The NFL Ratings Decline Problem

[Rav'n Maniac]

13 hours ago, MTRavensFan said:

Agreed.

Parity, free agency, and ridiculously low salary cap in relation to QB's going rates, all adds up to team's (like us) inability to retain fan favorites.  Too much movement in FA for the casual fan to keep up with.  Double the cap,  enable teams to retain more homegrown players, fans might become more invested. 

I agree wholeheartedly. Here are my thoughts that I posted in the Williams' article.

"Imo, the whole problem with not being able to retain players for a 2nd contract is because the salary cap has not increased enough to match the increase in players salaries.

The NFL sets the salary base of good players annually with a value assigned to player positions under the franchise tag. If you use those 2016 values for 1 starting player at each position, you would have to spend $144.98m. That's 1 of each QB, RB, WR, OL, TE, DL, LB, CB, S and K. The salary cap for 2016 is only 155.2m.

How could that possibly work and still be able to field a team. It obviously can't and the NFL wants to understand why their ratings keep dropping. This is part of that reason."

[BmoreBird22]

16 hours ago, MTRavensFan said:

Agreed.

Parity, free agency, and ridiculously low salary cap in relation to QB's going rates, all adds up to team's (like us) inability to retain fan favorites.  Too much movement in FA for the casual fan to keep up with.  Double the cap,  enable teams to retain more homegrown players, fans might become more invested. 

I don't think they need to double the cap; I think they need to shrink it and set salary maxes like the NBA. 

Doubling it only means we'll keep seeing insane contracts because agents will see more opportunity. 

Set a contract limit and this may be resolved.

[usmccharles]

8 hours ago, Moderator 3 said:

I think a better way would be to set up a "cap discount" for re-signing your own players.  

That's a good idea.  The NBA I think has a good blueprint

[Willbacker]

22 hours ago, MTRavensFan said:

Agreed.

Parity, free agency, and ridiculously low salary cap in relation to QB's going rates, all adds up to team's (like us) inability to retain fan favorites.  Too much movement in FA for the casual fan to keep up with.  Double the cap,  enable teams to retain more homegrown players, fans might become more invested. 

Double the cap?? Maybe but then expect pay per view.

8 hours ago, Moderator 3 said:

I think a better way would be to set up a "cap discount" for re-signing your own players.  

This is a great idea. Even if its only a mil per player and it should be per year( the length of contract). Did I already tell you I like this idea?

[Inqui]

11 hours ago, Moderator 3 said:

I think a better way would be to set up a "cap discount" for re-signing your own players.  

I like a system where you can designate one of the players you initially drafted and make them the last contract you sign (kinda like a June 1 cut) and go over the cap with that contract - like in the NBA.

But as to the ratings, as someone else said it may be wortg waiting for the rest of the season to see if there's actually a problem. If it's still down once the POTUS race and World Series are both long gone, it's more a question worth asking.

[JO_75]

12 hours ago, Moderator 3 said:

I think a better way would be to set up a "cap discount" for re-signing your own players.  

NFLPA would never go for that.

[Inqui]

28 minutes ago, JO_75 said:

NFLPA would never go for that.

A team's cap figure and what a team actually pays the players are completely different figures. There are lots of ways players can get hashtagpaid and not make a big dent on a cap figure.

[MTRavensFan]

52 minutes ago, JO_75 said:

NFLPA would never go for that.

I think what Mod3 is suggesting is being able to pay homegrown players extra $ that would not count against the cap.

All of these are excellent ideas that revolve around the same concept - keeping fan favorites at home, and paying them more money, while keeping all 32 teams competitive through the current draft process. Kind of like an expansion of the franchise tag.

NFL fans are an intensely loyal bunch. It's what they want.

[FlocksGottaFeed]

Truth of the matter for the ratings decline is not very simple at all. It's multifaceted.

1. Deflate-gate - Went on for over a year and sucked-up NFL fan interest til the well went dry. In-Season to Off-Season to In-Season. For what?
2. Hall of Fame Game - The one that never happened. Fans are creatures of habit. Sure most HOF games are barely watchable, but we wait the entire off-season to get there. It's tradition...sheeezz. No season begins without it...until now. We deserve better and if the NFL doesn't find it's opening game to be important enough...than why should we be excited about anything following that 'bush' league garage?
3. Technology - We don't watch 'one' football game to it's duration in front of the tube in the living room anymore. Playstation, Ruko, Smart Phones, Sports Bars, PCs, etc. We watch as many games as we can while switching back-and-forth to avoid commercials and boredom during slow games.
4. Fantasy - Yes, the NFL did it to itself pushing it out there with multi-million dollar ad campaigns before once thinking, "How are we going to increase viewership when the fans have less interest in teams and more interest in individual stats?". That happened.
5. And last, but not least - This has been the most watched election cycle in history brandishing, obscenely record numbers of viewers. All other ratings outside of football have suffered equally.

That said, it has very little to do with any players. It has more to do with the under-performance of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with very little foresight or intellectual fortitude to build their product and keep fans engaged while doing so. The NFL dropped the ball. Nobody else. 

 

[Moderator 3]

I found this article that suggests the ratings decline is related to the poor quality of the games.  I have to agree since I know I've switched off a number of games due to absolute suckitude.

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

What's wrong with the NFL? Sloppy play has many roots

http://usat.ly/2eW9jQK

 

[atomicfront]

On 11/1/2016 at 0:52 PM, PurpleHorseman said:

Karpernicks political agenda is hurting the ratings for sure. Of course if you disagree with him you are turned off the game. But even people that agree with him, watch football for entertainment. To escape all the political talk. And he is pushing that on people. He is at work. His crusade should be on his own time. What would happen if anybody else took their political agenda to work? Even if you agree with him, who wants to see that and hear about the backlash while trying to enjoy a football game with friends and family. Football brings people together.

 

Yeah he is making 25 percent of the country angry at the NFL.  If he doesn't want to stand for the Anthem he should stay in the locker room until it is over.  I really don't really care whether he wants to stand for the anthem or not.  But it is hurting the game.  The NFL is sitting still while they destroy their brand.  And the other 75 percent are going to decrease because one thing people like about the NFL is discussing the games with others at work the next day. If your co-workers aren't talking about the game on Monday morning you might lose interest as well.  I have no idea why the league is allowing this to continue. 

[atomicfront]

10 hours ago, FlocksGottaFeed said:

Truth of the matter for the ratings decline is not very simple at all. It's multifaceted.

1. Deflate-gate - Went on for over a year and sucked-up NFL fan interest til the well went dry. In-Season to Off-Season to In-Season. For what?
2. Hall of Fame Game - The one that never happened. Fans are creatures of habit. Sure most HOF games are barely watchable, but we wait the entire off-season to get there. It's tradition...sheeezz. No season begins without it...until now. We deserve better and if the NFL doesn't find it's opening game to be important enough...than why should we be excited about anything following that 'bush' league garage?
3. Technology - We don't watch 'one' football game to it's duration in front of the tube in the living room anymore. Playstation, Ruko, Smart Phones, Sports Bars, PCs, etc. We watch as many games as we can while switching back-and-forth to avoid commercials and boredom during slow games.
4. Fantasy - Yes, the NFL did it to itself pushing it out there with multi-million dollar ad campaigns before once thinking, "How are we going to increase viewership when the fans have less interest in teams and more interest in individual stats?". That happened.
5. And last, but not least - This has been the most watched election cycle in history brandishing, obscenely record numbers of viewers. All other ratings outside of football have suffered equally.

That said, it has very little to do with any players. It has more to do with the under-performance of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with very little foresight or intellectual fortitude to build their product and keep fans engaged while doing so. The NFL dropped the ball. Nobody else. 

 

 

All those things existed last year. None of them explain the dramatic decrease this year.  It is clearly the Anthem protests.  but for some reason people try and search for other reasons. 

[Inqui]

10 hours ago, atomicfront said:

 

All those things existed last year. None of them explain the dramatic decrease this year.  It is clearly the Anthem protests.  but for some reason people try and search for other reasons. 

Yeah, the Presidential race and cancelled HoF game did nothing to the ratings last year.

[RaineV1]

On 11/2/2016 at 10:49 AM, BmoreBird22 said:

I don't think they need to double the cap; I think they need to shrink it and set salary maxes like the NBA. 

Doubling it only means we'll keep seeing insane contracts because agents will see more opportunity. 

Set a contract limit and this may be resolved.

Yeah. Doubling the salary cap would just lead to doubling the size of contracts.

11 hours ago, atomicfront said:

 

Yeah he is making 25 percent of the country angry at the NFL.  If he doesn't want to stand for the Anthem he should stay in the locker room until it is over.  I really don't really care whether he wants to stand for the anthem or not.  But it is hurting the game.  The NFL is sitting still while they destroy their brand.  And the other 75 percent are going to decrease because one thing people like about the NFL is discussing the games with others at work the next day. If your co-workers aren't talking about the game on Monday morning you might lose interest as well.  I have no idea why the league is allowing this to continue. 

The NBA has plenty of players that publicly speak out on social issues that can be seen as controversial. It doesn't hurt their ratings.

[atomicfront]

11 hours ago, RaineV1 said:

Yeah. Doubling the salary cap would just lead to doubling the size of contracts.

The NBA has plenty of players that publicly speak out on social issues that can be seen as controversial. It doesn't hurt their ratings.

Different demographic of fans between NFL and NBA. 

[FlocksGottaFeed]

On 11/3/2016 at 8:47 AM, Moderator 3 said:

I found this article that suggests the ratings decline is related to the poor quality of the games.  I have to agree since I know I've switched off a number of games due to absolute suckitude.

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

What's wrong with the NFL? Sloppy play has many roots

http://usat.ly/2eW9jQK

 

Thanks. That is some good information. The quality of play does have a lot to do with it, but for football purist like Warren Moon and all of us - the quality of play has been in decline for over 2 decades. Even with a poor play  and officiating last year the NFL had record ratings.

I like most of what the SI article suggested - http://www.si.com/nfl/photo/2016/10/20/nfl-television-ratings-decline-causes

They rank it this way:

1. The Election
2. Lack of Star Match-ups
3. Oversaturation - TNF must go
4. National Anthem Protest - I'd move to the very bottom
5. New Generational Youth Disconnection - They have different interest.
6. Officials
7. Fantasy Sports Poor Planning - " DFS almost certainly helped inflate the ratings to record highs last season, and legislative action limiting FanDuel and DraftKings in many states, plus the end of the daily ad blitz has cut into that boost this year. Fans who have money riding on certain games are more engaged and will watch more. " This is what you call a multi-billion dollar corporation 'brain-fart'. Ok?
8. The Cubs and Indians Historic Run
9. Twerking Ban - No Fun League
10. Concussions

The only thing that I would change is to add the season 'launch' that didn't happen (HOF Game). How do you start a season like that and expect it to not affect anything? The NFL also hit a 50 year Landmark Season and gave nothing back to the fan base (ticket reductions, favorite team packages (example - I just want to purchase my team's (Ravens) entire season , not the whole league), a simple National Fan Thank You Tour, reduce streaming rates, etc.

Last season the NFL got caught exploiting veterans for profit. There can't be anything more polarizing or controversial than that. Nothing. And yet, it didn't affect viewership at all last season. The NFL just dropped the ball...no one else. No forward thinking or actions to provide a better product and compete in future markets.

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by FlocksGottaFeed
typos

[RaineV1]

I think how slow the game gets at times also hurts it. The refs constantly have to discuss things, tons of flags, the time is always stopping due to the large number of passes, and there are too many commercial breaks (come back from commercial, team kicks a field goal, go to commercial, team does kick off, go to commercial again).

[Willbacker]

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 9:18 PM, Inqui said:

Yeah, the Presidential race and cancelled HoF game did nothing to the ratings last year.

Presidential race happens every 4 yrs. Ratings didn't drop during those other yrs. The Hof game? Are we being serious?

I listen to a lot of radio and a lot of people said they weren't watching the NFL cuz of players kneeling cuz they found it disrespectful. Are they lying? Are they a farce? The NFL didn't change that much in one year for that kind of drop.

[Inqui]

7 hours ago, Willbacker said:

Presidential race happens every 4 yrs. Ratings didn't drop during those other yrs. The Hof game? Are we being serious?

I listen to a lot of radio and a lot of people said they weren't watching the NFL cuz of players kneeling cuz they found it disrespectful. Are they lying? Are they a farce? The NFL didn't change that much in one year for that kind of drop.

I thought it was obvious I was being sarcastic on that one, but since it seems I have to spell out what I think I'll quote an earlier post:

On 11/3/2016 at 0:24 PM, Inqui said:

But as to the ratings, as someone else said it may be worth waiting for the rest of the season to see if there's actually a problem. If it's still down once the POTUS race and World Series are both long gone, it's more a question worth asking.

I went looking for the Colin Cowherd explanation @usmccharles mentioned and found this, which I'm pretty sure is it: http://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/onair/the-herd-with-colin-cowherd-56804/presidential-election-tainting-nfl-ratings-not-15126002/

Essentially he's arguing that the ratings dip every four years, and they've been down across the board since like July. Another point he makes is that Fox's ratings have actually been pretty flat, despite having most the teams that have been protesting (49ers, Seahawks if you call that protesting, Panthers) and that CBS has been the hardest hit, also coinciding with Brady being out and Manning having retired. Like I say, personally I'm considering the ratings dip a complete non-issue unless they're also down come the end of the season. The playoff ratings and Super Bowl ratings will be more telling imo, and if they're down in a big way then it's worth asking why.

As to the talkback radio people you mentioned, I'd take that with a heaping pinch of salt. For a start, it's anecdotal evidence (so it's like when I say I'm not watching the non-Ravens games this year because the games have been nearly unwatchable across the board - which is also a sentiment I've seen a lot and the same pinches of salt apply there), and talkback radio and comments sections in general are more geared to showcase who's louder in their opinions than where any actual majority sits - as well as the nature of shows and sites like that often being echo chambers for what usually like-minded people think. It's also that, as Cowherd said, it's pretty common for people to talk a big game about something like that and do something completely different - and studies usually put in an entire control for factors like that, which I won't get into here because it's all boring stats stuff.

So it's possible that's a reason, but I think evidence of that nature is exaggerated at best. As @RaineV1 said, that kinda thing's a pretty common occurrence in the NBA, which hasn't suffered from it in the past. In fact, the NBA just pulled the All-Star Game from Charlotte because of a controversial law being passed in North Carolina.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Inqui

[FlocksGottaFeed]

2 hours ago, Inqui said:

I thought it was obvious I was being sarcastic on that one, but since it seems I have to spell out what I think I'll quote an earlier post:

I went looking for the Colin Cowherd explanation @usmccharles mentioned and found this, which I'm pretty sure is it: http://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/onair/the-herd-with-colin-cowherd-56804/presidential-election-tainting-nfl-ratings-not-15126002/

Essentially he's arguing that the ratings dip every four years, and they've been down across the board since like July. Another point he makes is that Fox's ratings have actually been pretty flat, despite having most the teams that have been protesting (49ers, Seahawks if you call that protesting, Panthers) and that CBS has been the hardest hit, also coinciding with Brady being out and Manning having retired. Like I say, personally I'm considering the ratings dip a complete non-issue unless they're also down come the end of the season. The playoff ratings and Super Bowl ratings will be more telling imo, and if they're down in a big way then it's worth asking why.

As to the talkback radio people you mentioned, I'd take that with a heaping pinch of salt. For a start, it's anecdotal evidence (so it's like when I say I'm not watching the non-Ravens games this year because the games have been nearly unwatchable across the board - which is also a sentiment I've seen a lot and the same pinches of salt apply there), and talkback radio and comments sections in general are more geared to showcase who's louder in their opinions than where any actual majority sits - as well as the nature of shows and sites like that often being echo chambers for what usually like-minded people think. It's also that, as Cowherd said, it's pretty common for people to talk a big game about something like that and do something completely different - and studies usually put in an entire control for factors like that, which I won't get into here because it's all boring stats stuff.

So it's possible that's a reason, but I think evidence of that nature is exaggerated at best. As @RaineV1 said, that kinda thing's a pretty common occurrence in the NBA, which hasn't suffered from it in the past. In fact, the NBA just pulled the All-Star Game from Charlotte because of a controversial law being passed in North Carolina.

@Inqui ur brilliant! I can appreciate the Colin article, as well. The ratings drop...It's truly complex. Good to read your comprehensive thoughts for a complex subject that requires it. Thanks. Agreed. Most likely we'll have to see what ratings look like a week after Nov. 8th to get a clearer evaluation. Ravens should be in 1st place in the division then. That's going to boost my personal ratings.  

[Inqui]

Just now, FlocksGottaFeed said:

@Inqui ur brilliant! I can appreciate the Colin article, as well. The ratings drop...It's truly complex. Good to read your comprehensive thoughts for a complex subject that requires it. Thanks. Agreed. Most likely we'll have to see what ratings look like a week after Nov. 8th to get a clearer evaluation. Ravens should be in 1st place in the division then. That's going to boost my personal ratings.  

Cheers, since writing that post I actually came across another article about the ratings. It's a little heavy but worth reading for those who can power through it: http://foxsportsradio.iheart.com/onair/the-herd-with-colin-cowherd-56804/presidential-election-tainting-nfl-ratings-not-15126002/

The key comparison is that viewerships dropped across all four packages - ABC, ESPN, CBS and Fox - back in 2000 as well, which was obviously during another high-profile election cycle. And I saw elsewhere that this year's Saints-Falcons game got the lowest ratings EVER for MNF despite being a decent-quality rivalry game - it just competed directly with the second debate and predictably got slaughtered. One difference between this year and 2016 is that the World Series was pretty compelling this year, so that won't have helped the NFL for these first few weeks either.

The primetime figures also show sports networks taking big hits in general, but MSNBC, CNN and Fox News thriving. That's only primetime figures, so I'm curious to see whether Cowherd's right about Fox Sports' Sunday figures.

A Fox Sports executive has essentially been saying what I and others have been saying in this thread:

Quote

For his part, Fox Sports’ Mulvihill said he will keep a close eye on the post-election ratings from NFL Thanksgiving Day games and college conference championships.

“Once we get through the election, are we going to see things smooth out? I think that’s possible,” he said. “I’m expecting some normalization once all of this is over.”

As for Kaepernick:

Quote

It’s not just the NFL. The Summer Olympics on NBC were down double digits in viewership from the London Games. ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” posted its lowest viewership average in at least a decade. Six NASCAR races from Aug. 21 to Sept. 25 logged double-digit viewership drops in race-to-race comparisons. Four prime-time UFC telecasts on Fox registered a combined 10 percent viewership drop this year.

Plus, several big events posted record low viewership, including the U.S. Open’s men’s and women’s tennis finals and the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.

As much as some people are upset at him, I don't think he's behind the drop in baseball, NASCAR and UFC.  

[Willbacker]

8 hours ago, Inqui said:

As for Kaepernick:      

Quote

It’s not just the NFL. The Summer Olympics on NBC were down double digits in viewership from the London Games. ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” posted its lowest viewership average in at least a decade. Six NASCAR races from Aug. 21 to Sept. 25 logged double-digit viewership drops in race-to-race comparisons. Four prime-time UFC telecasts on Fox registered a combined 10 percent viewership drop this year.

Plus, several big events posted record low viewership, including the U.S. Open’s men’s and women’s tennis finals and the NCAA men’s basketball championship game.

As much as some people are upset at him, I don't think he's behind the drop in baseball, NASCAR and UFC.  

This last quote does some to validate your point since I didn't know about the drops across the boards like that but you gotta realize patriotism here runs high among some folks (me included altho I never said I was gonna stop watching) but we'll see what happens after the election to get a true feel of this situation and probally have to give it at least a month and that would be including Thanksgiving which is probally the most important day to see whats up

Now lets look at your quote SNB posted lowest viewership rating but by how much? Could be .0001 pt. NASCAR logged double-digit viewership in race to race comparisons. Look at dates NFL season is starting. UFC comparisons are combined but they wrote it in such a way as to make the numbers look high which the media has a way of doing to construe things to the way they want you to understand things. Also NBA fans is a lot smaller fan base than NFL from an earlier post that was made.

Now the thing is the NFL has had a rating drop of what? Ive heard about 24% but this could be off. How much was the ratings drop in 2000 or any other election year?. I haven't looked it up so I really don't know but I highly doubt its as dramatic as this year.

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Willbacker

[52520Andrew]

I think that between the election, the MLB playoffs, and more people getting rid of cable, the drop can be explained. Will be curious to see how things look after the election though. 

[Inqui]

6 hours ago, 52520Andrew said:

I think that between the election, the MLB playoffs, and more people getting rid of cable, the drop can be explained. Will be curious to see how things look after the election though. 

If there's still a drop between Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl, that's probably the first factor I'd be looking to falsify (and I'd bet a lot of [hypothetical, just-for-fun, completely legal] money the TV executives would be doing the same thing). You'd probably want to compare the overall dip in ratings to the overall dip in cable subscriptions.

[Inqui]

9 hours ago, Willbacker said:

This last quote does some to validate your point since I didn't know about the drops across the boards like that but you gotta realize patriotism here runs high among some folks (me included altho I never said I was gonna stop watching) but we'll see what happens after the election to get a true feel of this situation and probally have to give it at least a month and that would be including Thanksgiving which is probally the most important day to see whats up

Now lets look at your quote SNB posted lowest viewership rating but by how much? Could be .0001 pt. NASCAR logged double-digit viewership in race to race comparisons. Look at dates NFL season is starting. UFC comparisons are combined but they wrote it in such a way as to make the numbers look high which the media has a way of doing to construe things to the way they want you to understand things. Also NBA fans is a lot smaller fan base than NFL from an earlier post that was made.

Now the thing is the NFL has had a rating drop of what? Ive heard about 24% but this could be off. How much was the ratings drop in 2000 or any other election year?. I haven't looked it up so I really don't know but I highly doubt its as dramatic as this year.

 

Looks like I used the wrong URL, which was my fault. Here's the article I was quoting: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/10/03/Research-and-Ratings/Ratings.aspx

A publication like that usually targets analysts and industry insiders, so there's a lot more technical writing than you'd see on a site like PFT and that's the market they try to corner as opposed to pushing any narrative that their readers tend to prefer. 

I was actually a little surprised that the most comparable election cycle was 2000 - I thought even 2008 would have logged a mention from insiders - but in fairness this is probably the most unique campaign in history.

I saw a Boston Herald article (that's been archived in the past 24 hours) that mentioned how it's the primetime games that are getting hammered (as you can see in the charts above) and the standard Sunday afternoon ones are down but only slightly (that would corroborate Cowherd's figures that Fox has been pretty steady overall). Which would suggest that people are still tuning in to watch their team play, but it's the casuals and neutrals who are finding other stuff to watch during the primetime slots.

[Inqui]

If anyone's interested, here are the full numbers for the NFL to date (I believe the page gets updated daily). It's hard to get a holistic view of that because some Sunday packages get streamed nationally and others are confined to certain markets and different teams played in different slots at the same point in the previous season. But take out the primetime games (TNF, SNF, MNF) and it actually looks like the Sunday packages have increased in some areas, though reasonably steady if underwhelming sounds like a fair assumption. But like I said above, it's the primetime games the executives are concerned about and you can see why. If you follow the links that site provides you can see what each slot was up against, and I didn't go through and check all of them but I saw two primetime games directly taking on a presidential debate and one taking on a World Series game - and all three NFL games predictably got taken to the cleaners.

It's a few weeks out of date now, but here's a reporter more knowledgeable than myself summarising the numbers. TLDR: Fox was up by 1%, the LA market's underwhelmed (albeit up against baseball), CBS was down 5%, SNF on NBC was down 10% (though 2015 saw huge growth numbers so the figures to date were still on pace with the 2009-2014 growth), MNF was down 19% (welp) and the Saints-Falcons game (up against the first presidential debate) was the lowest-viewed MNF game ever, TNF is down 15% and the first presidential debate would have absolutely hammered last year's AFCCG and NFCCG had they been competing.

Anyway, that's my nerdy rambling over.  

[JO_75]

1 hour ago, Inqui said:

If anyone's interested, here are the full numbers for the NFL to date (I believe the page gets updated daily). It's hard to get a holistic view of that because some Sunday packages get streamed nationally and others are confined to certain markets and different teams played in different slots at the same point in the previous season. But take out the primetime games (TNF, SNF, MNF) and it actually looks like the Sunday packages have increased in some areas, though reasonably steady if underwhelming sounds like a fair assumption. But like I said above, it's the primetime games the executives are concerned about and you can see why. If you follow the links that site provides you can see what each slot was up against, and I didn't go through and check all of them but I saw two primetime games directly taking on a presidential debate and one taking on a World Series game - and all three NFL games predictably got taken to the cleaners.

It's a few weeks out of date now, but here's a reporter more knowledgeable than myself summarising the numbers. TLDR: Fox was up by 1%, the LA market's underwhelmed (albeit up against baseball), CBS was down 5%, SNF on NBC was down 10% (though 2015 saw huge growth numbers so the figures to date were still on pace with the 2009-2014 growth), MNF was down 19% (welp) and the Saints-Falcons game (up against the first presidential debate) was the lowest-viewed MNF game ever, TNF is down 15% and the first presidential debate would have absolutely hammered last year's AFCCG and NFCCG had they been competing.

Anyway, that's my nerdy rambling over.  

That's why I'm curious to see what the ratings will be for this Broncos-Raiders game. Some say, the teams playing and their records are the reason. So if it's the records of the teams playing, then we should see a nice rating for this game considering the AFC West is the most competitive division in the NFL. Both Denver/Oakland have winning records and this game is for first place. Also there is no baseball and no debates going on so no competition on TV to take away from the NFL ratings. 

Edited November 7, 2016 by JO_75

[JO_75]

So not good news, and despite two teams with a winning record and first place on the line in the division. Sunday Night Football saw a 20% decline for the Broncos/Raiders game. The AFC West Battle drew an 11.7 rating, down from the 14.7 SNF Rating in 2015. NFL Ratings have now declined in 26/27 Primetime games. CBS National Window(Packers vs Colts) also down 20% from last year's Broncos/Colts game in the same slot. and FOX singleheader saw a 9% decrease.

No other sport has been effected by the election, so if other sports aren't seeing declines because of the election, the election isn't why the NFL ratings are down. College Football ratings haven't declined and has continued to be strong. I think the NFL reached it's peak and now is on that decline and a lot has to do with the quality of the product on the field, and we can thank Goodell for the lower quality on the field thanks to these unnecessary rules that make playing football impossible without being flagged for it.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/11/07/nfl-tv-ratings-down-significantly-again-in-week-9/

[Willbacker]

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/10/05/nfl-ratings-week-4-boycott-colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protests/

Read some of the emails at the end. This is a week 4 article. A lot of you guys seriously just don't get it and will refuse to do so and just keep looking for other excuses. Parity and bad play have been around a long time. Jeez.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Willbacker

[FlocksGottaFeed]

On 11/7/2016 at 4:17 PM, JO_75 said:

So not good news, and despite two teams with a winning record and first place on the line in the division. Sunday Night Football saw a 20% decline for the Broncos/Raiders game. The AFC West Battle drew an 11.7 rating, down from the 14.7 SNF Rating in 2015. NFL Ratings have now declined in 26/27 Primetime games. CBS National Window(Packers vs Colts) also down 20% from last year's Broncos/Colts game in the same slot. and FOX singleheader saw a 9% decrease.

No other sport has been effected by the election, so if other sports aren't seeing declines because of the election, the election isn't why the NFL ratings are down. College Football ratings haven't declined and has continued to be strong. I think the NFL reached it's peak and now is on that decline and a lot has to do with the quality of the product on the field, and we can thank Goodell for the lower quality on the field thanks to these unnecessary rules that make playing football impossible without being flagged for it.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/11/07/nfl-tv-ratings-down-significantly-again-in-week-9/

Apparently, the NBA and other prime-time sports ratings dropped due to the World Series and this Election, as well. Other media experts for all broadcasting have reported that it's not just the NFL, "The TV industry has moved from being mature with broadcast and cable outlets to a startup with all these streaming options." , as well. Like I said, it's a lot more complicated then some originally.

That said, I do agree that much of the NFL's weak numbers could have been helped by putting a better product out there, having enough foresight to know that the Olympics/Election Year/Streaming Technology/Generational Shifting Interests and elongated baseball season could possibly lower viewership this season. They took no initiative, but billions still will be made by the owners, regardless of this.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/tag/nba-ratings/

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/tag/college-football-ratings/

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/3/13150440/nfl-football-television-viewership-declining

It's Nov. 8th. We'll see where it goes from here.