Here is a more representative week, easily available through the Internet, that contains both sports and regular, non-rerun programming.

1 FOX NFC PLAYOFF-SAT-01/12 S FOX 11.1 14037
2 Big Bang Theory, THE-01/10 CBS 6.4 8147
3 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS-01/13 S NBC 6.4 8058
4 Modern Family-01/09 ABC 4.7 5989
5 Two and a Half Men-01/10 CBS 4.2 5278
6 NCIS-01/08 CBS 3.5 4452
7 60 Minutes-01/13 CBS 3.3 4184
8 Person Of Interest-01/10 CBS 3.3 4124
9 Grey’S ANATOMY-01/10 ABC 3.2 4001
10 Family Guy-01/13 FOX 3.2 3996
11 AFC DIV-PLF-POST-GAME-SA-01/12 S CBS 3.1 3877
12 NCIS: LOS ANGELES-01/08 CBS 3.0 3816
13 Once Upon A Time-01/13 ABC 2.8 3582
14 Scandal-01/10 ABC 2.8 3525
15 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS-01/09 S CBS 2.7 3379
16 Suburgatory-01/09 ABC 2.6 3327
17 American Dad-01/13 FOX 2.4 3093
18 ELEMENTARY-01/10 CBS 2.4 3072
19 MIDDLE, THE-01/09 ABC 2.4 3061
20 Simpsons-01/13 FOX 2.4 3045
21 Biggest Loser 14-01/07 P NBC 2.4 3043
22 BOB’S BURGERS-01/13 FOX 2.3 2939
23 BACHELOR, THE-01/07 P ABC 2.3 2903
24 OFFICE-01/10 NBC 2.2 2772
25 Chicago Fire-01/09 NBC 2.2 2757

If you claim to be a scholar, you should validate your data and not be satisfied with one week that “proves” your point.

If you don’t trust the integrity of my posts, I suggest you visit other sites.

The data printed here were the data accessible on the Nielsen page on the day I read Alex Tabarrok’s post. I didn’t “pick a week.” (And obviously, next week there will be few if any football telecasts on the top ten lists. But that doesn’t negate the observation that sports are driving live television these days).

Odd that you’d pick a week that best shows sports when more recent data are available.

- Get baller internet speed (around $50-$80/mth)

- Get an XBOX (it has ESPN now)

- Stream third party sites for games

I disagree; that quote looks more like the head of an industry group trying to paint a dismal picture in bright hues. About one-third of US households are without landlines, and there is a continuing trend for people to cut their cable TV too; about a million a year, on average, for the last few years, now.

I love live-televised football, but I’m not going to pay the outrageous prices for cable. I think most people would agree with me. Let’s look at that Nielsen chart closely.

Those sports shows were available over-the-air (OTA) on network television, not solely on cable. During that week, there were 14 bowl games. Not a single one of them came close to cracking the top 10 of the network broadcasts that included non-sports shows.

People who watch Top Chef (but not sports programming) are, in an insidious way, subsidizing ESPN’s (Disney’s) ability to overpay for sports programming that, on a per-viewer basis, is vastly higher than any other programming. They are not subsidizing sports viewing directly, but they’re subsidizing ESPN’s ability to steal the market of sports programming from the networks.

To some extent I believe this has already happened. In the sense that the availability of NFL football and college football broadcast outstrips the broadcasting on basic tiers this seems to be true. The NFL Ticket and the various college packages put many broadcasts out of reach for many marginal fans.