Commentary

NFL Ratings Rise, Fall But The Games Go On

The end-of-the year football game -- NFL or college -- drew large audiences despite on-field protests, medical safety issues and attacks by a president.

The return of ESPN's college football playoff series, airing New Year’s Day, earned the cable sports network strong viewing numbers.

For the semifinal game, in which Georgia beat Oklahoma, ESPN said there was a massive 39% increase to 26.8 million viewers compared to the same game a year ago -- making it the fifth-most-watched cable telecast of all time. The other semifinal game -- Alabama beating Clemson -- was 10% higher to 21.1 million viewers.

In the last two years, both semifinal games were played the night before on New Year’s Eve, posting lower ratings than when the games aired on New Year’s Day in the previous years.

Six bowl games airing on ESPN averaged nearly 15 million viewers on New Year’s Day this year.

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What about the NFL? On the surface, it didn’t seem to have good results for the last week of the NFL’s regular season this past weekend. This was largely because many playoff positions were secured with much drama and viewer interest dampened. NFL games averaged 14.4 million; a year ago, while national TV NFL games on the same weekend averaged 15.9 million.

Early this year, for several weeks, President Trump lambasted NFL teams for players' pre-game kneeling and protests during the national anthem. Some said Trump was the reason for the decline in TV ratings.

At the same time, some high-profile NFL players were injured in 2017, and overall medical concerns and uproar among critics seemed somewhat less than in previous years.

Now, the truth is that all TV programming has seen declines for a number of years -- including the NFL and college football.

But much of the decline in football has occurred at a slower rate than TV in general.  Post-season games had a reverse pattern -- higher viewing for all football, culminating at the Super Bowl.

Going forward, as the NFL and college teams look into the future, many may wonder where the growth is occurring.

Certainly, TV rights fees, national TV advertising and sponsorship revenues are growth areas. All this may lead to, and answer, this question: Does the future still look bright for the gridiron? Traditional TV networks and new digital media platforms would say yes.

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