The NFL's ratings crisis

Matthew Ball of Amazon Studios had a small tweetstorm yesterday about NFL ratings. It was pretty interesting.











Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

Matthew Ball on Twitter

 

Good thoughts. I'm probably part of the last demographic (turned 40 this year) that appreciates the convenience of cable and haven't gotten into the whole cord-cutting thing. I actually think the price I pay for XFinity is fair for everything I get (high speed internet, access to nearly 250 Orioles/Capitals games in HD, full sports HD package, On demand, HBO/Showtime). Then again, I've been a cable subscriber for a while. Went six months without it at one point and found it to be more trouble than it was worth.

 

Over saturation. But even when a game is not on it's all about the NFL on every sports media outlet from August until the SB. And it's treated with the reverence of a religion and the national importance of war coverage.

After 15 years of being hitting on the head with the majesty of the NFL and the arrogance of players and management and games 3 days a week I'm finding that none of it is important anymore. Sunday night killed Monday night. And Thursday is an after thought. If my team isn't playing, I'm not watching.

 

I rarely flip over to "Mike & Mike" anymore. I don't need to hear about the Texans' quarterback depth chart in May.

 

I love the way they treated "CC" cris carter like a god for 3 years. He's fired and it's like he never existed. The shallow benign thoughtless meanderings of 4 hours of tv/radio is really the cause of narcolepsy They make Larry King's USAToday column look like Proust

 

And that's spread out quite a bit thinner than even the NFL. That said, I moved last year from a place where I could get CBC on cable to one where I can't. I miss HNIC. Thinking about putting down the change for Gamecenter but not sure if the Wings are worth paying for and if I'd watch enough of it being on deadline regularly at night now.

I think the concussion angle is valid because it makes it harder maintain that suspension of disbelief. As I noted back at the beginning of the thread (thanks for unpacking that guys, I was a little wound up last night), there was the whole PG-rated violence thing. Realizing that many of the people who are doing this for your entertainment will be irreparably harmed by it is something of a buzzkill.

I think one thing that is worth considering is if all this stuff is just something of a correction. By that, I mean, the NFL has largely tried, over the last 10-15 years, to market the game to people who are not already football fans (thus the pandering to women, foreign audiences, etc.) Is it possible that because of the election, players changing teams, different entertainment options, that the people that the NFL had gotten to check them out for a while just found different things to do? All sports go through boom-and-bust cycles (like NASCAR in the late 90's and 2000s). Maybe this decline is relatively organic in nature.

 

I wonder - and forgive me for not Googling - but are ESPN's ratings down as well? Are all sports TV ratings dropping? And how does the NFL's drop compare to other sports and/or ESPN in general?

 

ESPN home page right now. The top three stories are all about the NFL, with the top one -- the top one -- on power rankings. Oversaturation much?

 

As if. We've been at war for 15 fucking years. How many corespondents are there in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq versus the NFC East alone? How much coverage does our fighting over there get on the news networks versus how much coverage the NFL gets on ESPN and Fox Sports? (Never mind having a dedicated channel with the distribution of NFL Network.)

 

total sports views aren't down. Avg. time spent is.

Huge point that can't be emphasized enough. We check in , but it isn't holding our interest.

My college-attending son, and his roommates rent a house and don't have cable. They stream what the can or go without.

 

I agree with the overkill arguments. And I can't agree enough about replay and how it detracts from the on-field product, both by interrupting scoring drives and, of course, by increasing commercial breaks.

With a son who's played four years of high school football (with one final game this week) and has made several "game day" visits to colleges big and small, I enjoy the high school and college football atmosphere.

An NFL game? I'll never attend another one in person, between the astronomical prices and the intolerable fans who surround you.

 

Excellent point. But dont confuse quantity with quality. NFL coverage is personality driven and surface coverage only. Does anyone ask GMs and HCs during the season about why and when they insert coverage packages on defense? As in hey Harbaugh, the Giants have been killed by the cover-2 in limiting Eli, and his WRs, yet you didn't do it once. Why? Or specifically ask what team A did with a weak left tackle? How many times did you pull your right guard or center to help on the weak side. How many times your TE delayed at the line for an out pattern while your right guard picked up his OLB? No one asks Belichick why he brings his SS to within 5 yards of the line on 17 plays, but he drops back in coverage on 13

And do you really want 47 former staff sergeants second guessing field commanders on CNN, FOX and GoodMorning America? Imagine WWII being prosecuted with the type of coverage the NFL gets today. Some ex-colonel who won 1 battle with someone else's division is now the expert on counter-insuregency?