Posted on 12/29/2017 12:11:38 PM PST by EdnaMode
The weekly NFL matchup is still No. 1 on broadcast, but its losses outpace the league's overall TV showings.
Sunday Night Football wrapped another fall at No. 1 on the broadcast networks — but the higher they are, the harder they fall. So the NBC series was among the hardest hit of the NFL's broadcast franchises during another season of ratings declines.
The weekly telecast finished the season with an average 18.2 million viewers tuning in live and a 6.1 rating among adults 18-49. Both of those numbers represent double-digit drops from the previous year, with drops of 10 percent of its audience and 13 percent of its showing in the key demo outpacing overall 2017 declines for the league.
Sunday Night Football's closest broadcast rival among adults 18-49 is another NBC effort: This Is Us. The drama still trails the NFL by a healthy margin; however, with an average 5.1 rating among adults 18-49 with seven days' worth of time-shifting factored in.
Accounting for all primetime NFL showings of the season, Sunday Night Football was not down the most. The biggest year-to-year drops in primetime go to NBC and the NFL Network's shared coverage of Thursday Night Football, which took in an average 14 million viewers and a 4.1 rating in the key demo. The second half of the season's Thursday games dropped 21 percent, year-over-year, among adults 18-49, dipping below a comparatively steady Thursday Night Football showing from CBS (14.1 million viewers; 4.5 rating among adults 18-49) at the top of the season.
The most steady primetime NFL telecast of all was Monday Night Football. Embattled ESPN's weekly NFL game retained 95 percent of its 2016 season showing among adults 18-49 with an average 3.7 rating.
Year-end averages for Sunday Night Football arrived earlier than expected with the league scrapping the planned Dec. 31 finale for this coming weekend. The game, between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, would have been the first NFL game to air in primetime on New Year's Eve in over a decade. But the league shifted it to an earlier time slot to avoid the inevitable tune-out.
A contentious 2017 NFL season comes to an end, either way, this coming weekend. And while full ratings tallies aren't yet available, year-to-year viewership decreases have been tracking at 8 percent — concerning but less steep than the ones the NFL faced in 2016.
Not good enough.
I’d rather watch an infomercial about dust mops than watch any NFL games.
The comments to the article on THR tell the reason why.
I want 50% realistically. Those empty seats still did not have much effect on the NFL owner idiots empty heads.
They won't - but they could.
Not AFAIC.
Nice news. I read a piece from a liberal schmuck who said the numbers are down because people are angry at the league’s boycott of kaeperknick. I liked that position. The more they keep fooling themselves with kids like this the more the thugs keep rolling down hill.
What was the NF’nL?
I quit watching when the Broncos took a knee to become the donkeys. I have not watched a MFL game since.
Nf’n L needs a knee to the groin.
Moving in the right direction, further to go.
It’s a start. The NFL should fear a snowball effect going into next season.
They are just as mystified as why Asians blow up people after yelling Allah Akbar. No explanation???
I wonder how the Super Bowl ratings will be.
Millions of people who never watch a football game all season watch the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl has become a pop culture phenomenon completely separate from the fact that they play a football game at the Super Bowl. The commercials and pop singers who entertain sometimes are a bigger story than the game itself.
It’s a good start, but there are still too many fans willing to enable the SJW thugs.
This is America.
They’ll fake the ratings in a feeble attempt to kick start next seasons ticket holder purchases.
Wish I wasn’t so cynical, but it serves me well.
A couple weeks ago there were stories out, which I can't find now, about how the NFL donates unsold tickets to charity groups, then counts those who use the freebies in their attendance numbers.
Likely they have some similar scams going with the television ratings.
1. National Anthem protests. That turned off a lot of viewers, given that the fan base of the NFL is heavily conservative. It didn't help that sports commentators supported the players, which turned off even more fans.
2. Questionable officiating. Referees are making a lot of controversial calls that at times cost teams a close game and also resulted in WAY too much second-guessing by everyone else.
3. Too many high-profile injuries. The injuries to exciting players like Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson and Carson Wentz disappointed a lot of fans.
4. Many high-profile teams doing poorly. Historically good teams of recent decades like the Denver Broncos and New York Giants played very poorly this season, and popular teams like the Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders disappointed after having good seasons last year.
In short, the NFL had a convergence of bad things happen all at once. And this could end up affecting season ticket and stadium suite renewals in spring 2018.
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