After 11 weeks of the current NFL season, we’re getting a picture of how far the league’s TV ratings have fallen. MediaPost reports that even with a steady increase in Nielsen averages over the past four weeks, season-to-date numbers continue to trend lower overall vs. a year ago.
“Through the 11 weeks thus far, the season is down 6% to 14.7 million viewers,” the story reports, adding: “Week 11 posted a Nielsen 15.1 million average viewers. That’s up versus the two weeks before — 14.3 million (week 10) and 13.2 million (week 9).”
NBC did well with its recent “Sunday Night Football” game featuring the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, which posted a 12% gain over the year-ago week with 21.1 million viewers. On the other hand, the late Sunday afternoon game on CBS, featuring the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, was down 19% from a year ago to 19.0 million viewers.
1. It’s about the matchups. What appeared good on paper at the beginning of the season turned out to be a dud.
2. NFL Red Zone is killing ratings.
3. Way too many games on too many nights. Kill Thursday Night Football.
4. Game is watered down with too many penalties. Always holding breath on big play, waiting for the flag to drop.
5. Way too many college football games on as well which equates to football on Th-M.
The NFL needs to give people a reason to watch. Ask your friends what division their favorite team is in and who the other teams are in that division. The NFL needs to follow college football and have in-division play the second half of the season. When the two best teams in the division are playing each other with everything on the line, It creates a different type of excitement. You want to see your team play the key competition in their division during the final run. Also, NFL needs to swallow it’s pride and accept that College Football created a better overtime system. When the word gets out there is overtime in college the ratings go up because every play counts. NFL overtime is a bunch of runs looking not to lose by continuing the tie. Imagine Tom Brady against Russell Wilson in a college type overtime. Every play counts. That type if excitement is desperately needed by the NFL.