Posted on 10/04/2016 10:20:02 AM PDT by 11th_VA
Research conducted on behalf of SportsBusiness Daily has found unprecedented double-digit audience declines for NFL games so far this season.
According to research firm CivicScience, NBC’s Sunday Night Football — the highest rated prime-time program for the last five years — has seen its average audience drop 10 percent so far this year after four games.
Viewership of the NFL’s widely dispersed Thursday night games has dropped 15 percent. And ESPN’s Monday Night Football is down 19 percent.
It’s not fringe science — culling Nielsen data, Sports Media Watch has the NFL’s ratings pretty much down across the board through the first four weeks of the regular season.
It’s hard to elicit panic from media executives just a quarter of the way through the NFL regular season, but the implications could be huge. Popularity of NFL programming has grown quickly as most other shows have seen their audience succumb to new consumption patterns. And the NFL now operates with impunity.
"You never like seeing a competitor getting a part of what you do, but such is the NFL,” CBS Corp. chief executive Moonves recently lamented to investors after the league made CBS share its Thursday night games with NBC and Twitter. “They’re the 800-pound gorilla, and when the NFL says 'jump,' you say, 'yes sir.’"
But the possible ramifications go beyond the NFL.
Not only did NBCU experience double-digit ratings declines for the Rio Olympics, Major League Baseball and NASCAR have all seen significant ratings drops, too. And the NCAA men’s basketball championship game experienced record low viewership.
“All these sports go through cycles,” said Artie Bulgrin, ESPN’s senior VP of global research and analytics, said to SportsBusiness Daily. “It’s impossible to suggest that there’s anything going wrong here, particularly in light of the fact that we are in a really odd year in terms of the protracted presidential race, which has captured the attention of Americans going back a year now. Plus, it’s an Olympic year, which clearly had an impact during the summer.”
For his part, Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ senior vice president of programming and research, says sports ratings have dropped in previous presidential election cycles. Notably, cable news networks are experiencing double-digit ratings increases.
“I would really start with the election — I don’t think you have to look much deeper than that,” Mulvihill said. “Cable news has been up so much all year, going back to the earliest primary debates. So much of a share of attention has gone to the campaign, it seems like it has affected everything else.”
I would get rid of video reviews. I'll take my chances that there will be bad calls, but over the course of a game, bad calls tend to even out. Maybe I would only allow challenges in the last two minutes of a half, as it was when it started out.
I would never give up USAA, it is a really good company. I just did what you want to do. I contacted them asking why they would support teams and players that contradict the values of most military members (except two navy types).
Leicester isn’t doing so hot in the League so far, but they’ve been good in the Champions’ League so far.
Wow, I just found out Bob Bradley is the new manager at Swansea. The first US coach to manage a top-flight European squad.
Ratings are down?
Okay.
Disrepectful multi million dollars players acting like children during the Nationa Anthem.
So many teams missing starters that are out because of various drug and criminal suspensions.
Lackluster play on the fields.
I can watch several really well played, exciting college games on Saturday, so why bother with crap on Sunday?
#BlackLivesFootballThugsFortunesMatter
Hey, that’s a really good summary.
I had no expectations of doing as well this year, only to enjoy being champs for the year and being competitive. For many, they need never do anything ever again, it was a magical season that will never be repeated.
...I’ve a feeling Liverpool may have a hot year.
I thought Man City was going to roll, and then Tottenham beat him, I think it’s pretty wide open this year. I wouldn’t even rule out Arsenal.
My Everton was off to a great start, then lost to frickin’ Bournemouth. I’ll just be happy with a spot in the Europa League.
And of all those added commercials, the bulk of them are for Viagra and it’s related products. Meaning if you have kids the TV goes off.
Don’t forget DeflateGate.
The Patriots out and out cheated (nothing new there), and got caught (which is somewhat unusual) and skated until Brady finally has to serve his suspension this year.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
People will watch a game that they think is fair, but will not put up with a game they think is fixed. There are so many thumbs on so many scales in the NFL, nobody believes the game is fair anymore.
I am not deeply saddened by the losses.
These fools in the NFL are just another branch of the Demonrat party as far I am concerned. F them.
Soccer is just a better spectator sport. I grew up watching and playing football, and it used to be a cornerstone of Americana. But changes in the game combined with changes in the coverage have yielded something almost unwatchable. I have tried, in recent years, to get back into it, but it is like watching grass grow. Surprisingly, even though soccer has roughly the same amount of scoring (a little bit less, but then again they don’t give you seven points for a goal, so it is deceptive), there is a much greater proportion of actual excitement. Once you stop watching football, you realize that it is actually incredibly dull.
With basketball going full thug-life, and football become a snooze-fest, baseball really would seem to be the only American sport that will retain its popularity over the long run.
I agree, baseball may not be as popular as it once was, but consider this. Every single day, there are probably at least 12-14 Major League games with an average attendance of around 20.000 per game.
That’s well over 200,000 people attending a Major League game every single day during the regular season. Multiply that by 162 days.
Other sports may come and go, but baseball will always be there.
What's the alternative?
I haven't watched Thugball2 for 30 years...
I thought that the name had already changed to the BLML...
Trendily renamed The New Jersey Deplorables...
With all due respect I disagree with the soccer is catching on and is better than football angles.
First of all soccer is again being shown this time as really, really ready to break into the big league as compared to all the other times is has also been described thusly. This has been said now for over 30 years with citations of youth soccer being popular. Youth soccer has been popular now for these same 30 years but professional soccer may be a little more popular now but even with the higher ratings of 33% the average attendance was 3,439 as compared to the NHL’s (considered America’s FOURTH most popular pro sports league) average attendance of 17,500 in spite of unchecked immigration from other countries [who are more likely to be soccer fans] the last few years.
With all due apologies to Bo Jackson and LeBron James who also said he wouldn’t let his kids play football youth and those on this board who say football isn’t as popular as soccer youth football participation increased again last year to 1.23 million despite the media’s continued assault on the game.
http://usatodayhss.com/2016/survey-shows-increase-in-youth-football-participation
There will always be more youth soccer participation than football as 1.) Youth soccer numbers include girls and 2.) There is no equipment such as helmets to buy and is less physically dangerous for younger athletes and rightfully so most parents opt for this as a first option in youth sports.
Don’t know how top NFL players’ jersey sales stack up to Lionel Messi’s Barcelona club jersey sales of 1.15 jerseys but the NFL had merchandise sales last year of 1.55 billion dollars.
And while soccer has no commercials not sure if that’s good or bad but no offense if there was a commercial break one probably wouldn’t miss much as there would probably be no score or any other change of situation such as field position.
Soccer is a physically demanding and difficult sport but just because people are mad at the NFL right now (and rightfully so as I also support the boycott until the NFL get’s its’ PR and Social Justice Warrior tendencies out of its’ system) I just am getting a little tired of the claims that soccer is now ready to take over America.
I agree with all except one point. They DO NOT have a 1st amendment right to do what they are doing. They are on the job and have to follow the rules of their employers, the NFL.
The US Constitution says, “Congress can make no law abirdging our right to free speech”
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