Posted on 09/17/2017 12:43:43 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
In a fractured media environment where award-winning scripted dramas compete for the public's attention along with goofy cat videos, one of the few things that multibillion dollar media and entertainment conglomerates could count on to attract millions of viewers -- and generate the ad revenue that keeps them in business -- was the National Football League.
These days, however, the most popular U.S. professional sport isn't such a sure bet. According to Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, viewership for the NFL was down 14 percent on a year-over-year basis during the first week of the 2017-18 season. That's the lowest level of same-week viewing since 2009.
As a result, Walt Disney (DIS), parent of ESPN; CBS (CBS), parent of CBS MoneyWatch; Fox (FOXA), parent 21st Century Fox and Comcast (CMCSA), whose properties include NBC, are in a bind. They've counted on the NFL to buttress their business as audiences for cable and broadcast networks have dwindled in recent years. It has been an expensive strategy.
Fox, CBS and Comcast signed a $27 billion deal with the NFL for the right to broadcast games through 2022. ESPN reportedly pays $1.9 billion per year for the rights to "Monday Night Football," a 73 percent increase over the previous contract. NBC and CBS signed a $900 million deal in 2016 for the rights to broadcast Thursday night games.
"The bigger question is why and how have sports defied gravity for so long," Pivotal's Weiser said, adding that broadcasting the NFL had "high fixed costs." He noted: "At the end of the day, people are using their TV sets less than they used to."
Theories abound attempting to explain the ratings drop. Among them: the public's attention being diverted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Before that, the nastiest presidential campaign in recent memory fixated viewers away from the gridiron.
Others have pointed to the controversy around former San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a fan turn-off. Injuries to stars such as wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants haven't helped, either, nor do the retirements of fan favorites such as Peyton Manning.
Some sports fans have argued that the quality of the league's product has slipped. Some evidence justifies these concerns. According to 538.com, only three games in the season's Week One were decided by 7 or fewer points, the lowest number for an opening week since 1973. Teams combined for 40.4 points per game, the sixth-lowest mark since 2012. Many of the games weren't even close, with the average margin of victory at 3-to-1.
To be sure, the viewership picture isn't entirely bleak. The opening contest on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" featured two of the league's most popular teams, the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. It posted a 5 percent viewership gain over the previous year.
CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, for one, isn't worried about the drop-off in NFL TV audiences, which he attributed to the hurricanes. He told CNBC recently, "I think the NFL is still the best property on television."
Moonves' optimism is shared by Amazon (AMZN), which bought the rights to stream 10 NFL games this season. Once the league's broadcast deal expires, Weiser expects the e-commerce giant to bid along with other tech stalwarts such as Apple (AAPL) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG). That might make an expensive business even more pricey for the media companies.
Athletes, and entertainers alike would do well to start remembering that it is the paying public that they need, not the other way around.
Hope so.
Hockey starts soon.
NFL leftist criminal thugs
Curse the dreck of a league. The arrogance and pride are coming home to roost.
I can see your point of view, but we really don’t want the US to go soccer/rugby internationalist.
The United Stated is baseball, basketball and football, and that’s it (unless you want the US to go subordinate to Soros).
We need to keep it up through the next set of negotiations with the networks in 2021/22 timeframe. The players and owners will only feel it if that $27B deal turns into <$10B next time around. The way it is now only the networks are feeling the pinch.
“Sling is owned by DISH. It’s basically DISH scaled down and without an actual dish.”
They are apparently cannibalising their satellite dish system as they have had the largest number of disconnects.
Charles William “Charlie” Ergen, the CEO of Dish, may be getting even with ESPN/Disney having Sling Blue without ESPN or Disney on the package. The not so great feelings between the Cable thugs and Charlie go back decades.
“The elite black millionaire players do not want any of us deplorables to be fans. I.e., white people, anti LBGQT folks.
They will make it just fine with gay, minority fans. Just like Hitlery did.”
It is amazing how these insane liberal CEOs have zero problems POing 62+ million of Trump’s voters from Macy’s to these jerks. Then, throw in several million independent voters, who served in the military and love this country for even more stupidity.
If Trump and his voters stick together for two terms, the end of these companies and their idiot CEOs/Boards will be studied for decades by students getting their MBAs and PHD’s in business. There will be thousands of thesis’s on how to destroy your business from the Mom and Pop business to mega corporations who ate the poison apples, they prepared.
The politics is only part of it. Personally, I’m turned off by the fact that the game has turned into less than a team achievement than a personal celebration of every little thing. Make a tackle? Dance. Make a first down? Dance. I think it was Bear Bryant that said of scoring a touchdown: Act like you’ve been there before....
I know that genarally if the nets underperform on the ratings then they have to give free time to the buyer. If the people stop watching EVERYTHING presumably wI’ll drop as a result. TV is where those big player paychecks become possible. Dominoes going down...
Several things would make it hard for me to drop DISH. For one, my wife likes to watch movies on the Hallmark channels, which do not stream. I also like TCM, which I believe is not yet on ROKU. Also, I like having the DVR. Even if I could stream those channels, I'd want to be able to DVR the programs, unless they are always on demand. I also have an OTA antenna connected to the DISH DVR and can use the DVR to record programs from OTA channels in addition to channels on DISH.
And the NFL/Networks are doubling down on their stupidity by showing and re-showing the Protest Against Whitey DURING the game!
Yep, I say the same thing about money. If you come into some, act like you’ve had it before.
I wouldn’t worry about soccer. When I in junior high school circa 1983, I can’t tell you how many kids and adults were saying that soccer ain’t nothing now but it’s THE up-and-coming sport. In 15-20 years, it will eclipse NFL, MLB, and NBA combined. Where is soccer in America today? The exact same place it was in 1983. Lots of kids playing it and 98% of them not giving a crap about the sport when they grow out of the kids’ leagues about the time they’re hitting high school.
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.