Posted on 10/03/2016 1:42:30 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Ratings for National Football League (NFL) games are on the decline through the first four weeks of the 2016 season with some blaming the #BlackLivesMatter protests initiated by San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Sunday nights matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers drew just 16.7 million viewers the lowest primetime audience of the year.
Thats bad but its even worse when you consider the previous three installments of Sunday Night Football also drew audiences that were smaller than last year by an average of 11.6 percent.
Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network is tanking, too averaging an 11 percent drop in viewers through its first three telecasts (the 2016 Thursday night kickoff on NBC was down by eight percent, too).
Viewership for Monday Night Football is also way down by an average of 27 percent per game from last year (in fairness, those totals included a game last week that was held opposite the first 2016 presidential debate).
NFL apologists are quick to point out that the leagues television audiences still dwarf anything else appearing on the small screen. And they are correct.
But the early returns are clearly not good for the NFL
If one’s a Bear’s fan, this has been a good year to tell the NFL to pound sand.
The Yorks, who own and manage the 49ers, fired him because he was too hard on the players and staff.
I gave up on the NFL at least a decade ago. I can’t figure out why any conservative would watch professional sports which work against traditional American beliefs.
The only thing the NFL understands is their bottom line.
I really love watching but will not because of the constant insults to my country.
Loved it!
One good thing about the CFL is that the players are only too happy to be playing pro football at all to blow it playing politics on the field. And frankly, the three-down game moves faster and is more fun to watch.
What they didn't see this coming?
I cancelled Cable and switched to Antenna TV.
Free is good.
got free cell phone too
I just haven’t like nfl in a while.
Kapernick and the nfl suits just made it made harder to go back to it.
I wonder if the ratings for the Dallas-SF game were down, too. The first two or three weeks of ratings changes for Dallas this year have been positive, not negative.
Good to see that people are starting to get allergic to the “opiate of the masses”.
Let’s keep hitting them where it hurts!
From what I have read and seen it is not more than a few on each team
“ANY other business would have fired him by now ...”
He’s protected by his black privilege.
Louisville-Clemson was outstanding also.
I haven’t watched a single down of NFL or NCAA this season.
Run, pass, and punt. It’s 25% faster!
That said, I wish it were easier to watch CFL in the states.
Been a fan of the Stampeders for years.
I won club level tickets to see the Baltimore Ravens game yesterday.
Club level. About $600 worth of tickets. I gave them away.
Zero interest.
Happy to have watched Ryder Cup and skipped NFL.
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