Halfway through the season, Chelsea Manager Antonio Conte is "running ahead of rivals" in first place in England's top football league, according to He & Abboud of BLOOMBERG. The Italian also "stands out in another way: his team is the only one of the major teams whose television viewership has risen this season." Elsewhere, the "trend of fewer people tuning in to the country's biggest sport that was detected earlier this season has been confirmed," according to a Gadfly analysis of data from the U.K. Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Average viewership per game at the halfway point of the season is down 11% from a year earlier, and down 22% since '10-11. This is better than the 14% season-on-season slump in the first 10 weeks of the season, "but still not much to cheer about." Oddly, the decline comes as the competition itself is "thriving" with five teams chasing Chelsea, "any one of which could arguably snatch the title by May." Attendance at games is "up slightly" and teams are "raking in more money than ever" because of a "huge bump" in broadcast fees. The "pain will be felt more at Sky," Europe's pay-TV leader, than BT Group, which broadcasts fewer games per week and is expanding from a lower base. Sky's average viewers per match are down 13% from last year, and 25% from '10. BT's average has "ticked up" 3% this year, though that comes from its "better time slot on a Saturday night." None of this is "particularly good news" for Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, which is buying the 60% of Sky it does not own for a proposed £11.7B ($14.1B). Live sport from Formula 1 racing to rugby has been "a crucial way for Sky to get people to sign up." The declines are "more than a blip." The "direction of travel is clear and persistent" across time slots and teams going back five years. The decline "can be seen too" in the U.S. at the "big daddy of live sports," the NFL. When both "footballs" are "struggling" for attention like this, "you have to wonder whether the game is up" (BLOOMBERG, 1/16).