Over the past two weeks, sports have rocketed broadcast companies to record ratings. That strong performance underscores the lasting importance of sports on pay TV, even as consumers switch en masse to streaming, and hint at a future in which live events, and not original shows, rule the broadcast world.
Two recent sporting events, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final, which featured a down-to-the-wire game between the University of Virginia and Texas Tech, and the Masters, in which Tiger Woods won his first major tournament in more than a decade, fueled new record-high broadcast ratings at CBS. The NCAA national championship game was up 20 percent compared to last year’s final.