NFL attempts to explain lower ratings in 2016

Through four weeks, the NFL has seen lower ratings and there have been plenty of theories as to why. Overall, the ratings for the NFL are down 11% across the board among total viewers and 12% in the all-important 18-49 age demographic.

While CBS and Fox have seen drops by 3%, it’s the national primetime windows on Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night which have taken the biggest hits. Whether it’s been due to millennials not watching, anger over Colin Kaepernick anthem protests or cord cutting, the NFL has its own theories as to why the league has been seeing lower numbers.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell obtained an internal league memo from NFL director of broadcasting Brian Rolapp and league broadcasting czar Howard Katz explaining the lower ratings to the NFL’s media committee:

Internal NFL memo sent to address concern as to why ratings this season are so far down 11% pic.twitter.com/SitMveCr8q

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 7, 2016

The memo from Rolapp and Katz states, “While our partners, like us, would have liked to see higher ratings, they remain confident in the NFL and unconcerned about a long-term issue.”

 

Rolapp and Katz contribute the primetime ratings drop to one significant factor, the increased interest in the 2016 Presiential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump:

“this was clear when Monday Night Football went head to head with the first Presidential debate on September 26 and we expect it will again have an impact on October 9 when Sunday Night Football is up against the second Presidential Debate. We know that the big three cable news networks (Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC) are up +35% among viewers and even more in some key demographics.”

The memo points out that this is not the first time an election has affected the NFL’s ratings. In 2000 when George W. Bush and Al Gore were the candidates, all of the NFL’s partners (ABC, CBS, Fox and ESPN) saw ratings hits.

Rolapp and Katz say in a sense, the league is a victim of its own success being hard to match 2014 and 2015 which marked two of the three best starts in the last ten years.

They also dismiss the national anthem kneel downs started by Colin Kaepernick:

“… it is worth nothing that we see no evidence that concern over player protests during the National Anthem is having any material impact on our ratings. In fact, our own data shows that perception of the NFL and its players is actually up in 2016.

In summary, while we will continue to pay close attention to our ratings on a week-to-week basis, we should remember that 63 of the top 100 shows on television in 2015 were NFL gamess and have confidence that our product is by far and away the most powerful programming on television.”

So the NFL is not panicking right now and is looking forward to the end of the election where it feels the ratings will pick up.

[Darren Rovell]