Passive and Active Attention to Baseball Telecasts: Implications for Content (Re-)Design

Using a unique individual-level data containing high-frequency logs which distinguish whether individuals are attentively or inattentively viewing television broadcasts, we estimate a model of agents’ attention choices during baseball telecasts, and find that the degree of attentiveness depends on current features of gameplay, including suspense and surprise. Overall, only 27% of viewers are actively paying attention and viewers value suspense over surprise. Moreover, agents are more attentive to commercials which play during surprising junctures of the game but less so to those which interrupt the game at suspenseful junctures. These results have implications for content design, as we find that shortening the game to seven innings enhances surprise and suspense which, while increasing viewers’ attention to the telecast, can have offsetting effects which decrease attention to TV commercials that air during baseball games.