OT: Nothing to do with the knee; It's a pretty lousy product

[RockyMTblue2]

Due to pure happenstance and my unwillingness to get out of my Lazyboy to grab the remote (memo to self, 20 lb. monofilament, wrist and remote) I had to endure 15 minutes of the pregame Thursday night football extravaganza. Why are ratings down? Maybe a knee and an arm salute may account for something, but I doubt it. It's an oversaturated and pretty bad product. Very well expressed in this article.

Arrogance, Deceit, Oversaturation At Root Of NFL's Ratings Decline

 

[bags27]

As you suggest, Rocky. it's become incredibly vulgar. It used to be a pretty straight-forward production with over-the-top graphics and stuff saved for the Superbowl. Now every game has some of that. And then there is Fantasy Football, and all the betting that goes along with it. And the charging the military for their commercials, while pretending to be patriotic. And the announcers do not analyze a game, they socialize it.

I still try to follow my Patriots (why not? I'll never see their like again). But I usually tape the game for later, fast forwarding through commercials and bloviation. And almost never keep the sound on.

 

[BigBird]

As you suggest, Rocky. it's become incredibly vulgar. It used to be a pretty straight-forward production with over-the-top graphics and stuff saved for the Superbowl. Now ever game has some of that. And then there is Fantasy Football, and all the betting that goes along with it. And the charging the military for their commercials, while pretending to be patriotic. And the announcers do not analyze a game, they socialize it.

I still try to follow my Patriots (why not? I'll never see their like again). But I usually tape the game for later, fast forwarding through commercials and bloviation. And almost never keep the sound on.

Thanks, Bags. You said what I think too, but you said it more clearly. I like football. But, I am not as much interested in the "football culture."

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Haven't watched a college or pro "football" show (as opposed to the actual game) in years. Fast forward through the opening bla-bla. Watch the game. Turn off when over. If there are multiple games on - especially college Saturday - leave the boring game for the exciting game.

The one exception to the above is that my wife and I usually watch the Fox halftime show - mostly for the summary of the early games in progress. We have NFL Sunday Ticket, but we don't tape every game, only the ones we think we are interested in.

I actually don't watch much sports talk at all, in fact PTI and Sports Reporters are about it. And even with WBB, the studio shows and pregame "bla-bla" don't need to be watched either, in our opinion.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Due to pure happenstance and my unwillingness to get out of my Lazyboy to grab the remote (memo to self, 20 lb. monofilament, wrist and remote) I had to endure 15 minutes of the pregame Thursday night football extravaganza. Why are ratings down? Maybe a knee and an arm salute may account for something, but I doubt it. It's an oversaturated and pretty bad product. Very well expressed in this article.

Arrogance, Deceit, Oversaturation At Root Of NFL's Ratings Decline

As someone whose interest in pro football has transferred elsewhere in recent years, I think that saying the "knee" isn't having an effect is akin to standing in the living room and saying, "What elephant?"

 

[JordyG]

People have such short memories. Yet I'm old enough to remember reports from early 2015 how the NFL was bleeding viewership. In fact, viewership has steadily decreased over the last 4 years. The downturn has continued this year unabated. To blame this nosedive on Kaepernick is like blaming an increase in the rat population on the increase of local cheese stores. Look elsewhere man.

 

[jimazee]

People have such short memories. Yet I'm old enough to remember reports from early 2015 how the NFL was bleeding viewership. In fact, viewership has steadily decreased over the last 4 years. The downturn has continued this year unabated. To blame this nosedive on Kaepernick is like blaming an increase in the rat population on the increase of local cheese stores. Look elsewhere man.

Agree...I left the NFL (and other pro stuff including most sports talk shows) a while ago, but attributed it to old age and having a life.

Lately, I've talked to a few people who DO 'blame the knee'. They saw it as the coup de grace and the realization they shoulda left long ago.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

As someone whose interest in pro football has transferred elsewhere in recent years, I think that saying the "knee" isn't having an effect is akin to standing in the living room and saying, "What elephant?"

Read again. I say it may be a factor, but I doubt it. See JordyG's salient post above. I don't know how to measure it, but I doubt a true fan (yoand me not among them) would cut off their nose to spite their face by turning away from the game because of a First Amendment exercise by players.

 

[ChicagoGG]

Good read, Rocky. Thanks!

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Read again. I say it may be a factor, but I doubt it. See JordyG's salient post above. I don't know how to measure it, but I doubt a true fan (yoand me not among them) would cut off their nose to spite their face by turning away from the game because of a First Amendment exercise by players.

I suppose if a "true fan" as someone who sticks with the team no matter what, you are correct. Fwiw, the First Amendment asserts citizens' rights to express themselves without interference from government.. That doesn't extend to me walking out on someone else's stage and declaring I have a right to express myself there.

I'm not looking to pick a fight and I won't reply further. Just sayin' my opinion differs from yours on this.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Due to pure happenstance and my unwillingness to get out of my Lazyboy to grab the remote (memo to self, 20 lb. monofilament, wrist and remote) I had to endure 15 minutes of the pregame Thursday night football extravaganza. Why are ratings down? Maybe a knee and an arm salute may account for something, but I doubt it. It's an oversaturated and pretty bad product. Very well expressed in this article.

Arrogance, Deceit, Oversaturation At Root Of NFL's Ratings Decline

This was inevitable. It had to happen. A sports league can only dominate the ratings so much before it eventually comes down. The gains had to stop at some point.
Then too the PEOPLE speak with 2 languages most understood---Dollars and REMOTES.

 

[Orangutan]

People have such short memories. Yet I'm old enough to remember reports from early 2015 how the NFL was bleeding viewership. In fact, viewership has steadily decreased over the last 4 years. The downturn has continued this year unabated. To blame this nosedive on Kaepernick is like blaming an increase in the rat population on the increase of local cheese stores. Look elsewhere man.

Sorry to be the contrarian here, but it's not true that viewership has been decreasing for the last few years. It was up for every network but ESPN last year. Check out this article from January of this year - http://www.si.com/more-sports/2016/01/10/media-circus-nfl-playoff-ratings-espn-nbc-cbs

The final viewership numbers for the NFL’s regular season arrived this week and the Sunday packages (NBC, CBS, Fox) were all up over last year. Same with the Thursday night package across CBS and NFL Network.

• Fox drew 20.75 million viewers across all its games, a slight increase over last year’s 20.728 million average and the second most-watched year season since broadcasting NFL games in 1994.

• CBS said its NFL telecasts averaged 19.1 million viewers, a two percent increase over last year’s 18.7 million viewers. The 19.1 million viewers was the highest number of average viewers for the regular-season for the AFC television package in 29 years.

• NBC’s Sunday Night Football drew 22.5 million viewers, the show’s best viewership ever for SNF on NBC, and according to NBC, the best-ever for the NFL’s premier primetime package in 19 years

Yes, the ratings are down this year. But they are down from historic high-water marks last year.

 

[JordyG]

Sorry to be the contrarian here, but it's not true that viewership has been decreasing for the last few years. It was up for every network but ESPN last year. Check out this article from January of this year - No ceiling for NFL ratings in near-term

The final viewership numbers for the NFL’s regular season arrived this week and the Sunday packages (NBC, CBS, Fox) were all up over last year. Same with the Thursday night package across CBS and NFL Network.

• Fox drew 20.75 million viewers across all its games, a slight increase over last year’s 20.728 million average and the second most-watched year season since broadcasting NFL games in 1994.

• CBS said its NFL telecasts averaged 19.1 million viewers, a two percent increase over last year’s 18.7 million viewers. The 19.1 million viewers was the highest number of average viewers for the regular-season for the AFC television package in 29 years.

• NBC’s Sunday Night Football drew 22.5 million viewers, the show’s best viewership ever for SNF on NBC, and according to NBC, the best-ever for the NFL’s premier primetime package in 19 years

Yes, the ratings are down this year. But they are down from historic high-water marks last year.

My error. I stand corrected. To compound my error, viewership was steadily INCREASING over the last 4 years, NOT decreasing. Nevertheless as for the Kaepernick connection I stand firm.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I grew up a NY Giants fan, adoring this guy:

Abandoned the NFL for an accumulation of issues of today's society on gaudy display therein.