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.”
Sorry Messi’s jersey sales should’ve been 1.15 million.
Now I will say, that I don’t think the MLS is going to ever be on equal par with the other major sports league here, because in terms of the level of talent, it’s like a Single-A baseball team compared to the best European Leagues. But more and more people are following the Euro Leagues.
You can watch every English Premier League game on NBC, and now Fox features the German Bundesliga. And the day is fast approaching when the UEFA Champions League Final will rival the Super Bowl.
They can go off the air permanently as far as I am concerned.
“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”
Sorry just can’t agree.
Just can’t understand how one can say football is unwatchable or a snooeze-fest when compared to watching soccer — how is it riveting to watch the ball go back and forth across and up and down the field with no result?
Seriously during the World Cup I watched many games with family and friends and could leave the room and when I was updated on what had taken place after coming back nothing really. The score was the same after 20 minutes at a time and no field position or men on base — just that the ball had moved around the soccer field as usual and was right back to where it had started when I left the room.
Not saying football can’t use some adjustments such as too many commercials and long replay reviews (though I’m not sure what is meant by NBA going full thug-life) and getting away from the social justice warrior mentality, those sports are much more exciting and have situation changes than soccer ever will.
I admit, the quality of most World Cup and other International tournament play pales to that of the highest-level European Club soccer.
Mainly because National teams don’t get all that much time to practice together and play together as a team.
“And the day is fast approaching when the UEFA Champions League Final will rival the Super Bowl.”
Maybe not that fast :
3,652,000 combined viewers Fox English and Spanish for last year’s final.
111,000,000 AVERAGE viewers, 167,000,000 Total viewers for last year’s Super Bowl 50.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_TV_ratings
“I admit, the quality of most World Cup and other International tournament play pales to that of the highest-level European Club soccer.
Mainly because National teams don’t get all that much time to practice together and play together as a team.”
But I’m talking about ANY soccer game. The World Cup seemed to have more energy in the crowds and announcers so I can only imagine watching when not during the World Cup.
But I take your point that teams that are thrown together without much practice time together may play at a lower level. Teamwork and chemistry is a much overlooked part of any sport.
But you watch a Premier League game, and the speed of the game is light years ahead. It’s almost like watching indoor soccer at times.
“That happens a fair amount in football, as well. It is very noticeable when you stop watching for a decade or more, and then go back to it. Most plays in football are rather pointless. And when there is scoring, it is rarely out-of-the-blue, and loses some excitement as a result. By contrast, in soccer, a play can develop in seconds, and yield a flurry of excitement, without 10 minutes (real-time) in which a score of some kind is inevitable.
I understand people not liking soccer. I also find many soccer matches to be quite dull. But what I cannot understand, now, is how anyone can watch football (and this is from someone who watched virtually every available football game for many years, into adulthood). And while soccer is often bad (football-level bad), it is also incredibly riveting at other times, and reaches a level that football only rarely reaches.”
But the problem in soccer is that you can’t really see a play developing like you can in football. In football there are changes in field position, decisions to go for it on fourth down or kick a field goal or punt or TD, whether to field a team of size or speed.
And again the scoring. There may be plays that develop excitement for a few second but then they’re over as compared to drive before a half, the game or after the other team scores. Constant drama — in soccer if there’s no score the ball just gets thrown back in. I agree for those few moments of a score or almost score is intense excitement because it happens so little.
In football you could have high scores or low scores depending on the teams and the way the game develops, less predictable. In soccer the scores will usually be predictable and the same.
BUT we’ll just have to agree to disagree. If you like soccer that’s cool.
They gave that up last year, FYI.
I once watched a fair amount of college basketball, particularly Kentucky and Duke since Alabama seldom has a nationally competitive team.
But I've watched almost no regular season games for several years and only a few March Madness games. The one and done business has mostly ruined it for me since the best players at the top basketball schools are only around for a year. There is far less continuity from season to season and the viewer doesn't get to know the players. or the character of the teams as in the past when players were around for four years.
My fantasy fooblaa tema name is TakingAKneeNFL2016. Do you really believe the ratings zot is related to Colon? lol!!!
If I told people about my fooblaa fantasy........well I just won’t.
Each of us is simply expressing an opinion that is fair.
I’m not making a case for Soccer, but reality intervenes. Put simply, it is the number 1 sport in the world; dominating American Football by a factor of 10x.
Be well.
Boxing was never the biggest sport in the country.
Yes, St. Louis did that, but not Los Angeles.
In the 1950s it was.
You make some valid points. I don’t think soccer is taking over the United States (there might be an argument if you were referring to all of the Americas) but it offers an option to those who are looking for a sport other than the big three.
I enjoy the game because there is almost non-stop action. I’m sure it does appear to the newcomer as just a bunch of guys running around on a field. It takes time to learn the rules and understand the fine points. I’ve watched the NFL for years and still don’t all the rules although the fact that the league has a habit of changing them so often doesn’t help.
I can’t speak to jersey sales but very few fans don’t have some team apparel to wear to matches.The fans are loyal; some might say rabid.
Actually, there are commercials, just not commercial breaks. They run those ticker-tape ads along the top of the screen; they’re still annoying.
Soccer is still the world’s most popular game. We routinely see 50-60,000 at here at Sounders matches. In the UK it’s practically a religion. Even in the poorist mudhole countries in Africa, you’ll find the kids booting a soccer ball around in the dirt. I’m surprised the SJWs haven’t gotten behind soccer (I’m NOT one, BTW). Where else can you find players of every race, color, creed and ethnicity playing together on the same team?
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