For many homes in America every Sunday from September through October is spent watching NFL foot ball (NFL ). Recently this has not been the case, and this is based on the studies that show the ratings of viewers for Sunday football have indeed decreased. According to research done by the NFL overall viewership has declined tremendously, and as of week for the viewings were down by a total of eleven percent. This is a major change due to the fact that the viewership had increased by almost twenty-seven percent in the last fifteen years until now (Viewership) . Other studies conducted shows that this decline has been evident through the past three years and the number of viewers has decreased each year by almost a million. This has been the worst drop in rating seen in the NFL (Sporting News). Major stations that televise the games such as FOX, CBS, NBC, and ESPN are suffering from this situation because when the money they usually generate from the games will also decline as the viewership continues to decline (BusinessInsider ).
Overall Impact
Now we know the ratings are declining fast, but what does this have an impact on. As mentioned in the paragraph above the networks are losing money. CBS is a a major network and statistics show their market share on wall street has declined by five percent (Fox Business ).
Aside from major networks losing money the decreasing in viewers can also have a major effect on the companies who choose to air their commercials on these major networks. For example, companies will not be able to reach out to as many people as they could before and this could also mean losing a portion of their target audience. By losing the audiences that the companies are trying to reach out to the most this could cause a decline in money. The viewers are declining and therefore many might not be aware of the products companies are trying to sell. Companies are not the only ones who will be losing profit from this but the players as well. Reports have shown that the many fans are not buying jerseys anymore and therefore the players are losing a good portion of their income. (Jerseys).
-N36728_XL.jpg)
One more major impact these ratings can have is that the slow collapse of the supersize pay television bundle because many households will not want to include the NFL in their packages when trying to chose the right one. (Fortune).
Conclusion
Over all the television ratings for the NFL continue to decline and as the research has shown, this can have an impact on many factors than just the NFL itself. Companies could end up seeing a decreasing in their overall sales because of the viewers that are being lost on major networks. Along with companies losing money so will the networks who carry the games. Players profit will also be affected because their fans will not be as aware of them as they were before. Finally, television companies can also lose out when customers end up not buying the big bundles that are offered. Since they are not watching the NFL games they would be no need for them to pay for it. The NFL must find a way to gain more viewers in order for these problems not to occur.
Thanks for reading!
-Mykenzie Martin
Mykenzie's Blog 