NFL ratings down 7.5 percent for the season

JackOfNoTrades · Oct 18, 2017

Comparing the first 6 weeks of 2017 against the same period of time in 2015, ratings are down a whopping 18.7%. That is a lot and translates to approximately 3 million less people are watching NFL this year than 2 years ago.
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NFL ratings down 7.5 percent for the season
Posted by Mike Florio on October 18, 2017, 10:02 AM EDT

When it comes to the week-in, week-out NFL ratings, skilled P.R. professionals know how to make bad numbers look good and/or good numbers look bad. Cumulative, all-encompassing numbers are more difficult to spin.

And here are the cumulative, all-encompassing numbers for NFL ratings through six weeks, via Darren Rovell of ESPN.com: The audience is down by 7.5 percent.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/10/18/nfl-ratings-down-7-5-percent-for-the-season/

diefree666 · Oct 18, 2017

The election excuse is now officially sliced and diced. Cord cutting, streaming etc will now be the main argument of the hear no evil see no evil speak no evil crowd. Who will not admit that the NFL has peaked and is now on the downslide. The reasons for that are various but does that really matter? nothing is going to change in the NFL until the owners are desperate. By then it will be too late.

revospeed · Oct 18, 2017

The product isn't as good as it was even 5-8 years ago. I think that's partially attributable to teams paying exorbitant amounts of money to three positions and leaving the rest of the positions to be filled with fodder. Also, coaches can't teach proper technique and players can't hone their craft with the lessened practices.

jterrell · Oct 18, 2017

lol at people posting on a cowboys board buying any nonsense that NFL viewership is really down.
it's not by any real margin. it's simply shifted in many cases to Kodi and Firestick.
streaming is real and sports has been the last bastion of a dead cable era.

i dont know a single person under 30 with cable. but they pretty much all use some form of streaming service.

and the NFL is not unaware of this. they have streaming deals going now and more coming.

Melonfeud · Oct 18, 2017

If anything will grab the attention of the inner circle (league owners)
It's reduced cash flow.
They could attempt to staunch the hemorrhage by reigning in the officiating branch from flagging every play till the desired tempo and direction of a game is achieved,,,as it's definitely tainted the product it's trying to sell to the 'fanbase' ,who are starting to stop buying it,,, idk? It almost seems like they think their some type of untouchable tough guy mobsters with the 'godfather' complex ,,,who(IMO) should consider whacking each other ,,,er,,,just to settle old scores, as it would probably only take one "hit"
to bring the other (31) 'players' to reform the product into a more salable form

diefree666 · Oct 18, 2017

jterrell said:
lol at people posting on a cowboys board buying any nonsense that NFL viewership is really down.
it's not by any real margin. it's simply shifted in many cases to Kodi and Firestick.
streaming is real and sports has been the last bastion of a dead cable era.

i dont know a single person under 30 with cable. but they pretty much all use some form of streaming service.

and the NFL is not unaware of this. they have streaming deals going now and more coming.

monkey see monkey do

drawandstrike · Oct 18, 2017

What a pathetic sight Goodell was at that presser today.

PA Cowboy Fan · Oct 18, 2017

drawandstrike said:
What a pathetic sight Goodell was at that presser today.

He's a pathetic sight everywhere. lol

BoysfanfromCanada · Oct 18, 2017

jterrell said:
lol at people posting on a cowboys board buying any nonsense that NFL viewership is really down.
it's not by any real margin. it's simply shifted in many cases to Kodi and Firestick.
streaming is real and sports has been the last bastion of a dead cable era.

i dont know a single person under 30 with cable. but they pretty much all use some form of streaming service.

and the NFL is not unaware of this. they have streaming deals going now and more coming.

Seems clickbaity that these headlines don't mention streaming views.

Dodger12 · Oct 18, 2017

I can buy that there are many factors that can be contributing to the decline in viewership. But the current issue certainly doesn't help and many folks might look at it like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Personally, I've lost a lot of my enthusiasm for football and I'm absolutely disgusted that folks brought these issues into the game.

Also, I'm not sure how accurate these numbers are in the link but ticket and merchandise sales are down. If the decline in viewership was because of cable cutting, you'd think it wouldn't affect the other areas as much as it has. Bottom line, folks are souring on the NFL.

Trumped: NFL Ticket Sales Decline By Almost 20 Percent

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattv...t-sales-decline-by-almost-20-percent-n2388235

NFL national anthem protest denting ticket sales

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-national-anthem-protest-denting-ticket-sales/

Operators of two of the largest U.S. ticket marketplaces say they are seeing declines in orders for NFL games amid festering controversy over the national anthem.

NFL ticket sales at TickPick slumped 17.9 percent this week compared with the prior week, their steepest decline since 2014, while sales at TicketCity plunged 31 percent. For pro football games in September, ticket sales at TicketCity are down 16 percent from a year ago.

diefree666 · Oct 18, 2017

Dodger12 said:
I can buy that there are many factors that can be contributing to the decline in viewership. But the current issue certainly doesn't help and many folks might look at it like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Personally, I've lost a lot of my enthusiasm for football and I'm absolutely disgusted that folks brought these issues into the game.

Also, I'm not sure how accurate these numbers are in the link but ticket and merchandise sales are down. If the decline in viewership was because of cable cutting, you'd think it wouldn't affect the other areas as much as it has. Bottom line, folks are souring on the NFL.

Trumped: NFL Ticket Sales Decline By Almost 20 Percent

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattv...t-sales-decline-by-almost-20-percent-n2388235

NFL national anthem protest denting ticket sales

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-national-anthem-protest-denting-ticket-sales/

Yeah the merchandise sales are especially indicative of the enthusiasm of the fans. That one particularly is important.

65fastback2plus2 · Oct 18, 2017

Dodger12 said:
I can buy that there are many factors that can be contributing to the decline in viewership. But the current issue certainly doesn't help and many folks might look at it like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Personally, I've lost a lot of my enthusiasm for football and I'm absolutely disgusted that folks brought these issues into the game.

Also, I'm not sure how accurate these numbers are in the link but ticket and merchandise sales are down. If the decline in viewership was because of cable cutting, you'd think it wouldn't affect the other areas as much as it has. Bottom line, folks are souring on the NFL.

Trumped: NFL Ticket Sales Decline By Almost 20 Percent

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattv...t-sales-decline-by-almost-20-percent-n2388235

NFL national anthem protest denting ticket sales

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-national-anthem-protest-denting-ticket-sales/

This is mostly false.

Stadium attendance is within 3% YTD of every other season. Considering 2 major hurricanes in 2 major markets this year, thats insignificant. In fact, going back 10 seasons, that is within the margin of every YOY comparison.

If the straw broke the camels back, attendance would drop off significantly.

Further, the YOY decline is an ongoing trend at a pretty stable rate:

2014-2015 - 7 percent decline
2015-2016 - 9 percent decline

diefree666 · Oct 18, 2017

65fastback2plus2 said:
This is mostly false.

Stadium attendance is within 3% YTD of every other season. Considering 2 major hurricanes in 2 major markets this year, thats insignificant. In fact, going back 10 seasons, that is within the margin of every YOY comparison.

If the straw broke the camels back, attendance would drop off significantly.

Further, the YOY decline is an ongoing trend at a pretty stable rate:

2014-2015 - 7 percent decline
2015-2016 - 9 percent decline

so what is your excuse as regards merchandise?

65fastback2plus2 · Oct 18, 2017

diefree666 said:
so what is your excuse as regards merchandise?

Whole host of things can drive merchandise.

I've got a ton of cowboys stuff and haven't bought anything in years. It's too expensive when I've got 2 kids to buy stuff for.

Plus, I don't have a player on the team I'm bought into. I have a ware and Romo Jersey but no one on the current team strikes my fancy to pony up $100+

Dodger12 · Oct 18, 2017

65fastback2plus2 said:
This is mostly false.

Stadium attendance is within 3% YTD of every other season. Considering 2 major hurricanes in 2 major markets this year, thats insignificant. In fact, going back 10 seasons, that is within the margin of every YOY comparison.

If the straw broke the camels back, attendance would drop off significantly.

Further, the YOY decline is an ongoing trend at a pretty stable rate:

2014-2015 - 7 percent decline
2015-2016 - 9 percent decline

I don't know if the numbers are accurate but I'm not going to assume it's false just because you said so. The numbers are down. It's being reported most everywhere, including CBS.

Ans attendance is a relative thing in the NFL. The stadium can be half full but the team(s) will claim the stadium is sold out because the money was paid up front.

Yakuza Rich · Oct 18, 2017

revospeed said:
The product isn't as good as it was even 5-8 years ago. I think that's partially attributable to teams paying exorbitant amounts of money to three positions and leaving the rest of the positions to be filled with fodder. Also, coaches can't teach proper technique and players can't hone their craft with the lessened practices.

I think the quality of product has a smaller portion to do with it. As we've seen from polls, the sitting out the anthem played a role in the drop *last year*. Now we have fans that are apoplectic over the league-wide protest.

I don't really question the technique much at all. What I think we are seeing is teams insisting on DB's that can tackle. The tackling around the league is far better now because the ways offenses have changed have forced defenses to get bigger and better tackling corners.

From a schematic standpoint, the league has basically copied a lot of Andy Reid. It's more about pick plays and the design getting players wide open instead of the actual player getting wide open. I've always found Reid's offenses to not be glorious...sort of like watching Floyd Mayweather win on points instead of knocking out his opponent at the risk of being knocked out himself. Same here...the lack of power vs. power in the run game and then throwing the ball deep.

But the league becoming FIFA in terms of fraudulent behavior, the CTE issues and the anthem protests is playing a larger role right now.

YR

Nightman · Oct 18, 2017

diefree666 said:
The election excuse is now officially sliced and diced. Cord cutting, streaming etc will now be the main argument of the hear no evil see no evil speak no evil crowd. Who will not admit that the NFL has peaked and is now on the downslide. The reasons for that are various but does that really matter? nothing is going to change in the NFL until the owners are desperate. By then it will be too late.

The Emperor is officially buck naked

The streaming people forget that most people can get their local channels for Free in HD with a simple antenna..... that is why they are cutting the cord........ it has no effect on the ratings..... they are still factored in........ ratings are still just a % of people with TVs watching..... they factor all that stuff in

An 18.7% drop in two years is catastrophic........TV channels like CBS are having their earnings forecasts cut big time........ any loss is bad in a growth industry and the NFL will soon have to give rebates to broadcasters

Today's press conference was a joke.......he had a chance to stop the bleeding but he doubled down on the bs......'only 5 or 6 players are still doing it'........ he spit on the fans' complaints

65fastback2plus2 · Oct 19, 2017

Dodger12 said:
I don't know if the numbers are accurate but I'm not going to assume it's false just because you said so. The numbers are down. It's being reported most everywhere, including CBS.

Ans attendance is a relative thing in the NFL. The stadium can be half full but the team(s) will claim the stadium is sold out because the money was paid up front.

False as in the conclusion made from the premises.

You have hundreds.of thousands of people in major nfl markets that suffered storm damage. Are they buying sheetrock and carpet or nfl gear?

In order to prove merchandise sales have a significant chance of showing kneeling repercussions you would need to show nfl ratings/viewership dropping off more than the trend and you would need to show nfl attendance dropping like a rock instead of holding historically stable. Nfl attendance is quoted as actual tickets scanned, not sold.

To show significance of the conclusion, all that data would have to show similar reactions. It doesn't because it's cherry picked data which means the conclusion shows it's an insignificant occurrence.

Most nfl fans are true fans and won't change their fandom over side drama. Most couldnt care less.

65fastback2plus2 · Oct 19, 2017

Nightman said:
The Emperor is officially buck naked

The streaming people forget that most people can get their local channels for Free in HD with a simple antenna..... that is why they are cutting the cord........ it has no effect on the ratings..... they are still factored in........ ratings are still just a % of people with TVs watching..... they factor all that stuff in

An 18.7% drop in two years is catastrophic........TV channels like CBS are having their earnings forecasts cut big time........ any loss is bad in a growth industry and the NFL will soon have to give rebates to broadcasters

Today's press conference was a joke.......he had a chance to stop the bleeding but he doubled down on the bs......'only 5 or 6 players are still doing it'........ he spit on the fans' complaints

No he didn't. Only a few loudmouthed fans are complaining. Most don't care. Survey data shows that less than 5% said kneeling would stop them from watching/attending. And I'd bet half those 5% we're posturing.

haleyrules · Oct 19, 2017

Melonfeud said:
If anything will grab the attention of the inner circle (league owners)
It's reduced cash flow.
They could attempt to staunch the hemorrhage by reigning in the officiating branch from flagging every play till the desired tempo and direction of a game is achieved,,,as it's definitely tainted the product it's trying to sell to the 'fanbase' ,who are starting to stop buying it,,, idk? It almost seems like they think their some type of untouchable tough guy mobsters with the 'godfather' complex ,,,who(IMO) should consider whacking each other ,,,er,,,just to settle old scores, as it would probably only take one "hit"
to bring the other (31) 'players' to reform the product into a more salable form

Agreed. The biggest problem is the onfield product and the hype the league generates. No sport can live up to it. Yeah, the rules and application are mind numbing.

NFL ratings down 7.5 percent for the season

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I Copy!,,, er,,,I guess,,,ah,,,maybe.

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