What’s the future of sports media?

What’s the future of sports media? This is a question that I ponder quite often considering my role here and with the startup over at Broadway Sports Media. While I don’t know exactly what the future holds in this space, I do know that it is ever evolving. The respect that SB Nation has now versus what it had when I started this blog back in 2006 is really crazy. We used to talk about the mainstream media and the blogs. Now that line has been blurred to where they are pretty much the same for sites like MCM (minus the way the NFL gives credentials, but that’s a different discussion).

Steve Cavendish recently wrote a piece over at the Nashville Scene entitled “The Replacements” which took a look at some of the “new media” that has been started in the Nashville sports market. One of the topics brought up in that piece was about how traditional sports talk radio is dying off. I think that can be true in some cases, but the people that do it the best, like The Midday 180, are going to continue to be relevant. In fact, they have continued to thrive even in a year where less people are commuting to work. They pivoted to podcasting their entire show and the numbers have been pretty eye-popping. Their daily podcast had well over 2 million downloads through October of 2020 while the next closest show at the station, 3HL, had less than 820,000 according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

What we do know is that this space is very much an evolve or die space. The Tennessean was the biggest thing in Nashville sports media when the Titans first came to town. It is pretty much a non-factor in the market now.

It’s obvious to me that one of the biggest things people are looking for in media right now is community. That is a big change from what media was even 10 but especially 20 years ago. That is why you will hear The Midday 180 refer to their “season ticket holders” and J-Mart and Ramon talk about people reaching “cousin status.” It is also why our open game threads are so popular here. People want to feel like they are a part of the community.

This is where you come in; What are you looking for in your sports, and specifically Titans, media coverage?