Since moving to college, my consumption of sports has diminished tremendously, primarily due to not having access to cable. Five years ago, I was still at home and was able to watch games live more frequently. It was the only thing that played in my house every Sunday. I also had a lot of friends in high school that watched sports, so I would watch them in order to engage in conversation. Nowadays, I use social media to keep up with sports, and it is most convenient for my lifestyle. I only sometimes have the time to sit and watch a three-to-four-hour game, but with social media, I can see the highlights, scores, breaking news, and hot topics surrounding sports in like two minutes. Additionally, social media has made it more entertaining to engage in sports. Many football teams will post memes and jokes taking jabs at other teams, which make the team appear authentic and relatable. Even with social media, my consumption of sports remains low, especially because I am not entirely invested in sports, my media consumption mainly follows pop culture like movies, music, television, and books.
I think within the next five years, sports media will live predominantly on social media. As we stray away from cable television, particularly gen z, the demand for televised sports commentary and media will eventually diminish, moving a lot of people to social media. People already get updated information regarding players, teams, and scores in moments with their phones, a convenience not accessible on television. I also think streaming services will enter the sports media sphere. We already see it with Prime videos taking over Thursday Night Football, so I think other sites will attempt to make deals with major sports leagues by moving some games or major events to their platform. I know Netflix is hosting its first live special this March, which can set a precedent and new beginnings and offers for the company. Lastly, apps specialized for sports will be created, and a way to get updated information on any games, despite time zones, will be groundbreaking for a lot of sports, especially overseas. My mom is a huge tennis fan, and she can never watch games live due to time zones, which always is a bummer as she does not enjoy the games as much as she can a football game live. She can know the score and the winners, without even trying to look which takes away the excitement sports bring.
           If I had to change one thing about sports media, I would add other voices to the commentary. In most sports, commentators are white, assumingly straight men, which I think can be a turnoff for some people getting into sports. While I do see the occasional women or other races, they either rarely speak about the game or instead do interviews. Or are scarce in the media realm, which is crazy considering it is 2023 and diversity is still an issue. I think I would do something like what Nickelodeon is doing with the NFL and attempting to get kids involved. I would try to make a partnership with a network with a women-dominated audience and request to air one game every two weeks to get an idea of the demand and popularity of women-watching women commentators and implement it until we could have a male and female commentator on major networks every week.
