NFL Ratings Down Across The Board Through Two Weeks
Through two weeks of play, the NFL’s ratings are down by a fairly sizable percentage — with Monday Night Football, historically the league’s signature television franchise, absorbing a particularly hard hit.
According to data compiled by Sports Business Daily, Monday Night Football pulled in 12.1 million viewers for its Week 2 match-up featuring the Eagles and the Bears — the lowest Week 2 Monday Night Football audience in five years. And through three games this season (Monday Night Football aired a doubleheader in Week 1), the franchise’s ratings are down 12%.
ESPN is not the only network feeling the pain of the NFL ratings decline. All four of the league’s television partners have seen smaller audiences for their respective packages. Fox, which broadcasts NFC games on Sunday afternoons, has had its numbers hold relatively steady, down 0.2%. But NBC, which airs Sunday Night Football, has experienced a 12% decline from last year. And CBS, which has the rights to Sunday afternoon AFC games, has had a 5% drop. (The Thursday night game they televised between the Bills and the Jets was down 27% from the match-up televised in the same slot a year ago.)
There have been a lack of compelling match-ups in the primetime slots so far this season, which has clearly contributed to the decline. The Patriots, for example, played their Week 1 Sunday night game without Tom Brady, who was suspended for the first four games this season due to the deflategate scandal. Patriots-Cardinals with Jimmy Garropolo under center hardly whets the appetite of the casual football fan.
To that end, the numbers for the primetime games might continue to drop. Tonight’s Thursday night match-up features the Pats and the Texans — with the Pats possibly starting third-string QB Jacoby Brissett in place of an injured Garropolo. And Monday night’s Falcons-Saints game goes head-to-head with the long awaited first presidential debate.
Some are speculating that the National Anthem protests — which began with 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, and have spread throughout the league — have helped drive the ratings down this season. A survey conducted by E-Poll Marketing Research and shared by ESPN concluded that Kaepernick is the most disliked player in the NFL, with 36 percent of NFL fans saying they dislike him “a lot.” Of course, Kaepernick had the top-selling jersey in the league earlier in the season, so it’s clear he is popular with a large portion of NFL fans as well. But if a significant portion of the 36 percent of fans that dislike him (and presumably, others who are protesting) begin to tune out, that could spell trouble for the league.
[image via Dean Bertoncelj / ShutterStock]
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