A reader does his research:
Has Yglesias (or Kevin Drum, who launched this discussion) checked out TV ratings lately? The Patriots/Eagles NFL game last Sunday scored a 38.7 household rating in the New England area – more than a third of all households were watching that game – and 15.6 rating nationally. A few weeks ago, Sep. 12-18, the top three shows on all of broadcast TV (and five of the top 10) were NFL games. The NFL consistently dwarfs all competition. College football is no slouch either. Ratings for the NCAA basketball tournament last year were the highest in 20 years, also leading all network TV broadcasts.
This is why CBS paid $10.8 billion last year for broadcast rights to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. This is why DirecTV pays the NFL $1 billion annually for exclusive rights to its NFL Sunday Ticket package (the right to broadcast basically all NFL games to subscribers).
I realize that Drum and Yglesias were expressing their changing personal tastes, but this proposed shift from pro sports to Hollywood is not reflected at all in the numbers. Sports broadcasts remain the #1 revenue-generating and eyeball-drawing form of entertainment in the country – it’s not even close. In fact, with the rise of the DVR and more viewing options than ever before, pro sports (especially the NFL) has become the last true "broadcast" entertainment, in the sense of TV that advertisers can expect millions of people to consistently sit down and watch it together.
The Dish 