The 1920s was known as The Golden Age of Sport. Market forces collided and ushered in an American passion for sports. A robust economy, an uptick in consumer discretionary spending and leisure time, the introduction of radio, marketable stars like Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones and Jack Dempsey, sports teams building stadiums, and government investment in roads and bridges to accommodate the burgeoning auto industry, proved to be the perfect elixir.
Fans could listen to games on the radio, travel easily to watch them in spectacular new venues, and read legendary coverage from great sports writers like Grantland Rice, Red Smith and Shirley Povich, who expanded the genre in newspapers from a single page to a whole section.
From Cracker Jack to Popcorn
born 2006 
born 2007 
born 2007
The 2020’s may well become The Golden Age of Content as market forces once again collide to create a new normal. Sports played a role.
In early 2007, Netflix launched their streaming service allowing users to watch movies and TV shows on their personal computers. Award-winning series House of Cards, produced in 2013, put Netflix on the map as a serious content producer. Hulu, launched in the fall of 2007 by Fox, NBC and Disney as a syndication play, became the go-to place to watch missed episodes of popular TV shows for free. Amazon spent a fair amount of time iterating from the launch of Unbox in 2006.
The Stream Became a Firehose
born 2017 
born 2019 
born 2019
ESPN, the highest priced network in the cable lineup (blame bloated rights deals) believed live sports were immune from cord cutters, even as millions left. This bunker mentality gave rise to consumers pairing low-cost streaming services like Hulu and Netflix, being happily satiated, and saving a “bundle.” For millennials, viewing live sports communally, at a bar with friends, was a welcome respite to screen time. In the 2010’s internet speeds became faster and devices became more powerful to allow streaming services to take off commercially. Tech saw the opening – launching You Tube TV and Apple TV+, while mainstream media woke up as Disney launched Disney+ last year.
Will the last person watching cable stand?
As of 2019, the number of American’s opting out of or never jumping into cable packages reached an average of 59% with 29% thinking about it. https://www.westmonroepartners.com/Insights/Newsletters/Cord-Cutting-Statistics.
2020 Launches
Launch 4.6.20 
Launch 4.15.20/7.15.20 
Launch May 2020
2020 will see three new entries in the streaming marketplace. Quibi, co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman will debut April 6th, with short-form episodic content focused on under 25 viewers, designed exclusively for mobile devices. Peacock (NBC Universal/Comcast) arrives on April 15th with streaming content for their Xfinity customers, and three months later going wide to the general public on July 15th. In May, HBO Max, a division of Warner Media, (ATT) will dive in with over 10K hours of streaming content. Viacom/CBS recently announced their streaming service coming in 2021. A contentpalooza, indeed.
$Big Bucks$
Netflix, the twenty-two-year-old Yoda, with over 151 million subscribers globally, earned 24 Oscar nominations this year. They plan to spend $17B this year to stay atop the leaderboard. Variety reported in 2019 $219B was spent feeding the streaming beasts with nine figure deals for classic hits like The Office $500M, Friends, $425M and South Park $500M. https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/2019-original-content-spend-121-billion-1203457940/
Leveling the Playing Field
For content creators, the playing field is leveling and there are more fields on which to compete. Technology has evolved to democratize the story-telling process. It is a thrilling time to be a creative. The shift is allowing voices, previously ignored, to debut their work to the world. While content is king, quality is queen. Those who connect with audiences will be richly rewarded in the 2020’s, which may become, The Golden Age of Content.
Some Things Kinda Never Change
One hundred years ago, Red Smith wrote. “Writing is easy, Just sit in front of a typewriter, open up a vein, and bleed it out drop by drop.” Red, the creative process is still challenging, although we no longer need wite out.
