My current sports consumption diet revolves around social media that mainly involves Instagram and Youtube. Since I’m a huge fan of international soccer, the “Bleacher Report Football” Instagram page has recently been a big focus of my attention. They do a great job of keeping the world up to date on every top league around the world, including Spain, England, Germany, Saudi Arabia, etc. They also post entertaining cartoon videos of how players react to certain results in their perspective leagues. The comment section is also a great place to see how fans react to news and highlights from around the world. Also, Youtube posts highlights of many of the big games throughout the week. Since I normally miss games that are played in the middle of the week, a 10 minute highlight video is a perfect way to catch up on the action that I missed while in class, at work, etc. My other main consumption of other sports comes in two forms: CBS sports and Youtube. In the morning, I work as a personal trainer. In the studio I work at, the TV is always on CBS sports. I’m constantly watching highlights, stats, and morning talk shows discussing football, hockey, baseball, volleyball, etc. Outside of this, I enjoy watching podcasts on youtube such as nightcap with Shannon Sharpe. Also, I watch endless clips of shows like first take and undisputed with people like Skip Bayless, Richard Sherman, and Stephan A Smith. When it comes to watching live sports, I have youtube TV and Amazon prime to tune in live for NBA and NFL games.

This diet has changed a lot from five years ago when I first came into college. I used to rely on cable TV directly from ESPN; I rarely engaged in social media. I watched everything live, and wasn’t as familiar with streaming platforms that I now rely on. This reflect the larger picture of cable TV making way for streaming services and youtube clips that will soon take over the landscape. As a result of the highlights being much more accessible right after the live game, the numbers for live viewers will go down in my opinion. Sports fans won’t be so pressed to watch the live game because they can have instant access to the highlights right after the game. The problem with streaming services in they aren’t bundled together, so at times you have to pay for separate services to watch games. A good example of this is the chiefs’ divisional game against the Bills being exclusive to peacock streaming service. The ability of the networks to adapt to this ever changing environment by continuing to innovate and making content more accessible will determine who comes out on top in the race for our attention.