{"id":761922,"date":"2017-10-25T15:58:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T19:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=761922"},"modified":"2019-09-01T14:38:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T19:38:39","slug":"is-the-nfl-in-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/is-the-nfl-in-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the NFL in Trouble?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The recent news story about NFL players kneeling when the national was played was somewhat controversial, but is this really the biggest problem the NFL is facing?\u00a0NFL ratings have been dropping, and it\u2019s not a new phenomenon, it\u2019s a trend that started back in 2015. Can anything be done to stop the ratings freefall?<\/span><\/p>\n 2015: the year NFL ratings stalled!<\/span><\/p>\n Viewing figures for the NFL had been quite stable until 2014.\u00a0But 2015 saw NFL ratings hit a dead spot. The following year, 2016, ratings suffered a 9% drop. In the first six-week period of the season ratings dropped by a worrying 11%, but it only got worse, and by the end of nine weeks ratings were down a staggering 14%. <\/span><\/p>\n Surprisingly, the analytical data showed that although viewers watched 5% more games, they actually watched each game for a shorter period of time. It seems that fans were possibly less loyal, or more distracted. Generally, people have been watching less TV, including sports, in recent years, instead opting for live streaming online, although even then many viewers do not watch 100% of each game. <\/span><\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just the NFL which has suffered. NASCAR ratings have <\/span>also slumped, and the NBA suffered its lowest ratings ever on network TV last year, so it appears to be a sports industry-wide phenomenon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So, what\u2019s behind this drop in viewing ratings for sports? And the NFL in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n Failure to attract new, younger viewers<\/span><\/p>\n The typical viewer of live sports nowadays is older, much older, than in the past, with typical NFL viewers being 50-plus, and it\u2019s a similar story for college football and basketball.\u00a0There\u2019s no influx of new viewers.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to the NFL, young people just aren\u2019t sitting down to watch an entire game anymore.\u00a0Their behavior is different; for example, binge watching a complete season of their favorite show in one day, or over a weekend.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n