NFL numbers a way down this year

[Downunder Dolphan]

Would numbers possibly be down due to media saturation?

Between football being played three days a week (Thursday night, all Sunday & Monday night) plus online streaming maybe it has got to the point where basically it could be competing against itself? It's a far cry from the days of being Sunday & Monday night TV & radio, and that's it.

[DaLittle B]

Real sports with Bryant Gumble's 1st story this month was on the anthem,I found the the Marist poll after the the story seemed to say alot of it.

There is a blurb on the rating from Albert Breer,and the reasons for the ratings decline.
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/06/kyle-shanahan-nfl-coaching-carousel-list-notebook

The 1st of the 4 downs,pretty far down the article.

1. The NFL’s ratings decline merits watching. It’s hard to deny that the league has something to worry about with TV ratings declining significantly in all the primetime windows. To me, I think there are three factors at play, and none that involve the concussion issues or the anthem situation. First, for a number of reasons (massive job turnover in some franchises vs. very little in others), parity isn’t what it once was. Four teams have made the playoffs for five straight seasons, and 10 have missed them five years running. Six have made it and 12 haven’t the past three years in a row. The result: fewer compelling teams. Second, the scarcity issue that Mark Cuban referenced is real—the fact that there was less of the product has been a huge built-in advantage for the NFL forever. More might be less. Third, the younger generation just consumes content differently, and is less likely to sit on the couch for 12 hours to watch games, which the NFL is trying to get out in front of by working with entities like Twitter and Yahoo to stream games.
So how concerned is the NFL? Well, something interesting is happening. We’ve obtained a memo that went out to all 32 teams that reflected that, starting Oct. 12, clubs are subject to a new fine schedule for exceeding the limits on video and any moving content. Those are particularly strict during the 60 minutes leading up to games, and through games, with clubs largely limited to re-posting from the NFL’s own accounts (with some allowance for approved content on Snapchat). The memo says that first time offenders will be fined up to $25,000, a second offense will warrant a fine of up to $50,000, and a third offense will merit a fine of up to $100,000 and loss of rights to post league controlled content. To put that in perspective, Broncos S Darian Stewart was fined $18,231 for his high hit on Cam Newton in the opener. Under this policy, if Denver had posted video of the hit, the team could incur a heavier penalty for a first-time offense. And it’s also interesting that the memo went out last week, rather than during the offseason. The NFL, for their part, says the new enforcement measures are unrelated to the ratings issue, but it is—at least—a sign that the league is being increasingly careful with its most valuable content.

[Heatles]

I'm not sure there's something to the over-saturation aspect or not, but I find myself about done with football by Monday night. With the Thursday night game I watch football 3 of the 4 nights before Monday. Couple that with the fact the Monday night game isn't a premier game and I'm usually not watching.

[Dave Gray]

It's also an election year, so there's a lot of competing daily news coverage and stuff that can steal eyeballs.

[Dolphster]

A lot of the discussion threads here get ludicrous pretty quickly.  But I've really enjoyed the interesting points that both sides of this debate have made in this thread.  Nice work, guys.  My military past and current career as a Fed make me admittedly biased about the flag and the national anthem.  But those of you who have explained why you support protesting during the anthem have given me some things to think about.  I still don't necessarily agree, but you at least got me to listen and understand where you are coming from. 

[fyo]

Two huge games to help boost ratings this season: Highest rated game of the year (so far) was the Cowboys - Steelers game, helped by a huge second half. And the SB rematch on Monday Night was very good as well, 11% better than last years' week 10 MNF game (although that was Viking - 49ers, so hardly the best of matchups).

Now that the election excuse is over, it'll be interesting to see if the ratings spike.

[Phishfan]

Now that the election excuse is over, it'll be interesting to see if the ratings spike.

I don't buy the election affecting the games. I think the matchups and burnout are bigger. They have the Saints and Panthers this week. Normally I might care but this year that isn't very intriguing to me. I only see the Raiders-Chiefs & Dolphins-Jets (possibly Cowboys-Vikings) that I really care to see right now.

[fyo]

^ According to the Herald, ratings for the Dolphins game were pretty low locally, about the same as the rest of the season (12.4, compared to 16.9 last season). That's a bit surprising considering the win streak

As for why ratings are down overall this season, no one really knows. Election might be one part, matchups might be another, competitive games might be a factor (not quite the same as matchups), missing Manning and Brady (for 4 games) could also have contributed, as could saturation.

I don't think saturation is a huge deal (although clearly the number of games shown affects matchups and competitiveness as well), since one would've expected to see at least some impact last season (and there wasn't one).

Personally, I'm actually watching more football this year than I have in the past few (although WAY down from many years ago). I do miss a couple of the "greats" that have retired in the past handful or so years, but I guess the new "greats" will grow on me. Right now just seems sort of like an intermediate period. Assuming Luck is one (and I certainly think he has the potential), Indy really needs to get a team around him, because people (nationally) aren't going to watch the Colts play like crap.

[Dave Gray]

This was a very good week of close games.  Even with the Dolphins playing well, I'm finding it harder and harder to devote an entire day to it.  I almost never watch the night games on Sunday or Monday.  Or Thursday, for that matter.

[Tenshot13]

This was a very good week of close games.  Even with the Dolphins playing well, I'm finding it harder and harder to devote an entire day to it.  I almost never watch the night games on Sunday or Monday.  Or Thursday, for that matter.

Sans Sunday night, I'm with you, and I only watch a little on Sunday nights (unless it's the Dolphins of course).

[Spider-Dan]

And the SB rematch on Monday Night was very good as well, 11% better than last years' week 10 MNF game (although that was Viking - 49ers, so hardly the best of matchups).

The SEA-NE SB rematch was on Sunday night, not Monday night.
Last year's MIN-SF game was the week 1 Monday night game, not week 10.

Do you mean to compare the 2016 week 10 SEA-NE SNF game to the 2015 week 1 MIN-SF MNF game, or the 2016 week 10 CIN-NYG MNF game to the 2015 week 10 HOU-CIN MNF game, or something else entirely?

[fyo]

The SEA-NE SB rematch was on Sunday night, not Monday night.
Last year's MIN-SF game was the week 1 Monday night game, not week 10.

Do you mean to compare the 2016 week 10 SEA-NE SNF game to the 2015 week 1 MIN-SF MNF game, or the 2016 week 10 CIN-NYG MNF game to the 2015 week 10 HOU-CIN MNF game, or something else entirely?

The figure was relative to the game in the same slot last year, so that would be the Cards - Seahawks game. I looked it up at the time on NFL.com, but sadly, the morons who designed the page can't code worth shit (and I can't read), so when I select 2015 in the dropdown and make sure week 10 is highlighted then press go, their snazzy code takes me to week 1, not week 10. Of course.

Anyway, Cards - Seahawks is a better matchup than MIN@SF, but almost certainly still not on par with a SB rematch.

[Spider-Dan]

It's a minor point, but I don't know that I'd apply the term "SB rematch" to teams that were not the last two to meet in that game.  BAL-SF is also a recent SB rematch, and no one would care about that game.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I know this not statistically relevant as a sample size of one.  But this is the first season where absolutely the only games I have watched were the NEP. 

[bsmooth]

Just read where ratings are starting to rebound.