Posted on 09/02/2017 3:34:23 PM PDT by 11th_VA
At least one sports television network president believes that national anthem protests last season were a factor in the decline of NFL ratings.
On Wednesday during its annual NFL Media Day in New York City, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said research his network did internally indicated that the protests played some kind of role in declining average viewers. He was emphatic, however, that it was merely a factor and not the cause. The average television viewership for the 2016 NFL season dropped roughly 8% last year from 2015.
“We did research and it was relatively proprietary research, to be honest with you,” McManus said. “But I think if you look at some of the reasons why NFL viewership was down last year, that is a reason that’s mentioned by a fair amount of viewers. It is something they don’t find attractive or they find don’t compelling in coverage of the football game. How big a factor it was? I don’t really know. But it was one of the factors that I think perhaps led to the slight decrease in ratings last year.”
(snip)
Earlier in the week, Mike Mulvihill, the executive vice president of research, league operations and strategy for Fox Sports, emphatically told Sports Business Daily media reporter John Ourand that any NFL viewer backlash to Kaepernick was not a factor in the NFL declines ...
(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...
Me, neither. It has only gotten worse.
I’ll be watching Dallas and Houston . We cancelled our NFL package , along with our neighbors . We’re bronco fans .
I think a majority of folks that tend to watch professional sports are conservative minded people. So yes, when the see overpaid, untalented children like Colin Kapernick get paid millions of dollars to disrespect the country that has given him opportunity to make those millions and then get media attention and sympathy for it, they will tune out.
Just caught an addida commercial on the Louisville game:
Muslim writing on faces
Rainbows
Tape across “Indians” on jerseys.
Just say no to addidas.
It wasn’t Kaepernick that caused me to boycott the NFL. It was the NFL’s response to it. There have always been malcontents like Kaepernick in every sport. The leagues did not condone and glorify those who did. The NFL and the sports media are to blame.
Correct,which is why the Super Bowl was nothing more than a WEE wrestling match,no major penalties called on NE in second half a holding penalty on Atlanta negating a td that would have put the game away.
There is no love lost between the Patriots and Goodell after the four game suspension for Brady. Both Kraft and Brady are Trump backers. The Patriots are probably the most pro-Trump team in the NFL.
You know fellows I’ve been a fan of football a long time and loved the Green Bay Packers since the first super bowl back in 66. But I’m done. This crap just won’t do. I’m through and that’s it. Done.
>>I will not watch again this year.<<
Not intersted in watching BLM jocks?
Peyton Manning ... yeah, me too. Met him once for a quick handshake, watched just to see him play ... and I wasn’t disappointed. Now? Same with NASCAR, Gordon gone...duh.
That's just it - I've seen enough games for one lifetime, and now have better things to do.
It isn't helping that the NFL and NBA have become nothing more than platforms for radical activism, but it isn't the primary issue. The primary issue is that neither sport is interesting to many long-time fans any more.
What is the difference between a factor and cause??
Absolutely, however, it won’t be coming out of my pocket.
Yes the Colin Kaepernick mess certainly contributed to part of the decline in viewers, but I think it is more than that.
I think what we are also seeing is Peak NFL Football. The NFL and the owners, motivated by Greed, have just over-saturated the market with their product.
I am 62 and have been a football fan for at least 50 plus years. I also think the 1960’s and 1970’s were the real glory and golden years of NFL & AFL Football as I knew it.
You could only watch the NFL on Sunday's and there was rarely a night game, all afternoon games. College Football the same, all you had was the ABC game of the week and that was pretty much it. Only when Monday Night Football came in was there another outlet for a game.
Now we really have too much football on and the product for the NFL and even College has been cheapened with way too many games and exposure. It was better when it was tightly controlled.
I too have just about lost all interest in Football, with my Dad now gone, it was something we shared and now I just don't have the same feeling about it.
The Games are too long, too many replays, to many timeouts for commercials, etc. and etc. It is boring.
If there was a cable channel re-running games from the 1960’s and 1970’s I would watch it. Would bring back great memories, of great players, and some of the greatest and classiest football announcers, like Curt Gowdy, Al DeRogatis,
Keith Jackson, Merlin Olsen, Pat Summerall, Tom Brookshire, Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and even Howard Cosell.
I think at this point the NFL can color me gone.
Wait just a minute.........
How come there aren’t any tranies playing for the NFL?
I’m gonna boycott since they don’t have a cross section of the population included on every team.
I want Mexicans, Jews, Chinese, Russians, etc
The NFL needs to be diversified there are just way to many AA.
It is a game about yardage. That’s the basic problem.
duh. duhduhduhduh....
It actually wasn’t Kaepernick’a protest itself, but the league’s failure to punish his disrespect of America, and boldly state that any such actions in the future will result in player suspensions for the remainder of the season. Had they done that, attendance and viewership would have increased.
Kaepernick doesn’t love the country he lives in, and he doesn’t love the game of football. His love and passion is obviously somewhere else, which doesn’t bode well for a quarterback playing at the NFL level.
This season should really drop the ratings as the NFL is all for these protests by millionaires.
The advertisers could call the broadcasters and Roger Goodell and say we will want a much lower ad rate. Much lower.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.