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Possible reason for NFL ratings going down...


bap1331

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Because there isn’t a rivalry like Tom Brady vs. Peyton anymore. A lot of QB’s are inconsistent kinda like Rodgers and Wilson. Rodgers only performs against horrible teams like the Bears or someone easy but then he plays bad against powerhouses like Seattle and Atlanta. Atlanta almost kinda lost again but Rodgers always flops against big teams. Luck maybe the next big thing but who is he gonna face? A 40 year old Brady or Aladdin as his backup?

 

That Peyton vs. Brady rivalry was once in a lifetime but I hope it comes back again once Peyton and Bradys child grow up…

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Younger people don't watch TV as much as kids before, too many other avenues. To many social issues are now politicized in to the discussions now. Scoring is down. New rules penalizing contact are crushing the base line of the game which is players hitting each other as hard as they can. I don't have the love for the game I used to due in part to all the penalties called for doing what was once legal, that is hitting.

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It was a lot of fun. Even non-Colts fans would turn their TVs on when Peyton played, because it felt surgical and methodical yet exciting. Yes, a Brady vs Manning was must see TV, no matter where you were at, if you were a fan of football. 

 

I honestly want the Raiders to beat the Patriots and start a new rivalry with Carr leading the ship. He is likeable and can be surgical at times, just needs to get to that next level to not have duds like he did vs the Chiefs last year. 

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So, to be clear, the NFL takes a Sunday at 1 pm ET extravaganza - something that people plan their lives around and disperse it across the week into unusual spots and wonder why ratings are down? You have 5 international games that blow, you have 16 Thursday night games (ignoring Thanksgiving) that save me a melatonin, 4 Saturday games because, hey, why not prevent the product from preparing properly, and that double Monday night game where half the country is still at work when it starts and the important part of the country is asleep before the second commercial break on the back half...

 

So that's, what, 26 games that you have foolishly displaced out of 256? So your ratings are down 8 or 9% and you have displaced 10% of your games at the cost of consistency and product quality...I'm no scientologist, but I might look there first...

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6 hours ago, mikey287 said:

So, to be clear, the NFL takes a Sunday at 1 pm ET extravaganza - something that people plan their lives around and disperse it across the week into unusual spots and wonder why ratings are down? You have 5 international games that blow, you have 16 Thursday night games (ignoring Thanksgiving) that save me a melatonin, 4 Saturday games because, hey, why not prevent the product from preparing properly, and that double Monday night game where half the country is still at work when it starts and the important part of the country is asleep before the second commercial break on the back half...

 

So that's, what, 26 games that you have foolishly displaced out of 256? So your ratings are down 8 or 9% and you have displaced 10% of your games at the cost of consistency and product quality...I'm no scientologist, but I might look there first...

Lol what does scientology have to do with football ratings?

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I think this topic proves that no one has a clear answer and just wants to blame it on whatever they value as an opinion. This is a Colts forum, so it's almost predictable that it will get blamed on Peyton Manning's retirement. This is the only place I see where the Brady/Manning games were taken seriously...I don't think most fair weather fans cared at all, it was just another game for us. If you're going that route, throw in Ray Lewis' and several other retired player's names...The league does not revolve around 2 QB's in a little rivalry that lost it's mojo when Manning went to Denver. 

 

It's kinda like how people love to say "gee, pop music today is terrible! What happened?" There is an incredibly amount of bias to this that often shows the age of people who say it. Ages 35 and up often let nostalgia cloud their judgement. Like music for instance, it's easy to say that when you're just remembering the classics and the good stuff that stood the test of time and aged well. Every decade had horrible music, the songs that everyone forgets for good reason. I feel this is the same in sports and especially NFL. It's easy to say the old days had more dominant teams when you're only remember teams like the 49ers and Cowboys of the 90's. There was also a lot of bad teams in those same years. Same for quarterback play. 

 

No sport in American history has reigned supreme forever. Boxing used to be the biggest household sport for the longest time. The heavy weight title was considered a crowning achievement, and that sport eventually died off to irrelevancy. MLB has the steroid era, NBA it's slow decline after the 90's....The NFL is going to decline like everything else did. 

 

The true answer probably lies in CTE research and everything coming to light with concussions that we previously did not know beforehand. I think a lot of consumers and fans view the NFL as being more dishonest and more corporate and about the rich owners. Many of them see the NFL as they don't really care about their players like they do other professional sports...Roger Goodell is universally hated of all major sport commissioners and for good reason; he's a laughing stock and a phony. It also don't help that the fans have to sit there and witness Goodell and this league who clearly care far more about money than them with moving teams and re-locating them and the new stadium costs. Just look at how empty the 49ers new stadium is every game, or how the people in San Diego had their beloved team torn from them thanks to a sleazeball owner and a commissioner that couldn't just put his foot down and say no. Not every fan is going to keep watching this sport after they get royally screwed over and their beloved team ripped from their city and areas. 

 

The NFL gets what it deserves. They wanted to keep Goodell around, and wanted to bring two teams to L.A. so bad while ripping them from their fans (not counting the Raiders move to Vegas, that's going to be bad too), and add in how dishonest they've been about the concussion stuff while former players suffer. 

 

Most NFL fans are also "fair weather". When the team is doing poorly, they're not going to bother spending outrageous amounts of money to go to games and be surrounded by fans of the road team. Even a mediocre team, there is no point in wasting your money if they aren't having a winning season. But if the team starts winning and gets it together, all those fans are going to come back. 

 

 

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8 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

CTE is slowly eating away at the core of football. There are schools all over the country who are doing away with football programs all together.

More parents are discouraging their sons from even playing football.

 

Not happening everywhere. 

College football is never going away and is probably more popular now than it ever was....Grade Schools in southern states will blow their entire budgets on athletic programs faster than anything. High school football is still 'the thing" for a lot of local communities down here. 

 

The NFL might lose popularity, but the sport is still alive and well in places where it's heavily tied in with local communities and where a college team is people's pride and joy. 

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Here's a decent take on this, that maybe defenses have just gotten good and no one appreciates defensive showcases anymore: 

 

http://deadspin.com/nfl-games-seem-ugly-because-defenses-have-gotten-good-1818630651

 

 

Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships. Fans prefer seeing QB's put up monster numbers, but it's usually always been dominant defenses that win out. 

 

Scoring is down so far this year too as a result of two weeks of strong defensive play. 

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1 hour ago, Synthetic said:

 

Not happening everywhere. 

College football is never going away and is probably more popular now than it ever was....Grade Schools in southern states will blow their entire budgets on athletic programs faster than anything. High school football is still 'the thing" for a lot of local communities down here. 

 

The NFL might lose popularity, but the sport is still alive and well in places where it's heavily tied in with local communities and where a college team is people's pride and joy. 

In case you missed it the name of the thread is Possible reasons for NFL rating going down.

The south is not the only place where football is played. Nationwide the sport is losing players due to CTE. Do you read any reports at all?

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Probably because more people these days would rather do other things on Sundays? Maybe switching between multiple games hurts ratings? Redzone? Streaming games offline? Maybe people want to be out and about nowadays but then again...... Stores are closing, people aren't eating out as much, children aren't reading anymore, music sucks now, children aren't playing outside anymore. Adults aren't having as many children these days. No body gets married anymore. 28 year olds are still living at home.. I don't know wth to think anymore. Lol I'll just let the world keep spewing opinions out to me, there's nothing else I can do.

 

We're still watching it though :billiejean:

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People talking about ratings sound like those cluelss people who think South Park is going to be cancelled because season 17 didn't get the same ratings as season 5, or who think WWE is going to close down because ratings have been down since 1999. Man please...the CTE deal is the only thing that could be a longterm setback, but that's more between the league and the players, not the audience. People have been watching, indulging in, and glorifying things that are potentially bad for them since the beginning of time. I doubt that will ever change.

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Huh? The CTE thing and players' life expectancy being that of sub-Saharan Africa (that's probably not true, but are you really gonna look it up?) means that the talent pool dries up...parents won't put their kids in youth football if they feel like they're going to outlive them as a result...

 

I mean, there are tens of millions of kids in the United States, right? My friends and I always grew up wanting to be a quarterback in the Super Bowl...and we played with that intent...millions grow up thinking that, dreaming of that and even practicing towards it...there are about 12 QBs in the NFL of any regard...12...maybe 13 on a good day...10 on a bye week...

 

Can you imagine how much worse the product will be if you start cutting into the talent pool...? CTE and other brain effects aren't going to just disappear because Will Smith found out about them...that's just the tip of the iceberg...

 

Typically I'm not so dramatic, but it's rather shortsighted to think that CTE and the like is some backroom deal between the league and its players...you're already starting to see some star players (Megatron, the entire San Francisco 49ers linebacking corps, etc.) cashing out to avoid turning to dust when they're 47...

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3 hours ago, Valpo2004 said:

I've heard you can get a bunch of these online somehow and that people watching online doesn't count in the TV ratings.

Yes but that's been available for several years. Why would it just now be hurting ratings?

 

I think the true reasons are is the product on the field has been sloppy, mediocre to bad officiating, and I do think the anthem protests are turning some people away from it whether folks want to admit it or not. Those three are the biggest reasons, IMO.

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I can tell you why I am not watching as much. I really don't see the point in paying money so that I can watch 3 1/2 hrs of commercials, which just makes them more money. One or the other. Ads aren't going away, so paying to see games definitely should. I also don't have cable (or any form of broadcast TV), and don't really have any plans to ever get it. This means I can't even see local games, because the only way they are available online is "breaking the law", which really isn't even worth it to watch teams I don't really care about. (Local games are blacked out on Sunday ticket so you can't even pay to see them). Not to mention MNF and TNF are not available through Sunday ticket either, so once again I can't even pay to watch it. Get with the times or watch your business decline.

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22 hours ago, King Colt said:

Younger people don't watch TV as much as kids before, too many other avenues.


Hmm, you know, you might be onto something there. Maybe, just maybe... the NFL should broadcast all their games online! Crazy, I know. Oh, I'm sorry, that would involve losing out on commercials, so now owner A won't get to take that extra vacation with owner B.

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59 minutes ago, Derakynn said:

I can tell you why I am not watching as much. I really don't see the point in paying money so that I can watch 3 1/2 hrs of commercials, which just makes them more money. One or the other. Ads aren't going away, so paying to see games definitely should. I also don't have cable (or any form of broadcast TV), and don't really have any plans to ever get it. This means I can't even see local games, because the only way they are available online is "breaking the law", which really isn't even worth it to watch teams I don't really care about. (Local games are blacked out on Sunday ticket so you can't even pay to see them). Not to mention MNF and TNF are not available through Sunday ticket either, so once again I can't even pay to watch it. Get with the times or watch your business decline.


Great points. This is my promise: By the year 2050, TV's will no longer exist. We will have monitors, but the term TV will be as nonexistent as the Walk-Man. NFL needs to get with the times, and while I give them credit for occasionally doing a free NFL broadcast online, it's not enough.

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Why in the last couple of years are TV ratings being effected by streaming? Sophistication and availability. If I want to, I can watch any NHL or NFL game for free in 60 fps HD for free, easily...easily...three years ago, I had to get crafty and lucky...now it's an industry unto itself...and it's becoming more mainstream...hell, [a friend] watched the [NFL team] game live on YouTube on Sunday...this is now commonplace.

 

The officiating argument is limp and without substance. The officiating in the league is more than above the mark, especially compared to a league like the NBA. Officiating, like in GDTs around the internet, is a low-rent argument. Most people don't know the rules in the first place and then correct officials after they have seen 10 slo-mo replays from 7 angles. Officials only get noticed if they're doing poorly, no one ever remarks that they had a great game (which is the case almost every single time)...it's super cool to kvetch about officiating in a bar or in your living room or on a message board, it's generally a good placeholder for meaningful conversation and a substitute for game theory...but it probably doesn't rank on a list of why TV ratings are going down, certainly...

 

I think it's abundantly clear that we are at a point where the officiating product, if you will, has surpassed the player product. And this is coming from someone who dislikes replay reviews, but they get so much right...not perfect...but they have a higher threadcount than the players at this moment in time...

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4 minutes ago, ReMeDy said:


Hmm, you know, you might be onto something there. Maybe, just maybe... the NFL should broadcast all their games online! Crazy, I know. Oh, I'm sorry, that would involve losing out on commercials, so now owner A won't get to take that extra vacation with owner B.

 

This is what I don't get. It's very easy to have commercials still. They should do that. I don't care that a business offers a service in exchange for revenue...that's how this all works, that doesn't bother me. The idea that they can't find a way to put commercials in for online streams (they can) is ridiculous...

 

Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't commercial breaks during Madden video games yet...I said that five years ago...

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8 minutes ago, mikey287 said:

Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't commercial breaks during Madden video games yet...I said that five years ago...

 

Actually, it's funny you mention that...


Well okay, it's a short one commercial, but I've puked all over my keyboard regardless.

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1 hour ago, ReMeDy said:

 

Actually, it's funny you mention that...


Well okay, it's a short one commercial, but I've puked all over my keyboard regardless.

Commercials are in Madden now? Oh brother. You'd think the ads would revolve around Coors, Budweiser, & ED pills like viagra though as opposed to candy bars. Just sayin'. 

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2 hours ago, Derakynn said:

I really don't see the point in paying money so that I can watch 3 1/2 hrs of commercials, which just makes them more money.

Reminds me of a sign I saw in a 1950's themed restaurant once. It read: 

 

"I miss the days when TV had commercials not the other way around." 

 

Very true DKYN. 

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Surely your comment is facetious or unrelated, as most of those things are done in the mid to late teens....whereas 99.99% population could not start playing football at that age and make D1, much less the NFL...

 

Moreover, those are a product of rebellion or decision making...being enrolled in a youth sport at age 8, something that requires a parent to sign off on for the duration of your minor years, is obviously not even in the same ballpark as the things you randomly mentioned.

 

I know everyone knows that already, but I just wanted to point it out in case anyone was inexplicably on the fence...

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16 hours ago, BloodyChamp said:

People talking about ratings sound like those cluelss people who think South Park is going to be cancelled because season 17 didn't get the same ratings as season 5, or who think WWE is going to close down because ratings have been down since 1999. Man please...the CTE deal is the only thing that could be a longterm setback, but that's more between the league and the players, not the audience. People have been watching, indulging in, and glorifying things that are potentially bad for them since the beginning of time. I doubt that will ever change.

You are talking about people watching. CTE covers players playing. The long term effect of CTE will have an effect on players even playing in the NFL. We have already seen players walking away after making a NFL team because of CTE.

It may seem insignificant to you now but is cutting down the amount of young ones even picking up the sport.

It don't take a rocket scientist to know the human body was not designed to play football. As time go on a lot of young players see the results from playing this game. The NFL has done a good job of not addressing medical problems and sweeping them under the rug in the past, but those days are over.

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It's not the poster who says Chuck has never had a losing season that's for sure. Those random things I mentioned are basically the things parents strive for their children not to do the most. The way people talk football is going to be that high on their list soon, and children will still play football just like they do the rest of that stuff.

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16 hours ago, ricker182 said:

Thursday Night, Saturday (sometimes), Sunday, Sunday Night, Monday Night

This... this is atrocious.. I have a wife and 3 children. I already get "wacked" for wasting all Sunday watching the Colts lose, the Patriots win, and all my fantasy player NOT score touchdowns. Now you I gotta add Monday night Thursday night and sometime Saturdays nights?! And sorry ESPN 1-800-flowers aint working anymore..

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7 hours ago, B~Town said:

Cord Cutters people are dropping Cable and Satellite at a rate higher than anyone ever expected . With there being no good option for this group ratings will keep dropping until the NFL catches up with the times .

I was just thinking.. is this the only reason I pay for cable? I wondered that as my daughter was just demanding to watch "Netflix". But isn't the NFL mostly on local TV. Like I could be a set of "bunny ears" and still watch all Sunday games?

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