Florio: Early Season Ratings Decline Continues for NFL

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

I worked in the high-end audio video business for years. The difference between 720P and 1080P is arguably impossible to tell unless you are sitting about a foot from your television, or if you happen to have a projection screen of about 120 inches. 4K, of course, is possibly the biggest advertising hoax I've ever seen, considering that they are putting 4K on 40" television sets. I'd compare this to digital cameras that boast they can do 10 megapixels, but unless you are actually printing it on a large canvass, your camera/phone display is only 1 megapixel (720) or 2 megapixels (1080). It's funny to hear people talk about how much crisper their picture is having 10 megapixels when their display looks exactly the same either way because it can't even show you the difference. Sadly, the most important aspects of getting a great picture, which are motion handling, contrast, and black levels, have gone away with the death of plasma and the domination of LCD, which even on its most high-end set ever is still not that close to a plasma. Luckily, OLED is amazing and will eventually surpass plasma. Sorry to go off topic here, but my original point was that resolution is incredibly overrated and is cited incorrectly as the defining feature of picture quality.

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Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Good stuff, buddy! When I could finally afford a plasma myself, it was literally the very end of the line. Fujitsu, Pioneer, and Panasonic had all shut down production, but I was able to snag the last run of the Samsung 8500 series. Upstairs we have an LCD, and I have trouble stomaching watching the darker scenes on it, especially things like a skyline against a dark sky. And definitely I agree, the compression of the video is leaps and bounds more important than the number of pixels. DirecTV is actually pretty good compared to cable, where the compression is so bad at times I don't know how people can enjoy the video.

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Ice_Ice_Brady said:

I worked in the high-end audio video business for years. The difference between 720P and 1080P is arguably impossible to tell unless you are sitting about a foot from your television, or if you happen to have a projection screen of about 120 inches. 4K, of course, is possibly the biggest advertising hoax I've ever seen, considering that they are putting 4K on 40" television sets. I'd compare this to digital cameras that boast they can do 10 megapixels, but unless you are actually printing it on a large canvass, your camera/phone display is only 1 megapixel (720) or 2 megapixels (1080). It's funny to hear people talk about how much crisper their picture is having 10 megapixels when their display looks exactly the same either way because it can't even show you the difference. Sadly, the most important aspects of getting a great picture, which are motion handling, contrast, and black levels, have gone away with the death of plasma and the domination of LCD, which even on its most high-end set ever is still not that close to a plasma. Luckily, OLED is amazing and will eventually surpass plasma. Sorry to go off topic here, but my original point was that resolution is incredibly overrated and is cited incorrectly as the defining feature of picture quality.

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patfanken said:

Goodell really IS a factor in this decline. If he can make ME go from an rabid NFL football fan, to an interested Pats fans who can't be bothered with the rest of the league, except as it pertains to the Pats, than what do you think he has done to the mere casual fans of the game.

Eventually the powers to be in the media and the league are going to come the same conclusion as the rest of the rest of us and he will be gone. I predict it will happen before the end of this CBA. Roger's ego will NOT be overcome by Uncle Bob coming in an bringing some common sense to the negotiations. Goodell will be an insurmountable flash point for the "union". The owners will eventually get that and have a new one in place when it comes time to start negotiating.

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Ice_Ice_Brady said:

The heyday of the NFL is over, so things will get interesting. Mark Cuban hit the nail on the head describing the arrogance of NFL owners, and if you've ever watched Shark Tank, you'll know Mark Cuban is a very brilliant man (NBA rants aside.)

I think what Mr. Cuban is alluding to is the downfall to so many businesses: greed. The owners and Goodell have constantly treated their sponsors like dime-a-dozen replaceable clowns, treated employees/NFLPA like garbage by not honoring clear gentlemen's agreement about fairness, done everything possible to squeeze every last penny out of their fans, and, in the eyes of many, have been glad to sacrifice the long-term league integrity to win a few PR battles, and alienated two entire fanbases to the point of permanent hatred, without seeming to care. That doesn't even touch on the more sinister things that probably go on behind the scenes with clear favoritism and a growing suspicion that the outcome/competitiveness of games is not always left to the teams. The "independent investigations" on team rule breaking, player safety, etc. should force our hands in believing that outcomes are fixed in advance, since we know they are willing to go there. There is simply no ethics, and lies are the norm. Self-interest, intimidation, propaganda...all indisputable hallmarks of the Goodell era.

In addition, despite being by far the most successful and profitable sports league, they are looking to grow,grow at all costs. What they've forgotten is that football is just a game and that many leagues have risen and plateau'd. People tire when things get too big. Slow growth and caution are the winning ingredients to long-term growth. The owners and ****dell now covet growing the league internationally, refusing to comprehend the most basic principle of business, which is that maintaining and satisfying present customers is by a better option than alienating them while constantly seeking new ones.

The NFL will not be a line moving to the right, moving constantly upward forever. No one is. And when things start to sour, that's when they'll begin to see the damage they've done. Hopefully the opening week ratings are a sign of some big disappointment for the despised league office and owners. Don't think I've seen a more arrogant group of men who mostly already profit from tax money and tax exemptions.

I hope it gets ugly.

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Mack Herron said:

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KontradictioN said:

Just got a PM from @ReverendMaynard who tells me that last night, he wasn't able to watch the game on TV due to the fact that he was traveling, but was able to catch it on his mobile device.

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ReverendMaynard said:

No, letting them win is continuing to stuff their wallets after what they did. Everyone had their own personal agendas in this, but I guarantee not one of them included fewer net fans for the league.

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Joker said:

I'd like to make ****in' Goodell turn into a ball of plasma...

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Koma said:

If this trend does continue, I wonder what else the league can do to increase interest. They've already tweaked the rules to open up the passing game and increase scoring. They've heavily pushed fantasy football and daily fantasy leagues. Games are on 3 days a week. What's left to make a casual fan want to tune back in? I don't think a longer season or a team in London will help.

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ReverendMaynard said:

More of this ********???

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Ice_Ice_Brady said:

You would have deeper blacks and faster processing than LCD. So, if you are going to transform Goodell into a display panel, I would agree plasma is the best. Just make sure that his contorted corpse is away from the sunlight because plasma screens are not matte and have a little glare.

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Joker said:

Not exactly what I had in mind. No, what I was thinking was the type of plasma found in the dense, ionized interior of the sun...THAT is where I want HIM to burn in 27 million degree agony for eternity...

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Ice_Ice_Brady said:

The owners can do whatever they want, but I think in business it's a lot harder to win back customers after you've lost them, particularly when the issue isn't price. This isn't a pricing issue at all, which is why it should be incredibly concerning for the league. My personal stance is the NFL will never win me back unless they write a letter of apology to the New England Patriots fans for their lies and handling of Deflategate. I will not settle for anything less, even though I know it will never happen.

My 5-year old daughter was playing air hockey this weekend with her 4-year old cousin. She beat him, and the first thing her cousin did was slammed down his paddle and yelled "yeah, she won, but that's because she cheated!" Sad to say that this entire mess was caused by childish egos willing to stop at nothing to satisfy an infantile desire to avoid shame. And the fact that other owners publicly admitted they wouldn't even read to Wells Report was probably the absolute turning point for me; they didn't give a sh!t about an entire region of the country and how their organization treats their own customers. All because they thought 31/32 was a good business move. Turns out the 31 really don't care anymore, but the 1 is gone for good in many ways. The 1 has been sacrificed how many times now? Just a stupid, dumb-as-rocks way of looking at things. They deserve everything that could be coming...hope the ratings continue to absolutely tank.

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Mack Herron said:

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