Quote:
Originally Posted by Sorce
For me it comes down to a lot of the things already mentioned.
|
And yet the Chiefs ratings are up this year more than 5%, bucking the national trend.
The reason for the decline in ratings is as follows:
1. 2014 was the NFL's ratings peak and most insiders knew that the decline was going to happen at some point in the near future.
2. Mobile watching is a real factor. Twitter paid $50 million to stream Thursday night games last year, Amazon paid $50 million this year. Verizon offers every NFL game via their service so people are watching on phones and tablets.
3. Streaming, illegal and legal, has taken a chunk of viewers from traditional watching to new age.
4. Red Zone TV is a huge factor. Why watch a single game when you can watch scoring plays as they happen?
5. NFL Game Mix: Similar to above. When the Chiefs aren't playing, I'll generally have Game Mix on with the sound muted so I can keep an eye on all of the day's action.
6. Bad big market/popular teams. It's no secret that when the Giants, Jets, Cowboys, Redskins and Packers suck, the ratings are down. The Chargers ratings are abysmal and aren't even being counted. The Bay Area's ratings are off as well, which shouldn't be surprising when they host 0-8 and 3-4 teams.
Mobile and streaming numbers aren't included in the Nielsen ratings, which definitely accounts for more than a few percent. Until Nielson or some other company can track streams, the ratings will likely be off.
But again, the sky isn't falling. There isn't a single program that can haul 20+ million viewers per episode these days, let alone, 26 million, as some NFL games have this season.