Not discounting the kneeling/political issue at all but there has been growing criticism over the advertising load on NFL games and it has built to a crescendo this year and last.
People are now accustomed to DVRs, streaming services, etc. that effectively nullify commercials.
The NFL is stuck in the over-the-air era when they could arrogantly expect audiences to sit still for 3, 4, even 5 minutes between actual plays in a game. Then they had the brass neck to read ‘billboard’ ads after canned commercials.
The complaints have been growing and last year’s ratings scare prompted to the NFL and broadcasters to modify their behavior only slightly by saying ‘we’ll be back in just 30 seconds’ and running side-by-side ads with game coverage but, of course, they couldn’t do so without announcing who the sponsor was. They are very slow learners.
Well this season the dam has burst. People tied to their phones and iPads are not only muting commercials, they are ignoring them full stop in favor of their personal technology. Sometimes they’ll resume watching the game, other times they say to hell with it and switch channels or simply turn on the Roku box.
The NFL force-fed its golden goose so much for so long that the egg output is decreasing quickly. They won’t learn a lesson, but even worse for them they can’t learn a lesson. Contract A depends on Contract B depends on Contract C.
Thursday Night games are all but gone due to complaints from all sides. ESPN has strongly signaled that it won’t - or can’t - pay another $2B for the Monday night package.
I suppose the delicious irony is that NFL player union leadership has been so incompetent for so long that they failed to get player compensation commensurate with revenue during the peak era. Now they’re going downhill and players demanding signing bonuses and long-term contracts are in for a shock.
The only way to recover face is for the players to apologize to the fans. Not that they would. And that would be too little too late. But a little groveling would be nice to see anyway.
I haven’t watched one second all season, didn’t watch the SB and won’t again this year
I record probably 99% of my content, and the FF on the remote earns its keep. FF thru commercials and even the 30 second advance let’s me watch a college game from end of play to snap for most plays. A full game gets viewed in under two hours easily, and a crap game gets FF thru, sometimes over in a couple of minutes.
I do similar for network TV. Screw their bottom line as much as I can and save my valuable time. Even my favorite Jeopardy! isn’t immune
Excellent take on this mess!