So why the ratings plunge?

RiverDog

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The NFL's TV ratings are down across the board. MNF is down 17%, SNF down 13%, and the morning/afternoon games by CBS and Fox down 3-4%. Despite their color rush gimmick, TNF continues to flounder.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/08/media/t ... index.html

There's been a number of theories proposed, including:

1. The Presidential election.

2. Baseball's post season

3. The Kaepernick effect

4. Overexposure

5. No star power

6. Multiple forms of distribution (streaming, etc)


Is this an anomaly and will return to normal after the elections and the World Series? Or is something else going on?
 

Smellyman

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Commercials!

Judas Priest can we cut them in half!

also, streaming
 

Sports Hernia

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All of the above. You can add craptastic officiating to that list. Everyone gets tired of a flagfest.
Bad teams matched up on prime time.
 

IndyHawk

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The hype on a few teams like the Cowboys being America's Team for one :pukeface: :pukeface: :pukeface:
 

West TX Hawk

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Overexposure, streaming and perhaps young people as a whole not being ardent fans could be primary culprits of the problem. I don't know the demographic breakdowns, but I'd be curious if there's a slight decline in the 18-45 market. I have a feeling that many young people would rather watch horrible, so-called movies, the Kardashians and any dancing or singing programming than the NFL.

For myself, baseball playoffs usually trump non-Seahawk games and I haven't tuned in to Thur night or Mon night games very often this year.
 

Overseasfan

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Streaming. TV isn't as big of a medium as it was 5-10 years ago.

Presidential election and baseball play-offs naturally take some viewers away as well.
 

brimsalabim

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It does have a lot to do with disgust over the disrespect some players have shown twords this country. A whole lot of watchers that only had marginal interest before have tuned out. Some pretty big fans have as well.
 

Reaneypark

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No. 1 is streaming. This is a huge wave crashing through the entertainment industry. People are cutting the cable cord in droves and will continue to do so.

No. 2 is a terrible live watching experience. There are stretches in games where you see 5 seconds of live action between 5 - 10 minutes of commercials. End the ridiculous commercial breaks after a kickoff!

No. 3 is crappy primetime matchups. Have a more flexible flex policy.

No. 4 is football has peaked in this country, I'm afraid. More and more people don't like watching a sport that grinds players' bodies up like they are cattle. I love football but I hate, hate seeing guys get maimed. I'm sick about what happened to Luke Willson, for example and same with the Falcons receiver that got knocked out yesterday. For some people, it's becoming too much.
 

TransGenderHawkFan

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Became slaves to the fantasy sports world. No hand checking, shrink the strike zone, no contact with the WR's or QB. And the dudes that watch a gladiator sport and get sad about gladiator injuries. Same kind of people that buy designer dogs and carry them in purses.
 

Seahawkfan80

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Back in the day, Tv was entertainment for the people with the commercials just a part of the game. Now Commercials are the main game with Football the commercial end of the spectrum. When ABC used to have Monday Night Football, the game was accessible to all and the entertainment value equaled what they were putting out. Now you have to PAY for the garbage you are watching. The promotion of one demographic, New York/Dallas/Pittsburgh...etc are driving the negative side too. Finance has become more important than the realistic expectations of the game. As someone alluded to last year, this is becoming more like gladiators in the ring in ROME. Maybe that was me. I dont remember. WWE is only entertainment. heh.
 

MesquiteHawk

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This will seem like a dumb question for the tech savvy among us, but how do you "Stream" games?
 

Seahawkfan80

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Norcalhawklover":1zg6gzwn said:
This will seem like a dumb question for the tech savvy among us, but how do you "Stream" games?

NBC and TWITTER have allowed their systems to show games like a video off of youtube. That is streaming live information via the internet. There are other sources that are not proper for watching these games as well but that is not allowed on any site affiliated outside of the NFL for nfl games. MOre often than not, those games that are shown on the internet/streamed are delayed for a minute or more.

Hope this answers your question.
 

Hawknballs

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I think there is just a distinct lack of drama and good matchups in the NFL these days.

Many of the "good" teams have been good for a while and conversely many of the "bad" teams have stayed bad. Eventually that's going to lead to fatigue from fans of the bad and mediocre teams.

The teams that have cropped up lately to be the 'new blood' as far as good teams go are ones like carolina and arizona that don't have huge fan bases nation wide, and they are also not meeting expectations.

Many of the "new era" of QB's don't have the Brady/Manning caliber rivalries happening. Many of this newer generation of QB's like Luck, Griffin, etc have flamed out a bit.

overall I just feel like the NFL's identity has gotten a little stale as far as the teams are concerned.

Also worth noting - in the past few seasons just about everyone I know has switched over to watching NFL red zone channel for the sunday games, and the caliber of matchups on the sunday/monday/thursday night games has been pretty crummy. There have been very few/hardly any prime time games ive been very excited about watching, and the ones I have been interested in feature NFC west opponents.
 

Seahawkfan80

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Hawknballs":1c90sytx said:
I think there is just a distinct lack of drama and good matchups in the NFL these days.

Many of the "good" teams have been good for a while and conversely many of the "bad" teams have stayed bad. Eventually that's going to lead to fatigue from fans of the bad and mediocre teams.

The teams that have cropped up lately to be the 'new blood' as far as good teams go are ones like carolina and arizona that don't have huge fan bases nation wide, and they are also not meeting expectations.

Many of the "new era" of QB's don't have the Brady/Manning caliber rivalries happening. Many of this newer generation of QB's like Luck, Griffin, etc have flamed out a bit.

overall I just feel like the NFL's identity has gotten a little stale as far as the teams are concerned.

Also worth noting - in the past few seasons just about everyone I know has switched over to watching NFL red zone channel for the sunday games, and the caliber of matchups on the sunday/monday/thursday night games has been pretty crummy. There have been very few/hardly any prime time games ive been very excited about watching, and the ones I have been interested in feature NFC west opponents.

I wonder if that is just because of fantasy? Just a question, sir.
 

McGruff

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Here's some thing I've heard from people just in recent days.

The Kapernick effect is real. I don't think it is the primary reason, but it is significant.

The awareness of the long term effects of injuries. Among parents of youth this is real. In their minds football is on the same level as boxing now.

Perception of rigged games. In part due to poor officiating, there is a rise in the perception that outcomes are decided before kickoff, or at least guided from above. Football is the new WWF, and the spectacle will only get you so far.

Hatred of Roger Goodell. The belief among many fans is that the game we are watching on Sunday is no longer football, and it's largely due to one man.

Poor primetime match ups.

Lack of star power among younger players, especially at the QB position.

Death of rivalries. NFC East sucks, and that hurts national rating. Gone are the Colts/Pats and even the Seahawks/Niners. There's not enough hatred among present NFL payers, coaches and tears to draw a national interest.
 

253hawk

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Smellyman":jrb4u119 said:
Commercials!

Judas Priest can we cut them in half!

also, streaming

During the 4th quarter there was a 25 minute stretch of no commercials.
 

Largent80

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I have Sunday ticket and when I put the 8 box game casts screen on, I can see bad officiating every minute.

It is killing it for me. I rarely watch any games except for the Hawks, and if I do, I record them so I don't have to sit through 2 hours of commercials.

The rule changes. Defenses can no longer do what they did 20 years ago, as Sherm said, "Lester Hayes could not play his style in the current NFL".

These things are ruining it.
 
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RiverDog

RiverDog

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Over exposure has to be playing a role, too. Too much Prime Time. It used to be that Monday Night Football was a huge event, on many occasions the only chance you got to see a specific team or stadium. Over exposure is making the game too common. Personally, I like having Thursday Night Football because I'm a football junkie. But the rest of the country isn't, and the time I spend looking at the boob tube on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays, the younger generation is looking at their phones or playing Xbox or something. I'm looking at celebrating 62 years of life next week, and I didn't grow up playing soccer like my daughter did, or grow up without American football like so many of my friends and co workers that weren't born in this country and don't understand the ever complicated and changing rules of the game.

There was no way that the league was going to sustain all of those huge gains in viewership that they've made over the past 60 years or so. At some point, the law of diminishing returns had to start taking effect as the market became over saturated with their product.
 

mikeak

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I don't know if bad officiating is actually up. What has happened is that we have 20 tv cameras (I have no idea about the real number) at every single game, we can get 360 views of plays, it is blown up and zoomed in on our 50" HDTVs (I know lots of us have even bigger TVs) and then we talk and talk about it online, TV, radio etc over and over again

It used to be 1-2 games that had more cameras than the others and everything else stayed local. We saw it on a grainy picture that was played on a 26" - 4:3 screen and there wasn't as much replaying going on. For one thing the call wouldn't change. So only really significant things got replayed.

The TNF, SNF and MNF matchups have not been great. They are not doing a good job predicting what will be good games and that is a big deal. Also the TNF has never been really good simply because the week is to short. Then add to that a very very polarizing election and it won't help.

Ratings will come up towards end of November and December
 
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RiverDog

RiverDog

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mikeak":lfqebofi said:
I don't know if bad officiating is actually up. What has happened is that we have 20 tv cameras (I have no idea about the real number) at every single game, we can get 360 views of plays, it is blown up and zoomed in on our 50" HDTVs (I know lots of us have even bigger TVs) and then we talk and talk about it online, TV, radio etc over and over again

It used to be 1-2 games that had more cameras than the others and everything else stayed local. We saw it on a grainy picture that was played on a 26" - 4:3 screen and there wasn't as much replaying going on. For one thing the call wouldn't change. So only really significant things got replayed.

The TNF, SNF and MNF matchups have not been great. They are not doing a good job predicting what will be good games and that is a big deal. Also the TNF has never been really good simply because the week is to short. Then add to that a very very polarizing election and it won't help.

Ratings will come up towards end of November and December

They'll undoubtedly come up some once the elections and the World Series are over and the playoff stretch runs begin. But I really think that we've seen it peak, at least in the regular season.
 

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