NFL Ratings Rebound in Most Competitive Season Since 1932
December 16, 2016 10:42 PM By Brian Tinsman
Filed Under: NFL ratings, Roger Goodell, Washington Redskins
Jordan Reed #86 of the Washington Redskins. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — With the 2016 Presidential Elections in the rear-view mirror, fans of full-contact entertainment have returned to the NFL in droves.
Broadcast numbers through Week 14 show that viewership is down 10 percent over the course of the season. These numbers are reversed from Week 10, however, when league viewership was down by an average of 14 percent.
“It’s an encouraging rebound,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN on Friday. “I think it proves that the election was certainly a factor.”
That’s not to say that the news is good for everyone. Prime-time matchups on Sunday and Monday nights have historically delivered some of TV’s biggest ratings, period. But ESPN reports that Monday Night Footabll is off by 15 percent, NBC’s Sunday Night Football is down by 13 percent, and the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football is down by a dismal 17 percent.
Sunday afternoon football has actually fared best, with FOX experiencing just a 4 percent drop in viewership, while CBS has witnessed a 7 percent slide.
Under Goodell’s tenure, the NFL has shown a willingness to tinker with rules across the board, and he acknowledged that more changes could be coming to commercial breaks before the end of the regular season.
He rejected, however, any argument that the dip in viewership could be attributed to waning interest in the sport or a lack of competitiveness.
Indeed, the average margin of victory this season is 9.83 points, the lowest since 1932 (9.13 points). That year, the Redskins were in their inaugural season, known as the Boston Braves, and played home games at Fenway Park.
Games have also stayed competitive throughout, with nearly 70 percent of all 2016 contests within one score in the fourth quarter. If the season ended today, that would be the highest mark since 1935 (71.7 percent).
Over the last two weeks of the regular season, look for the NFL to consider ideas that would expedite the official review process (approximately 15 minutes per game), and commercial breaks (2:20 since the NFL’s TV debut).
***********
Commissioner Roger Goodell calls ratings uptick 'an encouraging rebound'
4:18 PM ET
NFL ratings, which have been down significantly this season, have improved slightly since the U.S. presidential election.
While viewership is down 10 percent overall through the first 14 weeks of the season compared to that time span in 2015, that's four percentage points better than the collective broadcasts were down a little more than a month ago.
"It's an encouraging rebound," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN on Friday. "I think it proves that the election was certainly a factor."
For the first nine weeks, NFL games averaged 15.5 million viewers, which was down 14 percent compared to 2015. But following the Nov. 8 presidential election, which took place two days before the start of Week 10, viewership has increased. During Weeks 10-14, NFL games averaged 18.1 million viewers, off just 2 percent compared to those weeks in 2015.
The NFL relaxed its in-game video and social media rules for individual teams on Friday, part of an ongoing evolution of a policy that has drawn protests from some quarters.
"I don't think we've seen anyone who wants less football," said Goodell, referencing the recent
Dallas Cowboys-
Minnesota Vikings game as the most watched Thursday Night Game ever.
In fact, it's the rise in the Thursday Night viewership that partially helped the league rebound. Those games from Weeks 10-14, which also included a highly anticipated
Kansas City Chiefs-
Oakland Raiders matchup, were up 35 percent compared to 2015.
Big games certainly have helped ratings rebound from the 15.5 million average seen from Weeks 1-9, as have the success of the Cowboys, who at 11-2 are tied with the
New England Patriots with the best record in football.
The Week 10 Sunday game on Fox featuring the Cowboys versus the
Pittsburgh Steelers drew 28.9 million viewers. Two weeks later, the Cowboys versus the
Washington Redskins pulled in 35.1 million viewers on Fox. And last week, the Cowboys' game against the
New York Giants on NBC's Sunday Night Football was watched by 26.5 million people.
Through the first 14 weeks, the biggest declines have been for ESPN's Monday Night Football and NBC's Sunday Night Football, which are down 15 and 13 percent, respectively, compared to 2015. Thursday Night Football, which is shared by the NFL Network, CBS and NBC, as well as with Twitter, is down 17 percent.
Networks that air Sunday day-time games have had the narrowest drops. Fox is down 4 percent in viewership, while CBS has seen a 7 percent decline.
While the league wants to provide fans with a way to see the best moments of games on social media, executives have been weary of letting them do too much, so as not to discourage fans from watching at all. This year, the NFL put limits on what teams can put out editorially within the games and required that highlights be pulled from the league's server.
Said Goodell: "You have to prepare to cannibalize yourself to deliver what the consumer wants. But we want to make sure to have the right balance."
!
