Baseball's Demographic Challenge

Baseball season is upon us and much has been written about how MLB intends to address the challenges of the increasingly long length of a game and slow play.  It's a daunting proposition as baseball faces aging fans and falling ratings.  The average game now runs more than three hours.  That is 30 minutes longer than the 1970's.  And TV ratings have plummeted.  The demographics tell the story.  The average age of a television viewer during the regular season is 57.  By contrast, the average age of an NBA television viewer is 40.  

This year, new rules go into effect to combat the length of play and to make the game more exciting.  Meantime my boys, who are avid baseball fans, will subscribe to the MLB app and get the highlights of each game they are interested in -- saving them over three hours.  In today's short-attention-span world here's a pretty reliable audience axiom - longer equals lower - true in baseball, and in most things.