Is the unthinkable happening – are people finally switching the football off?

[Doobs]

There is just such a huge volume of sport on TV now. I watch and bet on sport for a living as you all know.  I probably watch circa 60 hours of live sport a week and still could easily watch another 60 hours of live sport if i had the time because the sheer range of top class sport constantly on TV now compared to 25 years ago is immense.  The average joe in the street who has to work and can't sit at home and watch sport like me all day has to select his recreational sport viewing now across so many more sports/medias etc.  It is no wonder the big leagues are suffering dropping viewing figures imo. 

25 years ago you couldn't watch any NBA in this country period.  Now you can watch every single game via any betting site without even paying, nbaplayer on nba.com and 4 games a week live on BT sport just as an example of how things have changed on one sport.  This can be applied to virtually every sport.

I remember listening to the horse racing via scratchy live radio commentary in the bookies.  Wouldn't tolerate that now.

[Horneris]

Great thread.

If Swansea v Arsenal or Man Utd v Southampton is on a Sunday afternoon I won't be bothered at all about missing it. That would have been unthinkable a few years ago. There are a few reasons for this on a personal note:

• I'm growing up and have a gf, house and dog so there are other things to do
• I'm too OCD nowadays to concentrate on one thing for more than 5 minutes
• I find football a bit boring at times
• Subs are too expensive and Its a bit of effort finding a stream when a match is on BT Sport (I Steal a Sky Go account so those matches are okay)

The main reason I think is that sitting there watching football is, in the majority of cases, too dull. I don't know if people are catching onto this more, if there is too much other decent sport on TV now, or if, football simply has got too namby pamby with no blood and thunder so isn't as exciting. Pretty sure I'd rather watch Duncan Ferguson and David Weatherhall elbow each other in the head when contesting a header than Jesse Lingaard trying to shield the ball out of play.

As someone mentioned below, I like the BT Sport Goalzone thing for the Champions League. And I'm a huge fan of NFL Redzone where you can watch all the scoring plays from every live game.

I wish they could do this for Saturday afternoon footy. I never watch MOTD now either but would be great to rail Fantasy soccer and draft kings live.

[DungBeetle]

There is a complex picture beneath figures that show a marked decline in early season football viewing figures, and the big broadcasters must work out if this is a blip or a trend

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/24/sky-sports-bt-sport-people-switching-football-off

interesting stuff. i know i am watching less. not got the inclination to sit through Middlesborough v Watford at 4pm on a Sunday...

It was 1:30pm.

[nirvana]

Two things spring to mind outside of the free streaming options. The way Skysports in particular treat football, all this red Monday, super Sunday rubbish is just dressed up drivel and the way they talk about every game as tho it is huge. Basically tho football these days is a game where in general both teams try not to lose before attempting to win/hold on for a draw or give it a go coz they have to in the last 20 minutes. And at the end of the day it's still a sport where 22 men try to cheat each other for 90 minutes where the losing team/manager moan about some reason they were cheated for the next two days.

One good thing I have come across is the BT Champs league goal show which is their equivalent of Soccer Saturday. Instead of having Phil Thompson of some other clown shouting oooooiihhhh or gooooooaalll they just talk about what is happening in the games they are covering and show the goals and talking points in a calm and objective manner. I'm not all that interested in Champs lge mismatches but find I have it on because it's an enjoyable show presented nicely. I wouldn't dream of putting Soccer Saturday on in the background and listen to fake excitement and completely over the top analysis.

Agree with all this - if I could turn back the clock I'd support someone like Brentford and might still be as interested in football as I was 10-40 years ago. Still quite enjoy Arse games and a few other games in the prem and champs league but footie coverage and the money in the game are massive turn offs for me. Like Brent mentioned, never watch MOTD anymore either. Keep sky more for Cricket and other things than footie now.

[TightEnd]

another very good article on this subject, by Paul Hayward

Modern technology is in danger of leaving the Premier League behind - football must fight back or viewers will keep turning off

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/10/25/modern-technology-is-in-danger-of-leaving-the-premier-league-beh/