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Title: NFL TV Ratings Slump Again
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti ... ricane-coverage-steals-viewers
Published: Sep 13, 2017
Author: Lucas Shaw
Post Date: 2017-09-14 19:36:12 by nolu chan
Keywords: None
Views: 4060
Comments: 34
NFL TV Ratings Slump Again By Lucas Shaw Fewer people watched the opening week of National Football League coverage than they did last year, a decline TV executives chalk up to Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Cable news and the Weather Channel almost tripled their audiences in prime time and grew fourfold during the day, according to data from the networks, drawing fans away from football. “Thursday Night Football” was down 13 percent, and Sunday games on Fox and CBS also declined. “Sunday Night Football” on Comcast Corp.’s NBC, featuring the arch-rival New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, was a rare bright spot. A drop in viewing last year caused consternation at league offices and the major media companies that count on the NFL to deliver the biggest audiences on TV. Executives blamed several factors, led by interest in the presidential election and a poor slate of games. Pro football drew $4.2 billion in regular season ad sales last year, according to Kantar Media and SMI Media Inc. Eager to get off to a good start this year, the league responded by scheduling more appealing match-ups early in the season. That didn’t work last week, and networks are now pointing to the weather. Analysts, investors and advertisers will keep an eye on early-season ratings to see if last week’s hurricane-related drop is an anomaly or continues last year’s troubling downward trend. The NFL has proved resistant to the pressure affecting entertainment programming: the growing number of people who watch TV on demand rather than live, including some who don’t pay for TV at all. “All eyes will be on this season’s ratings trends,” Michael Nathanson, an analyst with MoffettNathanson LLC, wrote in a note before the season started. “Why do we care so much about the NFL? Well, that’s where the money is.
Bloomberg
September 13, 2017, 1:40 PM CDT
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 8.
#2. To: nolu chan (#0)
The brain injury issue is hurting them. Parents don't want to support the NFL and buy merchandise or make a game day with the kids if they don't want the kids to play football at all. The NFL is oversaturated. They need to dump the Thursday night games. There's too much football and it's become a commodity. That's a bad move for the NFL who should be in the business of making games a little scarce. Too many replays and game delays and commercial interruptions in games. Too many hacks at ESPN talking Lefty politics. And, yeah, jerks like Kaepernick disrespecting the flag and the anthem. Add them all up and you get significant declines in NFL viewership and revenue. And you lose that bandwagon effect where some people will watch the big game just so they don't get left out of water cooler talk at work about the game.
I don't think the brain injury thing hurts much with viewership now, but it is a future concern. Kids who do not play the game do not grow up to be fans of the game. Lose a generation and it will be a real problem. Rules changes have left too little football and too much advertising. "Sports shows" (e.g. First Take, Undisputed) are frequently overrun by politics. ESPN and FS1 are supposed to be sports channels. I have more of a problem with jerks like Goodell permitting NFL players to act out on the field, in uniform, while representing the team and the NFL. They can sit or kneel or give their black power salute in the locker room. BLM bitches about the Confederate flag. They and the NFL should consider how well dissing the American flag or the national anthem goes over in NASCAR country. And I believe veterans are not amused.
I think the public perception of brain injury was what diminished boxing so much as a sport the public followed so much. Muhammad Ali was the last great boxer, starting with his gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Paradoxically, Ali resisted the draft as a champion boxer and never got the kind of hate that Kaepernick does. He did lose his boxing titles though until he sued and the USSC restored them and his boxing license. Of course, it was the Sixties and the counterculture was rising as was opposition to a war in Vietnam among younger people. And Ali was a huge self-promoter who was mediagenic. Even so, the parallels are worth observing. But it isn't the Sixties and Kaepernick is no Ali. I've wondered if Kaepernick is doing what he did, hoping to be another Ali or if he sees a big void in public leadership among blacks with 0bama off the national stage. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are too old and too scandal-ridden so maybe Kaepernick and his agents think Kaepernick had a big chance to be Da Man in the African-American community. The NFL says they'll reduce that but I have to wonder if they can keep their money machine going if they do so. Those fat broadcasting contracts are based on selling very expensive ad slots. Remember Ali and the restoration of his boxing title. If Goodell did ban Kaepernick in the prime of his career and the USSC eventually found it was unconstitutional to try to force a football player to stand for the anthem, the NFL could be sued for billions. So their lawyers are likely telling them not to do it. Not bad advice. If you can't make a Jehovahs Witness kid in public schools recite the pledge and observe other patriotic malarkey, then can the NFL compel a player to honor the anthem? I wouldn't bet on it if I were Goodell or any of the team owners. Of course, I'm not a sports guy anyway so I'm not sure that I care that deeply.
Come on Mike Tyson.
Tyson was no Ali in reputation or the public accepting him the way they did with Ali. Tyson was a knuckle-dragging punk compared to Ali. Of course, Ali was a huge self-promoter and mediagenic in a way that Tyson or Kaepernick just are not. And Ali had that thing going with Howard Cosell. And it was the era of Joe Namath as well when sports players just started to live the lifestyles of multimillionaires in many sports with the rise of the sports cults on the TV networks and a more universal 5-day work week so that Saturday afternoons were available for men to be at home to watch The Game.
#9. To: Tooconservative (#8)
Tyson was a great boxer and could have possibly beat Ali if they were of same era.
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#5. To: Tooconservative (#2)
#6. To: nolu chan (#5)
(Edited)
I don't think the brain injury thing hurts much with viewership now, but it is a future concern. Kids who do not play the game do not grow up to be fans of the game. Lose a generation and it will be a real problem.
Rules changes have left too little football and too much advertising.
I have more of a problem with jerks like Goodell permitting NFL players to act out on the field, in uniform, while representing the team and the NFL. They can sit or kneel or give their black power salute in the locker room.
BLM bitches about the Confederate flag. They and the NFL should consider how well dissing the American flag or the national anthem goes over in NASCAR country. And I believe veterans are not amused.
Maybe Kaepernick and the other players have put Goodell and the owners between a rock and a hard place. I have to wonder if the owners will quietly decide that they won't pursue contracts with any player that makes trouble over the anthem unless they are a total superstar. So a player like Kaepernick with marginal playing record and an offensive style that is not in concert with the dominant play style of the league can be cut out and left without a contract. But a Tom Brady wouldn't be cut out of the herd as an example to the rest for the same kind of behavior. Another black player, Vick, came back after going to prison for torturing dogs and he was not as controversial as Kaepernick overall even if some of the dog lovers resented him.
#7. To: Tooconservative (#6)
Muhammad Ali was the last great boxer
#8. To: A K A Stone (#7)
(Edited)
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