There’s been a lot of articles recently citing Colin Kaepernick and others anthem protests as the reason viewership of NFL football is down, but I think it’s due to a very different reason: Football Fatigue.
In a recently conducted, and widely referenced survey, “Protests by Colin Kaepernick and Others” is cited as the #1 ranked reason for the decline in NFL viewership followed by:
• Lack of opportunity to watch the NFL
• Lost interest in the NFL
• Presidential election
Seems pretty cut and dried, doesn’t it? But what we don’t know is were there other potential reasons respondents were allowed to choose from?
Because if not, there’s a huge omission from that list, which might be able to be grouped under “Lost interest”, and that is, there is way too much damn football on TV, and on-line, leading to “football fatigue” by the time Sunday rolls around, let alone Monday Night.
How Much Football is on Each Week?
A LOT. In fact, if you look at the TV listings for just the “big” networks, there are on average 37 games available on broadcast TV from a typical Thursday evening through Saturday night meaning by the time NFL football rolls around on Sunday people are burnt out on football.
And there should be no surprise Monday night football viewership has dropped off, as by the time that rolls around there have been an average of 44 games viewers could have watched in the previous 4 days, and that doesn’t even count the secondary networks or duplicate games that can be streamed on-line.
Has Watching Football Really Changed and Why?
Yes, dramatically. It wasn’t that many years ago that a typical fan might have had the opportunity to watch 4, maybe 5 games in the course of a weekend; Maybe 2 college games on Saturday, then 2 pro games on Sunday, and when Monday Night Football rolled around we still had some capacity and interest to watch more football.
And then the NFL thought hmmm, if some is good, then more is better, and they introduced NFL Thursday Night football, se we got an extra game to watch each week.
But then the internet happened, and the world changed dramatically.
With the advent of on-line streaming the viewership of broadcast TV began to decline and along with it, advertising revenue began to drop. When people could watch whenever it was convenient, and fast forward though or skip commercials, it became harder and harder for broadcasters to hold peoples attention… with the exception of live sports.
Live Sports, The holy Grail for Advertising $$:
If you ever wonder about the mushrooming number of Sports Networks, the mega-deals with all the college conferences, and the advent of college conference sports networks like the Pac12 Network the Big Ten Network, etc, all you have to do is follow the money…
Sports is one of the things viewers are most likely to watch live, and not wait to watch later after they already know the final score, which means they will sit through commercials, with no ability to skip or fast-forward over them, meaning this is one of the most lucrative sources of advertising revenue.
But Aren’t People Upset over Kaepernick?
Sure, and it’s comforting to get indignant and self-righteous, but come on, this is ‘Murica, we love our football, it’s our gladiator sport. And while we might publicly pound our chest about the protests, in the privacy of our own homes, we’re not going to let that get in the way of our sitting on the couch, drinking beer, eating chips and watchin some damn ball!
So…
So More $$ = More Live Sports = More Football Games = Football Fatigue = Drop in NFL Viewership, not some theoretical self-righteousness.
But that makes for boring headlines, and the print and on-line media know sensational headlines like “Kaepernick Single Handedly Causing the Collapse of NFL Viewership” are tough click-bait articles to ignore because, you know, follow the money/ads/clicks.
But then again, I could be wrong…
clarkb... 