Florio: Early Season Ratings Decline Continues for NFL

denverpatsfan said:

Hard to watch with all the commercials. I guess they don't care since it means more beer sales at the bar. Still shorter than a baseball game though. But the breaks in the action are hard to handle. I'm actually slowly coming over to the soccer side. Games are MAX about 2-hours and there are minimal breaks for commercials.

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And the incredibly stupid way they do replays doesn't make sense, till you realize it adds a large block of time to air more commercials. It's a total buzz-kill when you're at the stadium. The NHL deals with replay far better than the NFL.

Soccer: sorry, nope. Tried it, and it didn't stick. Their economics are far more screwed up than the NFLs.

College football is starting to make inroads with me. It's a far more organic experience than the NFL, despite its very obvious issues with things like payola that might cause it to blow up one day.

denverpatsfan said:

Hard to watch with all the commercials. I guess they don't care since it means more beer sales at the bar. Still shorter than a baseball game though. But the breaks in the action are hard to handle. I'm actually slowly coming over to the soccer side. Games are MAX about 2-hours and there are minimal breaks for commercials.

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I think it's a combination of factors, and that's definitely a huge one. There's just no flow to the game anymore. Whenever an important play happens, a three step process is initiated:

1. Look around for a flag, since it sure seems like every other big play is flagged, and half of the time that it's flagged it's for some inane reason.
2. Wait for the review
3. Sit through the ensuing commercial break.

A touchdown means 10 minutes of commercials, with a touchback sprinkled in somewhere among the mess. A turnover means a review, which means a commercial break. Since there's a contractually obligated number of TV timeouts per half, anytime a team does string together a sustained drive, it just ends up ensuring that a bunch more commercials will be crammed in down the stretch.

And that would maybe be worth dealing with if the product on the field was actually good, but it isn't. Of the 32 teams in the league, maybe 8 are good. I was watching them on pirate streams just to get my football fix, but over the last few weeks I've stopped even doing that. What possible reason is there for an unaffiliated fan to tune in to Bears/Packers tonight? Why should anyone care about a duel to see which mediocre team sucks less? The top two storylines in this game are the fact that the Packers have a WR playing RB and how their QB who's supposed to be good isn't good. Both of these storylines speak directly to the diminished quality of the product on the field.

So even if you have no ideological reason for not wanting to support the NFL, and even if you have no problem with the league office or Roger Goodell, watching games that your team isn't playing is just kind of a ****ty experience right now.

BradyFTW! said:

What possible reason is there for an unaffiliated fan to tune in to Bears/Packers tonight? Why should anyone care about a duel to see which mediocre team sucks less? The top two storylines in this game are the fact that the Packers have a WR playing RB and how their QB who's supposed to be good isn't good. Both of these storylines speak directly to the diminished quality of the product on the field.

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Indeed. The Bears are so bad they can't even generate a single story line, other than perhaps how the coach is going to lose his job.

denverpatsfan said:

Hard to watch with all the commercials. I guess they don't care since it means more beer sales at the bar. Still shorter than a baseball game though. But the breaks in the action are hard to handle. I'm actually slowly coming over to the soccer side. Games are MAX about 2-hours and there are minimal breaks for commercials.

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Its kinda always been like that though, I actually walk over to my computer and have fun posting on these forums during commercial break.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Goodell is searching for the reason why fans aren't tuning in. Oh, the irony.

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Meanwhile, Mrs Goodell is also on a search...

Hammer of Thor said:

The Omissioner speaks:


Roger Goodell: NFL not losing viewers, but some are watching less

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https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

Just noticed that @ReverendMaynard hasn't logged on since October 12. Looks like his constant and obsessive football watching has now cut into his posting time.

KontradictioN said:

Just noticed that @ReverendMaynard hasn't logged on since October 12. Looks like his constant and obsessive football watching has now cut into his posting time.

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He's probably overwhelmed by your unwavering support.

denverpatsfan said:

Hard to watch with all the commercials. I guess they don't care since it means more beer sales at the bar. Still shorter than a baseball game though. But the breaks in the action are hard to handle. I'm actually slowly coming over to the soccer side. Games are MAX about 2-hours and there are minimal breaks for commercials.

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I don't understand how motorsports coverage in the US, Canada, and some other countries does not receive uninterrupted coverage like Soccer does. It's freaking ******** and I hate it!

I think the NFL's cultural shift to this "Reality TV" type style of media coverage is getting old for people who just want to watch some football

The emotional experience of games are a lot different now it seems to me than it was 10+ years ago because now every time a team makes a good play, the very first response I have is "ANY FLAGS!?" which sucks.. the penalties just seem to be so arbitrary and ticky tack sometimes, yet they have tremendous impact on the "momentum" of a game, if you believe in that sort of thing..

Brady for me, the way they did him, has completely changed how I experience football... Its just such a sore spot with me and still upsets me when I think about it.. not to mention that we aren't rooting on a 1st round draft pick that we could have used on an OL, LB, CB, DL.. that affects the team for the next 4-5 years, because that is a talent they don't have.
Obviously this is more of a New England region feeling, I highly doubt most other fan bases are upset at all that the NFL stuck it to the Pats and Brady

I'm sure the presidential debates, combined with competing with some popular network shows, etc has some factor in it as well

One thing I noticed when I dumped baseball, a sport which was much more "in my blood" than football, was that I didn't end up missing it when I left. And even when I give it a chance now and then the thrill is gone. IOW, when it comes to sports viewership, once you go black you never go back.

oldrover said:

He's probably overwhelmed by your unwavering support.

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I support him wholeheartedly in his vicious football addiction. Legend has it that he's watching football as we speak.

Ahhh, nothing quite like the musings of a deranged, incompetent megalomaniac. You have to really question what type of fantasyland the idiots at 345 Park Ave are living in. The fact that Howdy Doody Goodell believes that decreased viewer engagement is somehow the favorable alternative to losing viewers is flat-out comical. We aren't losing viewers, they just can't stand watching our crap product for any meaningful length of time! Way to go, Rog.

I've seen my football obsession fall tremendously. Used to be that I watched all day Sunday — early games, late games, Sunday night game. I couldn't walk by a game that was on and not sit down and watch it. Now I watch the Pats only. And I have something else I'm doing during Pats games when the commercials come on. It seems like I'm wasting my life sitting there through the endless commercials. Not to mention the tiresome bumps from CBS, Fox and NBC touting their crappy primetime shows. As if I cared about the latest episode of "NCIS Little Rock."

Ho-hum, another week, another drop in ratings.

Ratings still shrinking

Even the Pats-Steelers game was down. Granted the comparison was to a Cowboys-Giants game, but at the same time, both games should have been big draws between 4 of the NFL's marquee teams.

The one place where ratings are up is in the UK. This will likely inspire Roger to have 8 games in London next year. Awesome idea, Roger, to have a west coast team play in London this year, the 6:30 AM start time for them really helps rebuild the fan base in LA.

I also hate Florio's idea. While scoring in general leads to more excitement, it's not the be-all-and-end-all of things -- otherwise the Arena Football League would have supplanted the NFL in popularity. It's about quality. As much as it pains me to say, the Patriots' style plays a role in this -- bend/don't break is horrible football to watch; people want exciting defenses to view. We should be incentivizing quality, exciting football rather than cheap "no one can touch any wide receiver, Mr. Manning" fixes.

Hammer of Thor said:

Ho-hum, another week, another drop in ratings.

Ratings still shrinking

Even the Pats-Steelers game was down. Granted the comparison was to a Cowboys-Giants game, but at the same time, both games should have been big draws between 4 of the NFL's marquee teams.

The one place where ratings are up is in the UK. This will likely inspire Roger to have 8 games in London next year. Awesome idea, Roger, to have a west coast team play in London this year, the 6:30 AM start time for them really helps rebuild the fan base in LA.

I also hate Florio's idea. While scoring in general leads to more excitement, it's not the be-all-and-end-all of things -- otherwise the Arena Football League would have supplanted the NFL in popularity. It's about quality. As much as it pains me to say, the Patriots' style plays a role in this -- bend/don't break is horrible football to watch; people want exciting defenses to view. We should be incentivizing quality, exciting football rather than cheap "no one can touch any wide receiver, Mr. Manning" fixes.

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It's hard for me to separate my own feelings from the situation and be objective about why most fans have lost interest. I am just glad it coincided with my 100% boycott of the non-Patriots NFL for Defamegate. I've noticed more aggressive advertising lately, and the NFL is trying to get me back. I hope they continue wasting their advertising money in desperate hopes of getting me to tune in to see their must-see matchups. It makes me feel so powerful, even if it's just in my own mind. I love that these greedy, corrupt f*ckers are hiring think tanks to try to crack my mind open and figure out the problem, when it is in fact the owners themselves that are the problem. Next step is outright cancelling DirecTV altogether, not just Sunday Ticket, and explaining to them that I will not use any service that partners with the NFL and Roger Goodell.

Goodbye NFL - go F yourselves.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

Next step is outright cancelling DirecTV altogether

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I have never looked back. 62 channels over the "air", reduction of bill from $120 per/mo to $35 per/mo (Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu) and I still see all the games.

The NFL Is in Decline

I usually tune into sports to get away from politics - it's disappointing the NFL is its unique form of politics with Goodell. Sustainability. Long-term. Whether it's a farmer that's going to run the well dry, or the NFL owners finding a way to make attending games like a night at the opera, it's folly.

PScottman said:

I have never looked back. 62 channels over the "air", reduction of bill from $120 per/mo to $35 per/mo (Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu) and I still see all the games.

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The games are not on Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu are they?