Why Sports are so Popular?
There’s no denying the impact sports have on us. Throughout history, sports has gathered thousands of people to watch different events, whether is was the massive gladiatorial spectacles in the roman times, or more modern stadium packed with football fans. However, 100 years ago, while sports were already a popular deal, most people spent their time playing sports, not watching sports. What happened next is a concept called the great transformation, in which over the course of a few decades, sports shifted from a pastime everyone participated in to something fun to watch after a hard day at work. So why was this? What makes sports the ideal event that many people watch for over 2o hours per week?
The Rise in Streaming Platforms
Back before the Great Transformation, there was no television, even the radio was just in its early stages. The only real mass media are newspapers, and people really don't have the option to watch games on any form of media we know now. Stadiums would be packed during football or baseball games, but that's really the only option for being a fan. Because of this, the time that's getting spent on them really is revolving more around playing, participating then sitting on the couch and staring at the television, like many people do now.
The rise in sports viewership can obviously be attributed to the growth in technology. After the radio became widespread, the television became this huge phenomenon in the 40’s and 50’s. By 1955, almost half of all US homes had one in their living room. Finally, the internet brought 24/7 sports steaming anytime, anywhere. These communications technologies bring sports to every corner of the world and make it possible for people to watch at any time of day. This process might seem really straightforward and linear, but there were a few key innovations that really flipped society to become the sports-crazed one it is today.
Sports Anywhere, Anytime
As of the 1960’s sports were widely available to all over the nation. People could watch sports at virtually any place, just not at any time, and this next part would come later. On tv, the only thing people could watch was baseball’s Saturday game of the week, and NFL or maybe a Basketball game on Sunday. Forget about watching sports during the week; if you wanted to watch sports, it had to be on the weekend. This changed in the 1970’s, when TV producers had to idea to start Monday Night Football, which would stream during Prime Time in the evening, and it took off. Soon, there was football on Thursday night and Saturday night and talk shows throughout the week, and this whole idea of when sports could be shown radically changed from something only reserved for weekends to an exciting event that one could watch at anytime.
Another landmark innovation was 24/7 sports by ESPN. They had the idea not only to show some games during the week, as Monday night football was doing, but to also broadcast a 24/7 sports channel so people can watch something related to sports every day of the week at any time of the day. This is where we are now: Sports anytime, anywhere.
