NFL total viewing audiences had a noteworthy increase over the course of this season, especially when it comes to female viewers. Many point to the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce relationship as being the driving factor. It is a major contributor, but there is a lot to be said for the fact that female viewership grew by roughly 30% across the NFL for the regular season, which means it was more than just Chiefs telecasts. For example, the Detroit vs. San Francisco NFC Championship Game telecast on Fox was its highest rated since 2012.
The Broadcast Booth theory on why female viewership is up is completely separate from the presence of Taylor Swift, which is the significantly stronger presence of female sportscasters around the dial. The number of female sportscasters has risen dramatically over the past five years, whether on local TV newscasts (sports anchors) or on sports talk radio stations and networks. There have been more and more instances of women discussing NFL teams and games (along with the other sports) with other women.
What this added presence has done is to make the games more relatable to women. Coincidence or not, the abundance of female sportscasters has taken down the "man's world" image of pro sports, especially the hard hitting games of the NFL. These sportscasters, reporters, and talkers are at it every day, while Swift attends no more than one game per week.
Nick Saban didn't waste any time, joining ESPN to participate in College Football Game Day among other broadcasting assignments. Here's hoping that the constant screaming of the crowd and the many other distractions of the Game Day show will be better contained to allow viewers to be able to hear and understand the analysis of someone the caliber of Saban.
The situation regarding telecast rights for a group of MLB teams got a bit better this week as Baseball looks to recover from the Sinclair Broadcast Group bankruptcy situation. Diamond Sports Group has agreed to handle the telecasts for the World Champion Texas Rangers, along with the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians, paying reduced rights fees for the coming season to help ensure a profit or break even. These one-year deals give these teams a few more months for a long-term media partner to surface.
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