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NFL TV Ratings Down 10%, Even More For Prime Time Games

Not surprising to me. In my younger days I was a big football fan - both Pro and NCAA. Now days I stick to the college game. More excitement. Better announcers. All the activities in the stands that make it more than a costume party.

Mid-60's through mid-70's the AFL had the exciting games. The forward pass was in big time. Black and Blue division in the NFL not so much. Watching the NFL was like being a spectator at the Big 10 - pretty damn boring. But then the AFL became the AFC and the game changed to the conservative style of play and announcers who wouldn't shut up. After a few years I gave up and haven't been back.
 
I think there a few things at play:

#1: The ratings for live TV overall are down from previous years. That applies to sports and non-sports. That's a function of the fact that more people are busy doing other things and can't devote 3 hours to being couch potatoes. So they'll DVR and watch later, or maybe DVR and not actually watch because they already know the final score.

#2: The match-ups for the NFL national games, primarily for the first half of the season, haven't been good. I look at the upcoming games, and if they don't include teams I'm interested in, I don't watch. Lots of other choices for my team. The second half of the season, NBC has the right to adjust the Sunday night match-ups, so the teams are more involved in play-off situations, and they're just better teams at that point.

#3: Yes the NCAA games are better, especially now. Consider Tennessee vs. Georgia. That game was one example, but there were a whole bunch where the lead changes so many times, so many unpredictable moments, so much fun and excitement. Even if you don't have a dog in the fight, which is my situation, the games are fun. But that doesn't necessarily mean they translate to better ratings, because of my first point, and they're not taking viewers away from the NFL. As the season goes along, the prime time matchups will improve, the weather will get colder, and I expect NFL ratings will improve a little, although they'll probably still be lower than last year.
 
Another theory....

Are national anthem protests hurting the NFL TV ratings?

NFL anthem protests: The NFL does not attribute the 11 percent ratings drop to the national anthem protests that started with Colin Kaepernick a month ago and have since swept the league.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Societ...al-anthem-protests-hurting-the-NFL-TV-ratings
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Mid-60's through mid-70's the AFL had the exciting games.
Click to expand...

In the 70's, the AFL had ceased to exist. The AFL ended after the 1969 season.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Another theory....Are national anthem protests hurting the NFL TV ratings?
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That only affects certain teams.

There have been several NFL controversies that have been unpopular. Certainly Tom Brady isn't the most popular player in the league for several reasons.
 
As said before, poor performances by good teams. I believe the NFL is spreading itself a little thin with the extra night of football. And I agree about the college games.
 
In the 70's, the AFL had ceased to exist. The AFL ended after the 1969 season.

Meant to say 'AFC'.

Also, not a public reason, but in 1969 I moved from the Southwest desert to NYC and discovered the NHL. No going back to slow-pro football after hockey.
 
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I believe people are seeing professional football more as the business
entertainment that it has become and college football more akin to
football the way it used to be...........
 
Football the way it used to be is Division III. Division I is becoming more like the NFL; it's football's AAA league.
Actually, football the way it used to be is Rugby League.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Football the way it used to be is Division III.
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"Football the way it used to be" is in the category with everything else. It only matters to those who are old enough to remember.

I don't know many college kids who care about how things used to be. It may be useful for history class, but that's about it.
 
TheBigA said:
"Football the way it used to be" is in the category with everything else. It only matters to those who are old enough to remember.

I don't know many college kids who care about how things used to be. It may be useful for history class, but that's about it.
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It matters - not as history - but because people liked it. Then good, now bad doesn't attract even people who can't remember when it was good. Also explains why people who remember stopped listening to terrestrial radio and those who don't remember never started.
 
Oscar Madison said:
It matters - not as history - but because people liked it. Then good, now bad doesn't attract even people who can't remember when it was good. Also explains why people who remember stopped listening to terrestrial radio and those who don't remember never started.
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I think you're trying to invent a linkage that doesn't exist. In both cases. People liked it then, and they like it now.

The number of people who liked pro football then was smaller than it is now, even with a 10% drop. Same with radio.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Also explains why people who remember stopped listening to terrestrial radio and those who don't remember never started.
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You are making a conclusion based on a false premise.

People, even Millennials, have not stopped listening to radio. They are, in many cases, listening less hours a week, but have not "stopped listening". The reason is not that they reject radio, but that they have so many other alternatives that they use also. So each entertainment source gets a thinner slice.

The average adult Millennial listens 11 hours a week. The average 55+ listens about 13 hours per week. But over 90% use radio.
 
DavidEduardo said:


You are making a conclusion based on a false premise.

People, even Millennials, have not stopped listening to radio. They are, in many cases, listening less hours a week, but have not "stopped listening". The reason is not that they reject radio, but that they have so many other alternatives that they use also. So each entertainment source gets a thinner slice.
Click to expand...

No, only the "legacy" entertainment sources are getting a thinner slice. Since some of those alternative entertainment sources were in their infancy or didn't even exist in the years when radio was listened to more, any slice they get is a fatter slice.
 
NFL is still a power even with the drop in ratings. I'll always watch the NFL every Sunday watching my Lions and NFL Red Zone National Games if the games are close same with college football Michigan & MSU and which games are close I'll watch. Like today I watched OT of Tenn VS TAMU game that was a thrilling finish to the game I'm big sports fan. Only sports I can't watch is MLB only really of the Tigers game in the back ground in the summer time and NASCAR fine cars going around in circles to be boring.
 
Nothing lasts forever. I do blame network management for being one-sided when it comes to certain games being shown on certain markets just because a big owner (Jerry Jones) thinks he has the stroke to say his game is better than the others (Rams vs. Bills). The NFL should do a better job in giving all of it's primetime games better matchups overall. Flex scheduling should be use on Mondays and Thursdays to make them mean something Sunday Night Football will be fine because of it. Find a loophole for the teams to travel and make it worth their while as well as the fans as well.
 
The NFL looked into flex scheduling of weeknight games and concluded it could not do so because ticket holders would not have enough notice to get time off of work to travel to the game (or to recover from it the next day). Too many season ticket holders would be angered and attendance would suffer.

Personally I wish they would just drop instant replay at this point. Seeing the game constantly grind to a halt after exciting plays for interminable replay reviews....which generally result in the exciting play being reversed.... is totally maddening. I'd rather live with the human error on that percentage of calls that are blown.

And yes, I do think the Colin Kaepernick protests are a bigger factor than the league wants to admit.
 
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