With Athletes Benched, Sports Fans Watch More News – and Reruns of Classic Games
The coronavirus pandemic may have benched all live sports for the foreseeable future, but sports fans are still getting their fix by watching old games. According to Nielsen, diehard sports fans still spend 10% of their TV viewing on sports programming, whether its “SportsCenter” or re-airings of old Super Bowls. In the weeks since the global health crisis brought the sporting world to a screeching halt, many networks like ESPN and even the broadcast stations have taken to airing old games instead. Among “Heavy Sports Viewers,” which Nielsen describes as the segment in the top quintile of those who view live sports, watching old games accounted for 19% of their sports-viewing diet in the three weekends following the sports shutdowns. The NBA was first to suspend its season on March 11 after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. By the end of the weekend, all U.S. sports had been shut down. Also Read: How ESPN Plans to Survive Without Sports During Coronavirus Hiatus Overall, re-airings of classic games accounted for 2% of “Heavy Sports Viewers” entire TV diet, and 1% among all adults. While ESPN declined to give any ratings...
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