I like sports. Some sports. I don’t love them. I like them. Meanwhile, sports consume some people’s lives. They have their TV sets turned to ESPN 24/7. They continually listen to sports talk on the radio. They have their sports team pages bookmarked on their web browsers. They sign up for email newsletters, text messages, apps and anything else they can find related to their teams. Their closets are full of team apparel. Their license plates have a combination of letters and numbers that show their team pride. And they even have tattoos of their sports team mascots permanently inked on their skin. Those people are fans. In comparison, I am a casual watcher.
I like the Minnesota Vikings, although I rarely watch an entire football game. I am a Chicago Cubs baseball fan, but I couldn’t name five players on the roster. I have a respect for Iowa Hawkeye wrestling, but I haven’t attended a home dual in years. It’s not that I don’t care, but the number of yards a teenager from Miami rushes on a Saturday or the assists a young man from Detroit has on the basketball court really don’t impact my life in any measurable way. To the surprise and dismay of many hardcore sports fans, I am not in the minority.
For years, newspapers have tracked the number of readers they have by section. The sports section would often rank among the lowest. Those readers are loyal and passionate, but they are not large in numbers. According to Pew Research, one in three Americans do not follow sports news at all. Among those who do, the vast majority (70%) say they get most of their news from television, compared with 28% who cite newspapers as their main source. Even fewer (13%) say they get most of their sports news on the web.
Radio listenership of sports stations is also a small audience as compared to other formats. According to Nielsen, the share of the most recently audited listening audience (April 2022) for KXNO is 2.8%, KRNT is .7%, and KBGG is .3%. Those are the percentages of all radio listeners 12 or older in the Des Moines radio market who are tuned in to each of those stations at any given time. In comparison, WHO is 6.9% and KDRB (The Bus) is 7.6%.
TV viewership of sport fares much better. According to Yahoo Entertainment, ESPN ranks No. 2 in basic cable channel viewership for anyone age 2 or older, moving up from No. 4 a year prior. Fox News has the No. 1 spot.
In fairness, the percentages for newspapers, websites and radio may be low individually, but the total numbers can still be significant. And, as I stated earlier, those who follow sports media are clearly passionate and loyal. They have the tattoos to prove it.
Have a thoughtful Thursday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305