One of the few live sporting events (without in-person arena fans) left after the shutdown of live sports on March 12, 2020 was professional wrestling. As the events are scripted, some would not view this as a sport, despite the obvious athleticism involved, yet it may provide some insights into the future of sports viewership. Given pro wrestling’s appear to much of the same demographics as other live sports, it may have been expected that the shutdown elsewhere would have given these promotions a boost as sports fans were searching for something to watch as they were stuck in their homes.
Using data from www.WrestlingData.com, the visualization of television viewers for the main cable and free-to-air shows for the WWE promotions (Friday Night Smackdown, Monday Night RAW, and NXT) and the new upstart AEW tell quite the different story. Using March 12 as a point of analysis, it can be seen on the chart that both WWE key brands of Smackdown and RAW saw big downturns in viewership even though their major event for the year, Wrestlemania, took place in March (without a live audience in attendance). It does not appear that there was substitution away from the WWE top brands to either its own NXT or to rival AEW as they either remained relatively stable or saw a downturn in viewership after the shutdown.
How can this downturn in ratings be explained given their apparent advantage in the marketplace for sports fans? One rationale is that pro wrestling and other sports are not real substitutes as the audience for professional and college basketball, hockey, and baseball did not migrate to watch the WWE. It could be that pro wrestling is actually complementary to other sports that when fans are watching other live sports that pro wrestling also gets viewed. A more troublesome possibility for sports in general is that with the loss of live sports and nowhere to go, people started watching various available shows through Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Disney+, their cable or satellite operator, etc. Binge watching tons of available episodes of a wide range of shows and/or movies may have provided an actual substitute for those who were watching live sporting events. If this is the case, there could be potential problems when live sports return as some fans may continue their current viewing habits and not jump back into the live sports action. While personally I believe professional and college football may be different, as they dominate Saturdays and Sundays in the fall, live sports that are broadcast in the evening may be in for a real fight as some people that were always willing to watch games before may have found other ways to spend their time. Only time will tell if the pro wrestling rating are a harbinger for the post-Covid19 world
For more blog posts go to www.seesports.net.
Comments