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Why have US sports TV ratings been down during the pandemic? A thread 
The Stanley Cup, NBA Finals and World Series all saw double-digit viewership declines this year, but what do the drops really mean?
The suspension of sports created a cluttered calendar.On one evening in September, US sports fans could choose from the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB, as well as the WNBA, MLS, college football, the US Open and the PGA Tour.
In other words, there was too much sport to watch.
Sport hasn’t been the only thing on pause. The dearth of new entertainment across the board has resulted in TV usage being down in 2020, reducing the pool of people available to watch, and lowering the likelihood of casual viewers stumbling across a major sports broadcast.
Sport was competing with a news cycle dominated both by the pandemic and the US presidential election. 
The AP reported in early October that viewership of cable news in the US was up 72% compared to 2019 as eyeballs drifted elsewhere.
As Octagon’s Daniel Cohen noted, the pandemic has also altered our viewing habits and our daily routines.
“If you’re going to be working from home from 8-6:30 every day, are you going to turn on that baseball game or are you going to go for your bike ride now?”
‍What about athlete activism? Did that have as much of an impact as Donald Trump claimed?Not quite. Cohen suggests that player protests weren’t “the one or the fourth biggest impact factor”.
Should the sports preparing to negotiate their new media rights deals be worried? @Aquinas82nd doesn’t think so. “Lower ratings do not necessarily lead to lower rights fees. It all depends upon the value of the sport inside a bundle or in comparison to everything else.”
Will we ever see viewership return to pre-pandemic levels? Here’s @AnotherDanCohen’s prediction. "Linear numbers will not, in my opinion, return ever again to what they were. But there’s great opportunity looking at total audience delivery to exceed pre-pandemic level.”
Read the full article by @Sam__Carp here https://www.sportspromedia.com/analysis/us-sports-tv-ratings-decline-nfl-nba-finals-world-series-nhl-covid-19
https://www.sportspromedia.com/analysis/us-sports-tv-ratings-decline-nfl-nba-finals-world-series-nhl-covid-19
