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Six Reasons NFL TV Ratings Are Down

There has been plenty of talk this week about the state of https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/nfl-ratings-plunge-could-spell-doom-for-traditional-tv/2016/10/14/a7a23dc2-915f-11e6-9c85-ac42097b8cc0_story.html">TV ratings for NFL games. Currently, the league is http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2016/10/18/nfl-television-tv-ratings-down-election/92388304/">experiencing a dip of 10 to 11 percent in the ratings from the previous season.

Everyone is speculating what is causing the ratings to drop, but there is no magical answer to the decline in viewership.

But here are my reasons, from smallest to biggest.

6. Scandals

It seems like the scandals never end in the NFL—Bountygate, Conclusions, Deflategate, domestic violence by players, and so on and so forth.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see fans stop tuning in because they are tired of hearing about a different scandal each week. After a while, everyone gets fed up with the constant, never-ending negative news coming out of the league.

These fans will probably return around the playoffs as long as another giant scandal doesn’t grip the league for the rest of the season. If the scandals keep up, these fans could find something else to watch.

5. Anthem Protest

Just look on Facebook or other social media sites, and you will see articles on folks protesting the protesters in the NFL.

Since players started kneeling during the national anthem, fans have supported and criticized the players involved. Those who dislike the protest have decided not to watch.

Casual fans and those who don’t follow a team regularly are probably the ones more likely to not watch because of the anthem protests. Hardcore Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and other national-team fans are going to tune in each week.

These fans will come back at some point, but they will probably not watch while they are mad at the players. Few people are that upset over the players to not watch at all, so in reality, this could make up a small number of viewer loss.

4. MLB Playoffs

The ratings for the http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/are-we-gonna-talk-about-how-good-baseballs-postseason-ratings-have-been.html">MLB playoffs are up this year. Why? Because fans have strong interest in the teams still alive this postseason.

They want to see if the Chicago Cubs can break their curse and win their first World Series since 1908. They want to see if the Cleveland Indians can win their first World Series since 1948.

With the playoff games on TBS, MLB Network and FS1, fans are finding channels they don’t normally tune into and watching this postseason.

MLB’s postseason is going to steal more casual fans from NFL games. Everyone wants to see something they have never seen before, and a ton of people have never seen a Cubs or Indians team win the World Series.

These fans will return to football once the World Series is over in late October or early November, depending how long the series lasts. This is one of the few times in recent years that the MLB playoffs have been more compelling than the NFL regular season.

3. Too Much NFL

Now that the NFL has games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday night, that is an investment of anywhere from nine to 12 hours of TV viewing.

After years of spending so much time watching, fans might be hitting some fatigue. They are probably following their team but not watching every NFL game three nights a week.

Some of the fantasy-sports crackdown has affected this group of fans. They watched each game to see how the players on their fantasy team are doing.

These fans won’t be back unless they catch the NFL bug again or things with fantasy sports work themselves out. Many of these fans will watch their team but not other teams.

2. Lack of Good Games.

Here are the games through week six on http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2016/TNF">Thursday night with final scores:

Carolina Panthers 20 Denver Broncos 21 (this was the opening game of the season)

New York Jets 37 Buffalo Bills 37

Houston Texans 0 New England Patriots 27

Miami Dolphins 7 Cincinnati Bengals 22

Arizona Cardinals 33 San Francisco 49ers 21

Denver Broncos 13 San Diego Chargers 21

That group includes very few high-profile teams, and several of the games were blowouts. Teams tend to play Thursday Night Football sloppy, as they are on a short week. There is not one matchup with two teams that a majority of the country is going to want to watch.

Here are the http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2016/SNF">Sunday Night games through week six with final scores:

New England Patriots 23 Arizona Cardinals 21

Green Bay Packers 14 Minnesota Vikings 21

Chicago Bears 17 Dallas Cowboys 31

Kansas City Chiefs 14 Pittsburgh Steelers 43

New York Giants 16 Green Bay Packers 23

Indianapolis Colts 23 Houston Texans 26

Sunday night ended up with some better matchups and closer games, with national matchups such as the Bears against Cowboys and Giants against Packers, but overall, it was a weak slate.

Here is a list of the http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2016/MNF">Monday night games with final scores:

Pittsburgh Steelers 38 Washington Redskins 16 (part of double header to start season)

Los Angeles Rams 0 San Francisco 49ers 28 (part of double header to start season)

Philadelphia Eagles 29 Chicago Bears 14

Atlanta Falcons 45 New Orleans Saints 32

New York Giants 10 Minnesota Vikings 24

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17 Carolina Panthers 14

New York Jets 3 Arizona Cardinals 28

Again, there were few games with national appeal and a few blowouts. There are not many Monday night games on this list that are worth dropping everything to watch.

One thing I don’t think is hurting the league is cord-cutters, people who have cut cable out of their budget.. Sure, they might not be able to see the games on ESPN or NFL Network, but most of the games are on CBS, NBC or Fox.

That might hurt the ratings some, but unless they refuse to go to Wal-Mart and get a cheap antenna, they can still see the game. A lack of great matchups and the same teams over and over again are more likely the reason fans aren’t watching. Very few fans stream games as seen by http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nfl-tv-ratings-viewership-nbc-cbs-fox-espn-nfln-regular-season-playoffs/">this link of ratings over the first six weeks of the season.

1. The Presidential Race

This is the major reason that I think fans aren’t watching. The presidential debates have destroyed the ratings for a couple of primetime games.

Fans are watching the news more this election cycle as scandals, mini-scandals and non-scandals are made into mountains but are really just mole hills are blown up on a near daily basis. This election has been one of the strangest, contentious and ugly ones in U.S. history.

Social media shows how much people are watching football over what is going on during the presidential race. My Facebook and Twitter feeds stay nearly full of political posts while the primetime games are being played.

Friends, family and others are spending a lot of time on this election. Once Nov. 8 comes and goes and whoever wins gets done rubbing the win in the face of those who lose. And those who lose stop pouting over losing. Both sets of fans will come back to the games.

Until the election is over, fans aren’t going to be tuning into the games. Well, give it a couple of weeks after the election for viewership to start to return to normal.

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