Posted on 02/08/2017 7:05:36 AM PST by 11th_VA
The Super Bowl delivered its smallest audience among adults 18-49 in at least ten years.
Super Bowl 51 between the Patriots and Falcons delivered a 37.1 rating and 47.6 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demographic, down 2% in ratings and a fraction of a percent in viewership from Broncos/Panthers last year (37.7, 47.9M) and down 5% and 4% respectively from Patriots/Seahawks in 2015 (39.1, 49.7M).
It was the lowest rated Super Bowl in the demo since Steelers/Cardinals in 2009 (36.7) and the least-watched in at least a decade.
Since hitting 52.5 million in 2011, Super Bowl viewership among adults 18-49 has declined for six straight years. Ratings in the demo have declined for five straight after hitting a 40.5 in 2012.
This year, adults 18-49 made up just 42.77% of the audience for the primary TV broadcast (111.3M) — down from 42.78% last year and the smallest percentage in at least a decade. The demo accounted for more than 50% of the audience back in 2008, but its proportion has declined in each year since.
It is possible that some of those viewers have shifted to streaming, as the digital Super Bowl audience has risen each year since the game was first streamed in 2012. It is also possible that some viewers have simply aged out of the demo and were not replaced in sufficient numbers by those aging in. Whether those explanations can fully account for the loss of 4.9 million viewers in six years remains to be seen.
In adults 18-34, Sunday’s game had a 32.9 rating — down 1% from last year (33.3) and down 8% from 2015 (35.8). The corresponding viewership figure was not available.
Your comments are spot on. Your points are exactly why the Circus folded its tent and quit.
20 years ago, all the big acts, such as the elephants, the big cats, the trapeze, the high wire aerialists, the human cannon all took 8:30 to 12:00 to run.
Recently, individual act times were cut to less than 6 minutes, but the kids still all looked away at the 45 second mark.
And for them, what was so special about a trained lion or elephants? They see that every day in TV.
I felt similarly about last year’s World Series and the league championship games: They took a game that is already way to slow, with games stretching to 3 hours pretty much regularly, and stuffed it so full of commercial time-outs and other BS that the games were given a 4 1/2 hour time slot. I like baseball, but there is no good reason that I can see for there to be such long waits between pitches.
First....the commercials sucked....except for the Kia commercial....
I don’t like being lectured by Audi or 84 Lumber....they have now convinced me to never by their products.....
Second, The game really sucked.....Full disclosure, I’m a Falcons fan......
If it takes three hours to televise a game that is supposedly an hour of play, then you’re doing it wrong.
There’s too many commercials and bs associated with an NFL game. Countless plugging for other crap by the announcers, them delving into off-topic and increasingly political subjects, and not to mention the general thug-like behavior of a lot of the athletes.
The NFL is corrupted by its idolatrous-like attention, and it shows.
I don’t hate football, especially if people want to actually play it and not just obsess over it as a spectator, and I think college football is a lot better if you want a real game and not a bunch of propaganda.
I bet few watch this game streaming. Many have cut cable and there are too many interactive distractions on the net. The big game loses in the younger demographic.
Fewer people watching TV. That’s my theory. That’s also my theory as to why #WEWON.
There are no commercial breaks during a period, and the only stoppages in play are for faceoffs, penalty calls and injuries, and a rare (sometimes spectacular) problem with the ice or playing area ... like when a player gets checked against the boards and the flexible glass panel shatters.
That is televised sports at its absolute best.
Give a man two tickets to the coliseum and you can pass any law you want. -JC
I remember our coach would make us run until we puked, if that what it took to get us in shape. How many schools/coaches would get sued now days if coaches actually were able to coach.
How many kids would be willing to run till they dropped to get better?
Kneeling to Communism never brings more business.
Yes, Best. Super Bowl. Game. Ever.
Not only the NFL, but other professional sports, even the NHL, which recently required that each team have two political officers, a/k/a diversity consultants, assigned, had better watch their markets.
Good. When you present vulgar half-time shows and allow anti-American players to spout off you turn people off.
...other ‘less violent’ sports over the last two decades.
***
Doesn’t MMA fighting have a huge audience?
I’m pretty disgusted with the NFL so I didn’t turn the game one. Neither of my boys seemed interested either.
Well, this "old fart" can do without Super Bowl and Stanley Cup playoffs as well. I'm all in for Women's Beach Volleyball..............
Gawd, that means they’re going to try to come up with a halftime show with even MORE appeal to Millenials.
The las vegas style over the top extravaganza they have made it into is repellent. And now add in political commercials.
I don’t know....................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.