squander.
Not entirely, though. Kids grow up, and they continue to game as adults, and will likely continue to watch some eSports. eSports also sell games in a serious way.
It's also a business, and while you still have some fly-by-night operations and problems, it's definitely beginning to grow up. Professional players are beginning to realize they shouldn't just trust whatever deal they are offered will be fair, for example. At least some of them are.
Real lawyers write in C++
People watch baseball too. I have trouble thinking of a video game that's more boring to watch than baseball.