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NFL TV Ratings Discussion

JO_75

Hall of Famer
So let's see.... you have the defending Super Bowl Champion Patriots, who play in a big market like Boston. The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, including the first ever OT Super Bowl, and you think there is excitement for the Opening Game. TV Ratings are off to bad start and only one game has been played.

PFT reports that the Chiefs/Patriots opening night game turned in a 14.6 overnight rating, down from not just last year's game which featured the Broncos and Panthers but also down from the 2015 opener which saw the Patriots open the season hosting the Steelers which got a 17.7 rating.

2015: Steelers vs Patriots 17.7 Rating
2016: Panthers vs Broncos 16.5 Rating
2017: Chiefs vs Patriots 14.6 Rating

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-tv-rating-down-from-previous-opening-nights/
 

allblackraven

Hall of Famer
So let's see.... you have the defending Super Bowl Champion Patriots, who play in a big market like Boston. The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, including the first ever OT Super Bowl, and you think there is excitement for the Opening Game. TV Ratings are off to bad start and only one game has been played.

PFT reports that the Chiefs/Patriots opening night game turned in a 14.6 overnight rating, down from not just last year's game which featured the Broncos and Panthers but also down from the 2015 opener which saw the Patriots open the season hosting the Steelers which got a 17.7 rating.

2015: Steelers vs Patriots 17.7 Rating
2016: Panthers vs Broncos 16.5 Rating
2017: Chiefs vs Patriots 14.6 Rating

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-tv-rating-down-from-previous-opening-nights/

I guess lot of people in Florida missed the game while on their way up.
 

Adreme

Ravens Ring of Honor
Honestly Steelers Pats is a much sexier matchup then either of the other 2. Broncos Panthers at least had Cam Newton who had star power but the Cheifs just are not a sexy football team. They are dull and boring and will not drive ratings.
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
Honestly Steelers Pats is a much sexier matchup then either of the other 2. Broncos Panthers at least had Cam Newton who had star power but the Cheifs just are not a sexy football team. They are dull and boring and will not drive ratings.
These are true and Broncos Panthers was a rematch from the super bowl played in February.

Of course with Florida and Houston probably having other things on their minds, it probably hurt ratings. Let's see what happens the rest of the season and continue this thread from week to week.
 

gtalk12

Ravens Ring of Honor
I would be curious about a post protest plummet.
i wonder if more people will tune in for the anthems just to see if the players do it again...


Apparently rating went up for the games in anticipation to the anthem. 4% increase. Sorry I do not have the link or any proof to what I am saying
 

Sooky

Pro Bowler
Of course ratings are higher. I've been studying Marketing for the past 5 years and I have learned a few ways over the course of my time there how to boost ratings. A popular one, like used right now, is irritating a group of people in your fan base purposely and it drives up the talk about your company or product. Of course you have to be delicate with this because it can backfire if not used properly, but a lot of you would be amazed how often companies intentionally piss off people to get free media attention. It is a very common tactic in the business world.
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
Of course ratings are higher. I've been studying Marketing for the past 5 years and I have learned a few ways over the course of my time there how to boost ratings. A popular one, like used right now, is irritating a group of people in your fan base purposely and it drives up the talk about your company or product. Of course you have to be delicate with this because it can backfire if not used properly, but a lot of you would be amazed how often companies intentionally piss off people to get free media attention. It is a very common tactic in the business world.
That's because there is no such thing as bad advertising. My major was Marketing and although I don't work directly in that field, as a Fiduciary Investment Advisor and own boss, I have to promote myself and my company in any way shape or form. Marketing is very general in nature and is used in all types of business, but irritating groups of people is an extremely popular way of bringing up ratings, just look at what some of these sports shows do to drive ratings.
 

Sooky

Pro Bowler
That's because there is no such thing as bad advertising. My major was Marketing and although I don't work directly in that field, as a Fiduciary Investment Advisor and own boss, I have to promote myself and my company in any way shape or form. Marketing is very general in nature and is used in all types of business, but irritating groups of people is extremely popular.
Correct and it is used in politics and the master at this is Donald Trump. Sometimes he crosses the line and it hurts his campaign but more often then not he does enough to balance on that line.

I actually suggested something to a few friends last season that I could see the possibility of Kaepernick being paid to protest at first to boost NFL ratings last season, as well as the offseason after the NFL said they were down viewership at the beginning of last season. I mean the chances of it are slim, but possible. As long as there is a potential lesson learned from irritating people it usually comes out positive. Studying marketing and consumer behavior is really interesting to see how many ways people can have affects on your behavior.
 

Inqui

Pro Bowler
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-jump-ratings-week-4-nfl-coverage/724246001/#

The ratings have been following the same trend as last season - up and down individually but overall steady during the standard 1pm/4pm games, and with SNF looking pretty bleak. Fox was up 14% on the same round last year (it's been up 1% overall this season to date over last season) and up 20% on the national single-header a year ago, while CBS was down 23%. SNF was down 5% on last week but about the same as this time a year ago.
 

Willbacker

Ravens Ring of Honor
So how are these ratings actually doing?? I keep hearing their dropping but I'm not sure whats true.
 

K-Dog

MVP
Seriously though....
How do they know who is watching?

I mean does the cable / satellite company know what channel I am on? How is that even possible? The channel selection is made in the box itself isnt it ?
 

RavensMania

Staff Member
Administrator
Seriously though....
How do they know who is watching?

I mean does the cable / satellite company know what channel I am on? How is that even possible? The channel selection is made in the box itself isnt it ?
To find out who is watching TV and what they are watching, the company gets around 5,000 households to agree to be a part of the representative sample for the national ratings estimates. Nielsen's statistics show that 99 million households have TVs in the United States, so Nielsen's sample is not very large.
 

Inqui

Pro Bowler
To find out who is watching TV and what they are watching, the company gets around 5,000 households to agree to be a part of the representative sample for the national ratings estimates. Nielsen's statistics show that 99 million households have TVs in the United States, so Nielsen's sample is not very large.
The other difficulty is that different games are in different time slots and get broadcast in different markets. Fox gets the NFC games and CBS gets the AFC ones, and I forget the specifics of which gets what inter-conference game (iirc CBS gets the ones where the NFC side is at home - go figure on that one), and obviously the catchment markets differ wildly from year to year. For example our game against the Bears is probably going to be less interesting than whatever the CBS game was for the same market this time last year, so ratings will probably be down by double-digits.

The raw numbers, which gives a better idea of what I mean, are here. There's a lot of green and a lot of red and it's all very difficult to average because each slot has a different weighting based on the given slot, region and teams. Other notes are that the TNF ratings have been dropping from an already dismal level because it's only on NFLN this year (as opposed to being on NFLN and CBS last year), and the MNF ratings have been up for every week except for two (including week one, which has questionable statistical value because of the hurricane) but that shouldn't be a surprise because ESPN has stopped counting TV-only figures and now includes digital media (which is something every company should be counting tbh).

TL;DR: The ratings are tough to get an accurate read on without access to responsible professionals with access to more data than is made publicly available and who know how to properly average out the ratings (I know SportsBusinessDaily has a reputation as one of the best there is, but that's behind a paywall and it's what marketing firms and sports front offices shell out for, so you can imagine the kind of subscription fees it charges).
 

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
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