Interesting Note - NFL TV Ratings and the Future

[Plankton]

This is a snippet from Peter King's latest column on NFL Ratings and a potential issue looming for the league:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/12/21/buffalo-bills-afc-east-nfl-week-15-fmia-peter-king/

9. SpongeBob SquarePants. To quote Wikipedia: “SpongeBob SquarePants is an energetic and optimistic sea sponge who lives in a submerged pineapple with his pet snail Gary, who meows like a cat.” Okay then. The news item of the NFL TV week was that CBS will air a version of a regular playoff game on Wild Card weekend in a kid-themed Nickelodeon telecast. (Nickelodeon and CBS have the same parent company, and Nickeodeon’s highest-rated series ever is SpongeBob SquarePants, and you’ll see vestiges of it woven through this NFL game, somehow.) You’ll be able to watch an alternate feed of the game on Nickelodeon, basically. Or, rather, your kids will. As CBS said, that telecast will be “Nick-ified” by catering to young kids.

It’s cute and an interesting story, but throwing green-slime on the screen during a playoff game has a bigger reason, as someone who knows the NFL and the TV business told me the other day. “The NFL is losing the very young demographic,” this person said. “The kids of this generation aren’t into football the way past generations were, and the theory is that you don’t want to see what happens down the road if 8, 10, 12-year-old kids grow up playing video games and not watching football.” Reaching young people is tough for the NFL, in part because TV is less of a factor in their lives. Nickelodeon is a TV island that can consistently attract the kid demographic. Why does it matter? It may not be a big deal for this round of TV negotiations, which are ongoing. But for the next round, a decade from now? If fourth-graders who don’t watch the NFL become college sophomores who don’t watch the NFL, the league’s going to have a problem with media rights.

 

[maryquality]

Seriously?? Nickelodeon??

 

[John813]

Well hopefully they keep the live mics in check lol

Last thing they need is a slip of a few curse words on Nickelodeon

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I know some parents who will not let their kids play football. Too dangerous and worried about concussions.

I also have not seen young kids in a pickup football game in decades. After school we would get together and play pickup football always. So many 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and if we got real lucky, a 5 on 5 game. Tackle. None of that two hand touch or flag football.

Use to move the sofa and have goal line stands with my brothers.

 

[erod]

Baseball is already dead among the sub-35 crowd.

Basketball ratings are horrible.

The NFL is strong now, but lawsuits and rules are castrating the game. The goal is to kill it for good eventually.

Superheroes will soon only be women.

Young boys are being emasculated before our eyes.

Sports and masculinity in general are being targeted from all angles.

 

[jazzcat22]

I know some parents who will not let their kids play football. Too dangerous and worried about concussions.

I also have not seen young kids in a pickup football game in decades. After school we would get together and play pickup football always. So many 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and if we got real lucky, a 5 on 5 game. Tackle. None of that two hand touch or flag football.

Use to move the sofa and have goal line stands with my brothers.

We played pick up games in baseball, football, basketball depending the time of the season. Same here if we go 5 on 5 football, we considered it great. We had some land across the street where I lived. It was part of a levy bank to the river. So there was a slanted area, about 8 feet long, slope from the street to the flat area. elevated baby 3 or 4 feet. Then a flat area about 15 feet wide, the sloped up the bank.

We could get 5 on 5 easy, and played tackle. If we had 6 or 7, then we use the street, but was 2 hand tap in the street. Sometimes we went to the park half a block up the street. Had 2 baseball fields, then the local catholic high school installed FG posts for their practices. Also had another field, we used as another baseball field. If we had 6 or 7 plays each we often played baseball and any grounders to the right of 2nd base was an out, fly balls bast RC field, same thing.

We could 3 on 3 team basketball in the back yard, but anymore we went up to the school yard.

This was from 5th grade on we did this. When the city redid that area across the street, I think I was around 14, no more football there. They put in. a new sweet line, moved the street over and took away over half of that area to play. But being older, my brothers house had a nice size yard. But now being 17 or 18, 19, too many inquires as people missed worked. We went to 2 hand tap.
We then got together occasionally for football, but still played basketball pick up games. And then we got into leagues and tournaments for softball.

And same, now I never see kids play ball, heck, never see them rides bikes anymore either.

We also used to move furniture and have living room games with my brothers, if too cold out. I have 3 older brothers, as we played sort of slow motion on our knees. LOL.
Same for basketball, we used a nerf ball, and used the lamp shades as the hoop. LOL. Until we got the indoor small hoops.

 

[CouchCoach]

Some feel the popularity and resulting cashflow will continue as if there's no ceiling but I wonder if they thought the same about baseball? And it doesn't have the danger associated with it.

The battle, and it is waged by many combatants, is for our time. TV, the internet, music streamers, video content streamers, video gaming (and do you think these new systems will create more users and time allocated?) and lets not forget family obligations.

When I had a family at home, I was given the choice of college on Saturday or NFL on Sunday but not both unless that involved family. Hell, my Dad got me interested in watching football with him because that's what he wanted to do and that could qualify as "family time". I was an easy sell.

These younger people are a fast moving target with more options than any generation before them and the one thing they've been taught to do better than my generation is to own their own time. They don't bend their time to accommodate an event, they bend the event unless it's live and participatory.

 

[John813]

I'm in my 30's but even 20 years ago in my area it was tough to get friends together and play football. The local basketball court, outdoor roller hockey and baseball fields were open 24/7. But the football/soccer fields they restricted only to organized events only.

Of course we had our summer leagues before high school football but it was tough to get a centralized location to play football among friends.

IMO there's a big shift towards video games for the younger crowd depending on areas. Parents are occupied, too busy to take their kids to fields or go outside and the consoles are an easy way to keep the kid off their back.

Although I think with football being so huge in college, it'll keep football in general as a top dog sport for the time being. Football may drop a bit from the suburbs, but other areas it's still the top way to get out of their way of life.

 

[cowboyblue22]

video games are becoming more and more popular among kids they dont have to run or anything do any work just push buttons

 

[JJHLH1]

I posted about this on the other thread.

One of the biggest problems for the NFL and other sports leagues is that the youngest generation isn’t nearly as interested in sports as previous generations.

Younger people are also less likely to participate in sports themselves, which may be one reason for their lack of interest in spending 3 hours watching a game. It may also explain rising childhood obesity, as more choose gaming over sports.

The age of the average viewer for each of the major leagues has increased from 2000 to 2016. For the NFL it went from 44 to 50.

It will be a major challenge to attract these younger viewers, particularly if they never developed the habit of watching games in their youth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexre...-likely-still-suffer-in-2021/?sh=6653e6c72acf

 

[DFWJC]

Baseball is already dead among the sub-35 crowd.

Basketball ratings are horrible.

The NFL is strong now, but lawsuits and rules are castrating the game. The goal is to kill it for good eventually.

Superheroes will soon only be women.

Young boys are being emasculated before our eyes.

Sports and masculinity in general are being targeted from all angles.

There are certain demographics that are now supposed to apologize for ever even being born.
To some degree, ESPN is backing up that nonsense.

I guess we'll see.
Man, I love the game of football. But it's popularity may have peaked. Or, if not, may be close to it.

 

[CowboyWay]

I have a 10, 15, and 17 year kids. None of them could give a flip about football. Back in my day, it’s all me and my friends played and talked about.

 

[Praxit]

The NFL is strong now, but lawsuits and rules are castrating the game. The goal is to kill it for good eventually.

.

...yep, what you said right there, will kill the NFL. Gordy is such a kiss-***, always finding ways of manipulation to thinking the game is safer, at the same time making football less contact sport.
The roughing passer penalty comes to mind. ITs a game changer, because its 15 big ones and auto 1st down. Then the player gets extra penalized by the NFL. What a bunch of Croc.

 

[Golfzilla77]

The NFL, and college football for that matter, have some real challenges ahead of them. The bizarre rulings on the field concerning pass interference and holding at the line of scrimmage have had an effect. The ridiculous prices they charge for snacks at the game (not to mention the ticket itself) has had an effect. Not being able to take your family to a game without worrying about drunk unruly fans has had an effect. There's even open questions about games even being "fixed" in some instances. But the biggest challenge lies in safety. Now that they've opened Pandora's box and allowed these modern-day gladiators to litigate cash from concussions is major. It's certainly a worthwhile objective to make safety a priority. But concussions, and their long-term effects, are now on the radar at ALL LEVELS. If this game starts getting stunted at the midget league and high school level, watch out! There'll be a ripple effect over the years that will wipe out the league as we know it if that happens.

 

[erod]

Kids today play videogames, look at their phones, and vape. They barely date, and they have almost no interest in a career or building a traditional home life for a family.

Not mine, thankfully, but that's most kids. They're not the least bit interesting or interested in anything.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Baseball is already dead among the sub-35 crowd.

Basketball ratings are horrible.

The NFL is strong now, but lawsuits and rules are castrating the game. The goal is to kill it for good eventually.

Superheroes will soon only be women.

Young boys are being emasculated before our eyes.

Sports and masculinity in general are being targeted from all angles.

Speak for yourself...maybe your young boys are being emasculated but that's not the case for others.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Kids today play videogames, look at their phones, and vape. They barely date, and they have almost no interest in a career or building a traditional home life for a family.

Not mine, thankfully, but that's most kids. They're not the least bit interesting or interested in anything.

Your kids do too you just don't know it lol.

 

[erod]

Speak for yourself...maybe your young boys are being emasculated but that's not the case for others.

I have daughters, and they all were/are/about to be D1 college athletes.

Boys today generally couldn't care less about sports. Only a small fraction do.

Peewee football leagues are drying up. Used to have several big club football teams in DFW. Now there are about 4.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

Speak for yourself...maybe your young boys are being emasculated but that's not the case for others.

You Dak trolls get away with murder here.....

 

[Kaiser]

I know some parents who will not let their kids play football. Too dangerous and worried about concussions.

That's exactly it. Most parents have a ton of options that don't make them worry about long term problems like CTE.

And there are 200 colleges that offer full scholarships in Video Gaming, a fact I'm desperately trying to keep away from my 13 year old and his friends.