NFL's ratings decline.

[castletonsnob]

As you might know, the NFL's ratings have been going down lately.



Why do you think this is?

[The_Don_Mecha]

in b4 anthem protests (no politics)

But seriously, people are finding other things to do with their normal football watching times. Also, NFL Sunday Ticket is ridiculously expensive for out of market customers

[sfvega]

Ratings in general are down across the board, not just football. But they do seem to lack some star power, and they've been taking PR hits for years now. They also do a very poor job of building games anymore. The media is chasing controversy and the team vs. team thing gets no play.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

NFL is a series of nonsensical flags, game stoppages, and the fact the injuries seem to make this more of a game of survivor than a game of the best team winning.

Also the Fantasy Football fad while still hot will likely wane eventually.

[Limity (BLM)]

I've been pondering this for some time, do fans have less and less to connect with the game on an emotional level? To invest themselves?

The NFL does everything it can to strip away emotion and passion from the game, then tries to manufacture it later on in post production.

[Lupin the Third]

It's all because of Seth Rollins.

[AwamoriRock]

This answer probably has a super obvious answer, but how do Red Zone channel ratings factor in?

[Push R Truth]

All ratings for just about everything are going down aren't they?

*cue ominous music*

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

People are sick of Roger Goodell's shit.

They're tired of stuff like Brady getting suspended for 4 games when the Wells Report has been torn to shreds, the NFL doesn't have the data for the balls last season, and Ray Rice originally got a 2 game suspension. They're sick of the stuff like the HGH investigation, where Peyton was seen as getting massive favoritism. They're sick of the NFL harping about safety in the game, but doing nothing to stop some stuff (see Denver vs Carolina in week 1). They're sick of flags being thrown for stupid shit, and not being thrown for blatantly obvious penalties.

[Deleted]

Oct 2, 2016 21:39:55 GMT -5 Toilet Paper Roll said:

NFL is a series of nonsensical flags, game stoppages, and the fact the injuries seem to make this more of a game of survivor than a game of the best team winning.

Also the Fantasy Football fad while still hot will likely wane eventually.

How is fantasy football and fantasy sports a fad when it's always been strong the moment the internet was launched? Hell fantasy sports and sporting pools have been going around strong even before the internet.

[Push R Truth]

Oct 3, 2016 11:44:54 GMT -5 @supersweetbotch said:

Oct 2, 2016 21:39:55 GMT -5 Toilet Paper Roll said:

NFL is a series of nonsensical flags, game stoppages, and the fact the injuries seem to make this more of a game of survivor than a game of the best team winning.

Also the Fantasy Football fad while still hot will likely wane eventually.

How is fantasy football and fantasy sports a fad when it's always been strong the moment the internet was launched? Hell fantasy sports and sporting pools have been going around strong even before the internet.

I'm in a league that's 21 years old. It's not a new fad, it's a grown ass adult at the bar.

[Ben Wyatt]

Oct 3, 2016 0:26:44 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

People are sick of Roger Goodell's shit.

They're tired of stuff like Brady getting suspended for 4 games when the Wells Report has been torn to shreds, the NFL doesn't have the data for the balls last season, and Ray Rice originally got a 2 game suspension. They're sick of the stuff like the HGH investigation, where Peyton was seen as getting massive favoritism. They're sick of the NFL harping about safety in the game, but doing nothing to stop some stuff (see Denver vs Carolina in week 1). They're sick of flags being thrown for stupid shit, and not being thrown for blatantly obvious penalties.

When talking about the NFL caring about "safety in the game" you neglected to mention Thursday Night Football. Yep, we care about player safety.....now go out there on 3 days rest and play again.

Making matters worse when it comes to Thursday nights is that 8 out of 10 times the games are absolute dogshit. Most viewers couldn't give a flying f*** less. 


Adding more: The pace of play. As a viewer there's nothing more I enjoy than kickoff, commercial, set of downs, commercial, punt, commercial FG/touchdown/extra point, commercial.  9 minutes of commercials for every 5 minutes of action.  No thanks.

[Limity (BLM)]

We'll never get the level of hard hits and violence that there once was in the game, and I'm okay with that. Today's players are so much stronger and faster than yesteryear's.

But I think we need to be able to see the players as emotionally invested in the game as we the fans are. As has been pointed out, the flags are ridiculous. The NFL is doing all it can to make the game a machine, and the players emotionless cogs in that machine.

And maybe we're starting to see the result of that now, with declining interest in the machine.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

Wouldn't surprise me if the anthem protests had something to do with it because well, people are insecure twats who can't stand seeing or hearing opinions other than their own.


Most of it has to do with both things like Red Zone and the fact that it takes an hour to make some calls because of reviews. Seriously, turnovers, scoring plays, and calls within the 2 minute warning should be the only things reviewed. Everything else should be challenged. Not to mention the amount of flags for the dumbest reasons.

[Ludwig Kaiser’s Walk]

First Off, I don't like the NFL. Second, I'm in Southern Ohio and if I were to choose a team to follow, it would be Da Bears, so even if I were planning to watch a game, I likely wouldn't be able to watch Da Bears in my area because of the local teams.

There are too many ridiculously dumb penalties, missed calls, selfish plays, and unlikeable players for me at this time. I'll stick to college football Saturdays, where I can see up to 11 games at one time on my moderately basic cable package (ABC, ESPN (2, U), B1G Net, Fox, FSN1, CBS (Sports Net), NBC (Sports Net), instead of sometimes 2 on NFL Sundays.

[sfvega]

Oct 3, 2016 21:18:21 GMT -5 Mochi Lone Wolf said:

Wouldn't surprise me if the anthem protests had something to do with it because well, people are insecure twats who can't stand seeing or hearing opinions other than their own.


Most of it has to do with both things like Red Zone and the fact that it takes an hour to make some calls because of reviews. Seriously, turnovers, scoring plays, and calls within the 2 minute warning should be the only things reviewed. Everything else should be challenged. Not to mention the amount of flags for the dumbest reasons.

Some of that is bad. Limiting what they can review to that seems pretty arbitrary. A play before the last two minutes could easily be the biggest play of the game (likely a conversion/non-conversion call), and wouldn't fall under any of those. Like the Dez catch in the playoffs wouldn't have fallen under any of those, although they still got that call wrong. And then you'd have people complaining like crazy about missed calls and bad rules.

Also worth noting that the NFL has no problem getting almost every noon game to halftime at the same time and ending at the same time. Which points to them not having that much of a problem wasting too much time with reviews. Now, commercials......you could easily make an argument for.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Oct 4, 2016 1:57:53 GMT -5 sfvega said:

Oct 3, 2016 21:18:21 GMT -5 Mochi Lone Wolf said:

Wouldn't surprise me if the anthem protests had something to do with it because well, people are insecure twats who can't stand seeing or hearing opinions other than their own.


Most of it has to do with both things like Red Zone and the fact that it takes an hour to make some calls because of reviews. Seriously, turnovers, scoring plays, and calls within the 2 minute warning should be the only things reviewed. Everything else should be challenged. Not to mention the amount of flags for the dumbest reasons.

Some of that is bad. Limiting what they can review to that seems pretty arbitrary. A play before the last two minutes could easily be the biggest play of the game (likely a conversion/non-conversion call), and wouldn't fall under any of those. Like the Dez catch in the playoffs wouldn't have fallen under any of those, although they still got that call wrong. And then you'd have people complaining like crazy about missed calls and bad rules.

The call on the Dez catch was right, the rule is bad. Incomplete is what it should have been called by the rules since the ball popped up after it hit the ground. Calvin Johnson lost a game winning touchdown because he set the ball down after catching it. Calling it incomplete was the right call, the rule is just bad.

[sfvega]

Oct 4, 2016 5:45:10 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

Oct 4, 2016 1:57:53 GMT -5 sfvega said:

Some of that is bad. Limiting what they can review to that seems pretty arbitrary. A play before the last two minutes could easily be the biggest play of the game (likely a conversion/non-conversion call), and wouldn't fall under any of those. Like the Dez catch in the playoffs wouldn't have fallen under any of those, although they still got that call wrong. And then you'd have people complaining like crazy about missed calls and bad rules.

The call on the Dez catch was right, the rule is bad. Incomplete is what it should have been called by the rules since the ball popped up after it hit the ground. Calvin Johnson lost a game winning touchdown because he set the ball down after catching it. Calling it incomplete was the right call, the rule is just bad.

They got the call wrong because it was a catch. The problem is that they've made such silly additions to the rules that no one knows what constitutes a catch anymore. There are lifetime fas of the sport who have no idea what the hell the announcers talking about during review. And I think they changed it after that season, and made it even worse. It's the same as the Bert Emanuel rule. You can tell me it's not a catch by the rule, but Burt Emanuel caught that ball.

[corndog]

Number of reasons, the Presidential Debates have gone head to head with the NFL both times. "Cord cutting", more people using fire sticks and digitally streaming the games. Supposedly the Kapernick protests have affected the ratings as well. Basically a perfect storm and maybe as some have suggested, people just sick of Goodell's garbage and the absurd level of commercialization in the league.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Maybe its just shit can't always go up every year