Ratings fallen off a cliff...

Interesting article...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/10/nfl-ratings-just-fell-off-a-cliff-why/503666/

I really think that adding a Thursday night game every week hurt them the most. It meant another night was needed to put 3.5 hours into viewing. For those who are somewhat busy, then they likely decide between which if any do you watch, Monday or Thursday? Can't do both, so that alone made a split in viewing for some fans. The beauty of football viewing was that you couldn't wait to watch a game. So you had Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night and then wait almost a whole week to watch a game. Sitting on the edge, but then they hit us with another on Thursday. Its seems like overload may be hurting them. I thought the Kaepernick stuff hurt them & certainly the debates on the two nights.

Frankly, I have trouble watching ESPN. Can't stand listening to Boomer, so I don't watch the pregame, nor half time if I do happen to watch the game. Then I've tired of Jon Gruden who hasn't found he player that isn't the greatest. So if I watch, I turn the sound down or off altogether. That's only if our guys are playing or a couple of QB's or players that interest me, an explosive offense, etc. But don't give me the Dolphins, Bears, Rams, TB or say the Lions. Teams that just aren't compelling to watch like those. Pairing up those teams as a featured game on Sunday, Monday & Thursday is really tough. They really need the ability to flex games so that the night games get a good game. Setting the match ups before the season gets some real losers if a team doesn't play back to prior years form.

Aside from the game being on Thursday, I'm not a fan of the Thursday announce crew on NFL Network, either.

Though I do have to wonder how much of the ratings over the last few weeks have been due to election coverage and such.

I've heard people speculate that the NFL possibly wants games most nights of the week. I agree with Caddy, that we should have the Sunday games, and Monday Night, and save Thursday for something like Thanksgiving.

Otherwise, we start to reach "saturation". Especially now with college and high school football going on. That means, in theory, you could watch football a minimum of four days a week. Because you'd have the three NFL games on Sunday, the Monday Night game, the Thursday night game, High School Football (if you're a fan/follower) on Friday Nights (and the occasional Thursday/Saturday game) and College Football on Saturdays.

Some of it, too, is that the NFL can't really adapt to the "on demand" stuff that's going on with content providers now. You can't just watch a football game "whenever". Well, you can, but most prefer to watch it live, unless it's a classic game.

Many people now are "cutting the cords" and just watching TV on their tablets and such, or streaming video over the Internet. Makes it hard, I'd think, to calculate ratings that way.

There's also the possibility that people are, for whatever reason, starting to get "turned off" to football.

As I read the posts I think its a combo of saturation and the inability to get marquee games for all three nights and still have something left over for the weekend. Naturally, games that are local to an area are going to be supported by the fan base. But the other games of the day on Sunday can fall into the snoozer category on paper, with the marquee games going to Sunday & Monday nights.

I think the game has lost its dynamics, and the experience is now so sterilized form the over-officiating, including instant replay. Stoppage after stoppage to confer for minutes over some illegal contact is getting old. But what has really ruined the experience is delaying the gratification of a celebration after anything of significance occurs on the field. It used to be once the refs arms went up to signal a TD, or that one arm shot in the desired direction signaling change of possession, the elation could be had right then and there. But now, we wait. We watch replay after replay, and even after conclusive visual evidence, they STILL get it wrong often enough to invalidate the whole reason we have replay in the first place.