Are you a fan of football, both college and pro? This year, football fans will be able to see at least one live football game every day for more than one and a half months starting tomorrow.
There will be a game every day for 48 straight days, from October 4, 2023, to November 21, 2023. Sadly for football fans, as of right now, there is no games scheduled for TV on November 22, before games start back up a day later.
This will be the longest stretch of continuous, daily football games. And it’s all thanks to a new contract ESPN signed with the Sunbelt Conference. A part of the TV agreement, Sunbelt conference will play games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in October, and the MAC will do so in November.
When you combine this new lineup of college football on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with NFL on Sunday and Mondays, you have a marathon of football every day on TV.
Increasingly, live events like sports are the main driving force keeping cable TV running. People are more likely to watch live sports as it happens, meaning they are seeing the ads and generating revenue. This is why ESPN is adding college football to more days, and why we are seeing other networks like The CW expand into sports. It’s also why you are seeing things like professional Pickleball on CBS during primetime.
The question now is how long can sports keep cable TV going before streaming services take over?