NFL TV ratings

[JDSmith]

I was switching back and forth between the games, i wonder how the ratings account for people who were doing that?

It doesn't, because the ratings are collected using 1940's methodology. There are 5000 boxes in the US connected to TV's and feeding Neilsen, those people agreed to be part of the ratings system. They press a 'watching' button when they start watching and a 'not watching' button when they are done, the box collects data on what's on the TV at that time. So if one of those 5000 people were doing that, they'd get the data. But outside of that, no dice.

 

[JDSmith]

I have people at my work who have specifically stopped watching because of the anthem BS.

That's interesting. I was wondering if anyone actually knew people who'd stopped watching, and what their reasons were.

 

[erod]

So were the coddled millionaires always rich? Didn't Dez and other players use to be dirt poor? And because they are now rich means they have to be disconnected from unjust social issues? Maybe you're the one who should shut up, because if anyone sounds like a blockhead it is you.

Did Dez kneel? No, he did not.

The TV ratings say it all.

 

[adbutcher]

The anthem issue is meaningless to the ratings and is just brought up by fans who don't agree with the issue

Ratings are down due to poor product and continued idiotic attempts by the NFL to play games in more and more days

This is a historic and very competitive WS and will have great ratings

In addition, ratings are down because the NFL insistence of appealing to millennials, women, and fantasy football while ostracizing diehard fans.

Millennials are more interested in super bowl commercials or the half time show instead of watching the actual game. When I mentioned women, I mean a category of women. There are plenty of women that fall in the diehard football category. However, there are plenty who see sitting in front of a TV from 10am to 11pm as a complete waste of time. My wife would go crazy if she had to watch football for that long. Also, my wife has two favorite teams, the Saints and the Cowboys. I find it appalling to root for anyone other than the cowboys. Also, she has zero problems going to shop for shoes when the game is on. Fantasy football players don't need to watch the game to play. They just need a feed for scores and stats, all can be achieved via apps on their mobile devices.

Good morning football is the worst thing to happen to football coverage. Every time I hear the intro, my eye twitches and I feel like dry heaving.

Couple the aforementioned with the plethora of penalties, over saturation of the product, the lack of celebrations, and the feeling of outcome manipulation; the ratings will continue to drop until the NFL restore the sense of fairness and starting appealing to the fans that brought them this far.

 

[shabazz]

No problem
Don't watch the game next week

They haven't been. That's the point of this thread

 

[romothesavior]

I think a lot of you underestimate how big this Cubs World Series thing is. It is a huge, huge deal here in the Midwest. Everyone I know (even big football fans) were watching the WS last night.

 

[visionary]

In addition, ratings are down because the NFL insistence of appealing to millennials, women, and fantasy football while ostracizing diehard fans.

Millennials are more interested in super bowl commercials or the half time show instead of watching the actual game. When I mentioned women, I mean a category of women. There are plenty of women that fall in the diehard football category. However, there are plenty who see sitting in front of a TV from 10am to 11pm as a complete waste of time. My wife would go crazy if she had to watch football for that long. Also, my wife has two favorite teams, the Saints and the Cowboys. I find it appalling to root for anyone other than the cowboys. Also, she has zero problems going to shop for shoes when the game is on. Fantasy football players don't need to watch the game to play. They just need a feed for scores and stats, all can be achieved via apps on their mobile devices.

Good morning football is the worst thing to happen to football coverage. Every time I hear the intro, my eye twitches and I feel like dry heaving.

Couple the aforementioned with the plethora of penalties, over saturation of the product, the lack of celebrations, and the feeling of outcome manipulation; the ratings will continue to drop until the NFL restore the sense of fairness and starting appealing to the fans that brought them this far.

Good points
I agree

 

[unionjack8]

Question. why is the anthem played before every game?

 

[visionary]

They haven't been. That's the point of this thread

No way, really?

 

[Deep_South]

I just don't turn on the games until they have actually started, so I miss the "protests", if there still are any. In any case, TV ratings for the new season are down around 10% year over year across the board, which is very similar to the NFL drop. It seems that, in general, people are just watching or doing something else all of a sudden, and no one seems to know why. Goodell said they haven't lost any fans, but those fans are watching fewer games.

 

[UDcowboysfan]

Stuff like the anthem issue means a lot to some casual fans. And people are really tired of the social issue lectures, the overblown marketing taking over, the rules, the commercials.....

And the product is bad because these guys almost never practice anymore. There's about 3-4 good teams. The rest are absolute crap.

I personally don't think its the anthem at all, more all the entertainment options available now. People could be watching all the other sunday night programming(hbo, walking dead, netflix). I really think Marc Cuban nailed it, "pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered). We now have college games, TNF, up to 4 games on sunday, SNF, MNF.....I personally don't feel the need to watch all of them. I could miss a few of them and just follow on twitter while i'm out and about. Just my own thoughts so I could be way off base. I also heavily agree that the product is not what it used to be, they don't practice as much and it shows.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

The anthem thing is silly all around. To me, the ratings decline has more to do with a tarnished product and absurdly subjective officiating. When they trot out Mike Pierra to justify a call, it comes off as disingenuous because the subjectivity of the rules is such that you can justify any flag. The real issue is whether or not the games are being officiated evenly.

 

[superonyx]

People who stop watching the NFL because a football player kneels during the national anthem are thin-skinned morons.

Or most likely liars who never planned to watch anyway and felt they could make a statement when asked why they are not watching.
No fan is going to decide not to watch yet be perfectly ok watching Negan bash 2 peoples heads in on national tv with skin and skull hanging from his bat (walking dead reference).

 

[Jstopper]

Did Dez kneel? No, he did not.

The TV ratings say it all.

Does Dez speak for every player? No he doesn't. If you stop watching the games over kneeling you weren't a real fan to begin with. Especially trying to apply a military angle to the protests when it has NOTHING to do with the military

 

[John813]

Or most likely liars who never planned to watch anyway and felt they could make a statement when asked why they are not watching.
No fan is going to decide not to watch yet be perfectly ok watching Negan bash 2 peoples heads in on national tv with skin and skull hanging from his bat (walking dead reference).

I don't see the correlation, tbh.

I will say I notice the same people who are upset over the kneeling are the same who complain about the world becoming too PC/complaining about everything. Yet, they are flipping out over some dudes kneeling during an anthem that isn't shown on TV.

 

[shabazz]

What does liberalism have to do with a persons desire to watch the Commanders vs the bengals?
So you mean to tell me that most people watching football are actually conservatives foolish enough to vote against their own self interest?
Why exactly?

Plenty, I would have to drink liberal amounts of alcohol to watch those two crap teams. Additionally the term R*******s is a derogatory term that is insensitive to Native Americans

 

[JDSmith]

I have close friends who flat out told me at the beginning of the year they aren't watching any NFL games this year because if the anthem issue. Seems they aren't alone.

Do they still have fantasy football teams?

 

[erod]

Does Dez speak for every player? No he doesn't. If you stop watching the games over kneeling you weren't a real fan to begin with. Especially trying to apply a military angle to the protests when it has NOTHING to do with the military

I'm just telling you why a lot of people are tuning out.

Baseball never beats football, especially a game like that. Last night, it did.

 

[JJHLH1]

Do they still have fantasy football teams?

I don't think they ever had fantasy football teams. They are just ordinary people who like football, particularly TCU. I was surprised when they said they were boycotting the NFL.

Another reason I think ratings are down is that people are doing other things besides watching tv, or at least cable tv. ESPN is losing 3 million subscribers a year, and this has been going on for quite a while. Last month alone ESPN lost 621,000 subscribers, the worst month in the history of the company. People are cutting the cable cord left and right, and for good reason. It's pretty foolish to spend $1200 each year for cable these days when so much content is available for free.

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/e...cribers-worst-month-in-company-history-102916

 

[JDSmith]

I don't think they ever had fantasy football teams. They are just ordinary people who like football, particularly TCU. I was surprised when they said they were boycotting the NFL.

Another reason I think ratings are down is that people are doing other things besides watching tv, or at least cable tv. ESPN is losing 3 million subscribers a year, and this has been going on for quite a while. Last month alone ESPN lost 621,000 subscribers, the worst month in the history of the company. People are cutting the cable cord left and right, and for good reason. It's pretty foolish to spend $1200 each year for cable these days when so much content is available for free.

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/e...cribers-worst-month-in-company-history-102916

I agree about cutting cable. The interesting thing is that I don't believe viewing of NFL games is actually down by much, if at all. But anyone who cut the cable, and watches through any other method than a set top box, will not show up in the ratings. So every time there is a game and there are multiple threads here where people are looking for ways to stream (and it happens weekly) and they get directed to reddit where there are dozens of threads about streaming the games, none of those people count per Nielsen.

Someone else mentioned that ratings in general are down roughly 10 percent from a year ago. I think that's because people are watching in ways outside of the prescribed Nielsen box.

I do find it interesting that you actually know people who used to watch and stopped. I think that is much more relevant than anonymous polls with potentially loaded questions, or an antiquated data collection service like Nielsen.