NFL Excuses Run Out After Ratings Declines Continue

[Eleazar]

NFL's Litany of Excuses Runs Out After Ratings Fall for Second Year

By Lucas Shaw
Bloomberg.com
November 2, 2017, 11:30 AM CDT



TV networks are running out of excuses for the dwindling popularity of the National Football League.

They blamed the election for ratings declines last year, and hurricanes for a soft week one in September. Protests during the national anthem, and President Donald Trump’s criticism of the league, have faded from the headlines.

Advertisers are starting to believe a different explanation: the viewers aren’t coming back. Audiences are down an average 7 percent from a year ago through the first eight weeks of the season, excluding last Monday. That’s on top of a decrease of about 8 percent last season that spurred numerous changes in the broadcasts, from shorter commercials to better matchups earlier in the year.

“There’s just not as many people watching TV the way they used to watch TV,” said Jeremy Carey, managing director of Optimum Sports, a sports marketing agency. “It’s going to be an issue for advertisers when they can’t reach a large-scale audience the way they have.”

With CBS Corp., 21st Century Fox Inc. and Walt Disney Co. set to report earnings in the next few days, analysts are bound to raise questions. These companies have used the popularity of the games to extract additional fees from cable operators, promote other shows on their networks and sell lots of commercials. Pro football games drew about $3.5 billion in ad spending last year, including the postseason, according to SMI Media Inc.

Media companies have spent billions of dollars on the right to air football games, which had been immune to the erosion of viewership for other TV programming. Audiences for TV networks have diminished for years as the growing popularity of online alternatives Netflix and YouTube and the availability of most shows on-demand have reduced the appeal of dramas and comedies. Live TV, like sports, was supposed to be immune, but that theory looks highly questionable now.

Ratings for the NFL suggest the same societal trends are now affecting the league, even if the declines aren’t as dramatic. The drop in game viewership ranges from 5 percent for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” to 11 percent for the CBS Sunday package. “Monday Night Football,” on Disney’s ESPN, has attracted more fans this year than a year ago, but the numbers are still down from 2015.

Viewership of the four main broadcast networks fell 8.7 percent last year, and 12 percent among adults 18 to 49, an important demographic for advertisers.

CBS’s 11 percent slump for NFL games is the steepest of the networks. Its parent company, which reports earnings after the close Thursday, is more vulnerable than rivals to the trend because the vast majority of its earnings come from the broadcast network. The declines at CBS reinforce a complaint that has gotten louder and louder in recent weeks: The league got greedy in adding the Thursday night game on broadcast.

Reserving top games for Thursday night robbed other time periods of good match-ups. After a nosedive in ratings at “Monday Night Football” last season, the league has scheduled better games for that time period, further damaging Sunday afternoon.

“Ratings declines on both general entertainment and NFL programming could be the single biggest point of focus for investors this quarter, and we’re not sure what media companies can say about the health and tone of the ad market to assuage fears,” Steven Cahall, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note last month.

Viewership is dropping fast among people under 54 -- a key demographic for advertisers -- and even faster among those 18 to 34. Audiences for games on CBS, NBC and Fox have slid at least 10 percent among that younger cohort.

Advertisers aren’t abandoning the NFL, one of the only places they can still reach more than 10 million people at once. But they are growing concerned. John Schnatter, who appears in TV spots on behalf of his Papa John’s Pizza International Inc., laid into the league on a conference call this week, blaming the ratings for his company’s slow revenue growth and calling for the league to put an end to player protests.

Networks and other advertisers identify a wide range of reasons for the NFL’s struggles. The league has overexposed itself by making highlights available on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat. Identifiable stars like Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers have either retired or gotten hurt. The quality of play has deteriorated. Player protests and concussions have driven away some fans.

Some executives argue viewership of the league has still improved over the long term while dropping for every other show. Yet the amount of time people have spent watching football this season is at the lowest point since 2011, back when there were fewer televised games, according to Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ head of research.

“The cumulative effect of everything happening in the world at large is having an impact on NFL viewership,” Mulvihill said. “ The league was defying the laws of gravity.”

[SuperBowl4]

Originally Posted by -King-

Name one sport whose ratings didn't go down.

I don't get why people are trying to make it just the NFLs problem as if other leagues aren't seeing falling ratings. I don't understand why no one is mentioning the rise of DVR and cord cutting/streaming as the major cause for falling ratings. I've watched every single Monday night genre this season and all of them were by stream.

Until they figure out a new metric for ratings, we're going to keep seeing falling ratings for tv shows, especially live events
Posted via Mobile Device

Curling

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Pretty much, any tv stat out there will tell you the NFL is still a ratings juggernaut it's just not what it once was because nothing is. People streaming, using the net for everything, and honestly a different generation have changed tv viewership in general.

When you consider this.

In 2017 the NFL alone accounted for 71 of the year's 100 most-watched telecasts. In 2007 that figure was 22 of 100.

That's Nielsen data from 18-49 year olds. TV viewing in general is down but you factor this in, NFL was down 9%. Linear networks down 16% cable nets down 11%.

How can anyone say that the NFL is the issue? Are there things I don't like, yea there are but overall more people are watching their stuff than anything else. Does that mean every tv show has a problem cause all ratings are ****ing down.

What the numbers show is that people are watching T.V mostly FOR sports.

While T.V ratings decline across the board, Pro Sports are gobbling up more and more of the market.

Essentially, the only reason people even have cable T.V anymore is so that they can watch sports.

Which makes sense considering EVERYTHING else they want to watch is available via streaming.

[Strongside]

Until these ****ing morons realize that people are still watching – just in different ways that are not rating-traceable or tracker-friendly, they'll continue to see their numbers decrease.

People are cutting the cord. It's not just to save costs, it's to avoid advertising. As a guy that works in the ad industry, I can say that, if nothing else, this is an exciting time that's forcing us to reinvent how we advertise brands to the masses. TV as we knew it just a decade ago is all but dead.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

Ratings way down for NFL opener
Posted by Michael David Smith

September 7, 2018, 10:04 AM EDT



The NFL’s opening Thursday night game got disappointing TV ratings for a league that is battling perceptions of rapidly declining popularity.

NBC announced a 13.4 overnight rating for the Super Bowl champion Eagles’ last-second win over the Falcons. That was way down from the 14.6 for Chiefs-Patriots last year, which itself was way down from a 16.5 for Panthers-Broncos the year before, which itself was way down from a 17.7 for Steelers-Patriots the year before that.

Are there extenuating circumstances? Sure. Kickoff was delayed by almost an hour because of thunderstorms in Philadelphia, and the game was a sloppy, penalty-filled mess.

But there are only so many times that the NFL can spin its ratings decline as being the result of extenuating circumstances. Whatever the reasons, the league’s television ratings are not the juggernaut they once were. The NFL still gets national television ratings that any other sport (or, for that matter, any entertainment program) would kill for, but it no longer gets the kinds of television ratings it got a few years back.

-----

Last night’s game is not only down from last year, but 2016, 2015 and 2014 – all of which saw successive declines.

It was the worst total audience an opening game has had since 2009.

I was running a hockey practice until 8:30 so would have missed most of the delayed 1st half anyway, but when I got home and remembered a game was on, I also remembered that I'm trying my best to negatively impact the NFL's numbers so they do a better job controlling their employees' on-field antics in support of non-issues, so I didn't bother flipping to it.

But it sounds like it was a good game.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Until these ****ing morons realize that people are still watching – just in different ways that are not rating-traceable or tracker-friendly, they'll continue to see their numbers decrease.

People are cutting the cord. It's not just to save costs, it's to avoid advertising. As a guy that works in the ad industry, I can say that, if nothing else, this is an exciting time that's forcing us to reinvent how we advertise brands to the masses. TV as we knew it just a decade ago is all but dead.

Actually cord cutting makes it easier to keep track of how many people are watching. Part of what I do with myself these days is run marketing for our dealership group, and when I look at traditional TV and cable, compared to OTT (people who have cut the cord) its night and day on my ability to quantify what kind of ROI we are getting from our advertising. If you are cord cut, whatever service you use to watch (aside from pirating) is 100% tracked down to every data point they can extract. I can see who watched our commercials, and if they then in turn went to our website, clicked on the commercial, etc etc. Every behavior you exhibit online is sold to marketers who can track down to specific ids (individuals) what you are doing on the internet.

Its a little bit scary. You being in the Ad business I'm sure yo know what im talking about. Even the no-ad services the NFL sells are directly tied to rating reports.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Are you really going to sit here and pretend that online streaming and cord cutting isn't on the rise?

The numbers are clear as ****ing day if you pull your head out of your ass.

T.V ratings are declining across the board. Times change. Society changes.

Old technology such as television are not immune to it.

Meanwhile, the NFL STILL dominates the T.V market.

You so, so badly want this to be about Kaep just so you can feel like conservatives won something. Sad, sad little man.

That's why NBA ratings are at a 4 year high.

I am not a conservative. Give me good old school blue dog Democrat and I will vote for them all day. It's this Democratic party today I am against.

[billyreynolds]

Boring game last night. Bad refereeing, and pouring down rain to start. Same Atlanta Falcons chokers. Foles doing himself no favors....maybe he isn't that good.

[BigCatDaddy]

A whole lot of denial going on here. Listen listen listen, Linda.. it is ok if others choose to boycott and it has an effect. You can still enjoy the game if you wish to. Their impact should not effect your ability to enjoy the game one bit.

[JakeF]

People that have boycotted the NFL are certainly spending a lot of time talking about the NFL.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

That's why the NBA TV ratings are at a 4 year high. Don't stop believing.

So literally one exception?
Posted via Mobile Device

[rabblerouser]

Originally Posted by billyreynolds

Boring game last night. Bad refereeing, and pouring down rain to start. Same Atlanta Falcons chokers. Foles doing himself no favors....maybe he isn't that good.

Ratings will continue to decline if they keep putting steaming piles of what we saw last night on the air.

I'd rather watch pro wrestling.

[BigCatDaddy]

Originally Posted by -King-

So literally one exception?
Posted via Mobile Device

The most comparable.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Hoover

Yeah, but its more of a viewing behavior issue, its not really just an NFL issue.

This

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by billyreynolds

Boring game last night. Bad refereeing, and pouring down rain to start. Same Atlanta Falcons chokers. Foles doing himself no favors....maybe he isn't that good.

The only thing hurting the NFL, is the NFL.

[Fish]

Imagine that....