2025 Fandom Forecast: Sports, Entertainment, and Beyond (AI Summary of Podcast)
Welcome to the first edition of the Fanalytics Podcast in 2025! As always, I’m Mike Lewis, your host and a professor at Emory University, here to dive deep into the world of fandom and where it’s headed this year and beyond. Inspired by my latest book, "Fandom Analytics," I’ll be sharing insights into the key forces shaping fandom: technology, demographics, and marketing. These elements are crucial as we forecast how sports, entertainment, and more will evolve.
Podcast and Youtube Links
The Three Forces Shaping Fandom
Before diving into predictions, it’s essential to understand the driving forces behind fandom's evolution:
1. Technology: From newspapers to social media, technology continuously reshapes how we engage with fandom. The evolution from print to streaming services like Netflix is transforming content consumption.
2. Demographics: Though not drastically changing from 2024 to 2025, the longer-term impact of demographics will substantially influence fandom.
3. Marketing: Increasingly, fandom is crafted by marketers rather than emerging organically. With significant economic incentives involved, marketers play a massive role in steering fandom.
Six Predictions and a Hope for 2025
1. The Future of College Football College football’s popularity is at an all-time high, yet its foundations are shaky. Issues like NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) and the transfer portal indicate a lack of sustainability. The most probable change will be further conference consolidation, particularly with the SEC and Big Ten.
GaTech and North Carolina to the Big Ten
2. Record Football Viewership Pro and college football are set to break viewership records at their championship events. Football remains a unifying cultural phenomenon in the U.S., distinct from the declining popularity of baseball and basketball.
CFP Championship generates more than 25 million viewers
Super Bowl generates more than 120 million viewers
3. The NBA’s Struggles and Opportunities The NBA faces challenges, like its lowering ratings, and the impending changes to the All-Star Games are unlikely to help. However, the playoffs continue to celebrate core competitive values, offering a beacon of hope.
All-Star Game 2025 tanks
NBA Championship series averages 11 million viewers
4. Women’s College Basketball Outlook Following high viewership driven by star player Caitlin Clark, we anticipate a significant drop in ratings this year. The push for women's sports growth continues despite this anticipated decline.
Women's College Basketball Championship Game generates 7 million viewers
5. Decline of Superhero Movies Comic book movies, once cultural juggernauts, are now underperforming. The upcoming Captain America movie is a test case for Marvel's pivot strategy as they navigate changing audience interests.
Captain America: Brave New World produces revenues of $250 million and the film is unprofitable
6. Netflix and WWE Partnership Netflix’s partnership with WWE is positioned to be a tremendous success, reinforcing Netflix’s role as a significant cultural unifier akin to traditional TV networks. The move accelerates the migration of huge live events to streaming platforms.
Netflix and the WWE partnership is a significant success
A Hope for Warhammer Lastly, looking ahead beyond 2025, we anticipate Amazon Prime's adaptation of Warhammer, with Henry Cavill starring, to become a major fandom phenomenon. Though unlikely to premiere this year, the prospect is worth watching.
Conclusion
2025 promises to be a transformative year for fandom. As technology shifts and marketers continue to shape audience engagement, keeping an eye on these developments can help us predict the future of fandom dynamics
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