NFL Ratings Continue To Decline Like Nobody’s Business, Networks Losing Money
Joy Behar: We Shouldn’t Attack Comedians, Because They Are ‘Important People’
October 17, 2017Is It Just Me? Or Have Y’all Noticed How Much These Three People Look Alike?
October 17, 2017NFL viewership continues to decline. It’s bad.
The league’s average TV audience through Week 5 of the 2017 season dropped 7 percent vs. the same period of the 2016 season, according to Nielsen data obtained by Sporting News. Worse for the league, the average game audiences are down 18 percent compared to the first five weeks of the 2015 season.
The NFL’s average TV audience (including Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games) slid to 15.156 million viewers through Week 5 of the 2017 season. That’s down 7.42 percent from an average of 16.371 million viewers through the same period of the 2016 season, and 18 percent down from the average of 18.438 million viewers through the first five weeks of the 2015 season.
Oh, it gets worse. Monday Night Football ratings hit a season low.
Last night’s primetime broadcast of the Titans’ 36-22 victory stumbled to a season low with a 6.1 in metered market results.
In a season stained by overall ratings declines and political controversy, that NFLWeek 6 rating is down 13% from the early numbers of the much tighter October 9 matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears. That MNF season low went on to deliver a 3.7 rating among adults 18-49 and a total viewership of 10.3 million.
I know many people dismissed this as a “silly boycott,” but it’s actually affecting network earnings now.
Declining NFL television ratings will lower CBS earnings, according to Credit Suisse.
The firm cut its third-quarter EPS estimates by 5 percent, citing CBS’ softer Sunday NFL ratings. The media company reports on Nov. 2.
“We expect third-quarter network advertising to decline 3 percent (previously +1 percent), driven by soft ratings for both the summer schedule and for the start of the NFL season,” wrote Credit Suisse analyst Omar Sheikh. “With only one of the three content licensing deals we expected for the second half announced in third quarter, we also expect content licensing revenue growth to be skewed to the fourth quarter.”
Twenty-First Century Fox’s earnings are expected to drop too.
Meanwhile, the NFL is trying to mitigate the damage.
NFL and NFL Players Association release joint statement after meeting: pic.twitter.com/fZYumUXb33
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 17, 2017
We’ll see what happens…
