NFL dominates TV ratings

cheesehead

If there was any question if the NFL was "America's Game", the following New York Times article puts the issue to rest. 18 of the top 20 highest-rated telecasts (of any kind) this television season have been NFL games:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20ratings.html

TV network executives say improved viewing experiences (hi-def/replays/graphics) have contributed to the domination. I think the absolute explosion of Fantasy Football must be entered into the equation as well.

Ironically, the NFL is concerned the improved home viewing experience might detract from fans actually attending games at the stadium venue. It will be interesting to watch this development. Already, the NFL is offering more "extracurriculars" to enhance the stadium experience. For instance, at Lambeau Field, the Packers sponsor fan "tailgate" parties, where Packer greats from yester-year mingle with fans in a pre-game tailgate party setting.

Peyton Manning

Where would one obtain viewing figures for Sky, Channel 4 and ESPN's coverage of the NFL over here? Be interesting to see how it's doing.

mikemac

I'll look it up but I seem to a remember a big deal about a Steelers Dolphins game getting more viewers then a critical baseball game this season.

It was all over the media

amacachi

Maybe not a popular view but I hate to see one sport dominate like that.

mikemac

Baseball needs to take a good hard look at itself.

One thing the NFL has is parity, Any Given Sunday and all that. Sure this year the Rams are challenging for a playoff place.

Then look at the vast budget differences between baseball teams.
I don't know a whole lot about the CBA talks the NFL are having.
But it better not go down the route that baseball took!

amacachi

feelingstressed wrote: »

Baseball needs to take a good hard look at itself.

One thing the NFL has is parity, Any Given Sunday and all that. Sure this year the Rams are challenging for a playoff place.

Then look at the vast budget differences between baseball teams.
I don't know a whole lot about the CBA talks the NFL are having.
But it better not go down the route that baseball took!

Unfortunately it's a question of saturation. Plenty of people find football boring in one way. More people find baseball boring in more ways, but it's only now they're exposed to it that they're realising it.

Syferus

amacachi wrote: »

Unfortunately it's a question of saturation. Plenty of people find football boring in one way. More people find baseball boring in more ways, but it's only now they're exposed to it that they're realising it.

The NFL is easily the best run professional league in the world; from doucmenting to expanding their base in terms of geography and audience they do an amazing job at popularising their sport. They've been doing things for years that just about every other league would benefit from.

Baseball and basketball and ice hockey have one huge problem in terms of ratings - single matches matter for very little and most become alot like a local boardway/stage production in terms of the ripple it creates in the media and in the area. Almost every NFL game is a true event and they condense their audience to 16 games a season, a Yankies fan has 162 games a year to potentially watch, and then ther'es a potential for many more in the post-season.

They're set up differently and single game ratings really don't given anything close to an acurate perspective on the ultimate popularity of one league compared to another when one of them plays 16 games a year while the other trot their teams out for over 10 times as many games.

eagle eye

feelingstressed wrote: »

Baseball needs to take a good hard look at itself.

One thing the NFL has is parity, Any Given Sunday and all that. Sure this year the Rams are challenging for a playoff place.

Then look at the vast budget differences between baseball teams.
I don't know a whole lot about the CBA talks the NFL are having.
But it better not go down the route that baseball took!

MLB used to be no.1 and by a long, long way. The strike put a lot of people off and gave them time to look at other sports. Thats how the NFL became no.1.

Now there is an impending lockout in 2011 unless things get sorted out between the owners and the NFLPA and if that happened then they could lose a lot of what they have gained over the years since they took over at no.1.

amacachi

I wouldn't mind seeing a lockout, bring the NFL down a peg or two. :pac:

Was baseball ever ahead on ratings-per-game? Obviously it should be ahead on aggregate ratings but outside of the play-off series I can't imagine it being very high.

mikemac

Ah the CBA talks between the owners and players.

Or should I say talks between the billionaires and millionaires. :rolleyes:

Not all players are millionaires and not all owners are billionaires but for both, fans are way down their list of priorities

themont85

Agree with the above. The best run league by a mile. They truely embraced parity. They market their games like no other and have always been to the fore in being at the cutting edge of creating a television spectacle-Super Bowl and Monday Night Football. NFL Films is the big thing for me. Absolute visionaries in seeing how TV could document a sport in a storytelling fashion; Ed Sabol has to go into the Hall. Even today nobody produces docs et cetera as good as them. Other stuff like the website and network being the very best there is out there helps too.

mikemac

MLB.TV cost 99 dollars.

NFL Gamepass is close to 200 dollars for regular season, 80 dollars for playoffs and 130 dollars for off season.

They've set a price that people are willing to pay so well done to them. I wouldn't say the NFL have the best value for money product though

Rick_

Last week, the NFL on Sky Sports 2 had 46,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 44,000 viewers for the 9pm game and were placed 6th and 7th respectively on the most watched programmes on Sky Sports 2 that week.

The week before that, the NFL was on Sky Sports 4 and received 55,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 63,000 viewers for the 9pm game, and were placed 3rd and 4th respectively on the top 10 programmes on Sky Sports 4 that week.

I have no way of finding out the figures for Channel 4's coverage, but I'm imagining that it is good enough for them to still put ad breaks during the coverage instead of noting but studio talk and they also now have a sponsor, Thompson Holidays, who also sponsor the NFL on Sky Sports. I hope the figures are good enough for the show to stay with Channel 4 for next season.

HigginsJ

Nfl is best professional game around. Every game is vital. Do hope channel 4 keep up their coverage as they do a very good job

Syferus

Paddy C wrote: »

Last week, the NFL on Sky Sports 2 had 46,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 44,000 viewers for the 9pm game and were placed 6th and 7th respectively on the most watched programmes on Sky Sports 2 that week.

The week before that, the NFL was on Sky Sports 4 and received 55,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 63,000 viewers for the 9pm game, and were placed 3rd and 4th respectively on the top 10 programmes on Sky Sports 4 that week.

I have no way of finding out the figures for Channel 4's coverage, but I'm imagining that it is good enough for them to still put ad breaks during the coverage instead of noting but studio talk and they also now have a sponsor, Thompson Holidays, who also sponsor the NFL on Sky Sports. I hope the figures are good enough for the show to stay with Channel 4 for next season.

I think the Thompson thing is some manner of NFL sponsorship with the NFL itself - they're the offical 'travel partner' of the NFL in the UK - rather than deals directly with the two stations. The fact that C4 don't show breaks between the start of the game and half time and from the second half until the end is easily one of the best things about it, even if it makes you wonder how much of a vanity project picking up the rights was. It makes when Sky cut directly to commerical after a big talking point happening all the more infuriating, though.

Peyton Manning

Early figures show that last night's Super Bowl was the most watched television show in US history. Preliminary ratings show that more than 66% of televisions in the country were watching the game.

Le King

eagle eye wrote: »

MLB used to be no.1 and by a long, long way. The strike put a lot of people off and gave them time to look at other sports. Thats how the NFL became no.1.

Now there is an impending lockout in 2011 unless things get sorted out between the owners and the NFLPA and if that happened then they could lose a lot of what they have gained over the years since they took over at no.1.

True. Since the 1994 MLB season was called off due to the strike, Baseball has declined massively. The drugs, the attitude of the players and the coaches, contract disputes, treatment of professionals have all contributed to the downfall of the MLB and Baseball.

MLB has a really bad image. The record holders of the game are destroyed by steroid abuse. The game is completely destroyed compared to before and a lot of the fans aren't going back.

The NFL has a problem now. Unless the NFLPA can agree with the owners people will move on from that as well. Perhaps not as much, as I would consider the NFL the best marketed sports brand in the States atm.

NASCAR is second in ratings and popularity. That won't over-take football for a long time though. Basketball is only popular in certain areas and soccer in the US is growing slowly.

Providing there is a 2011 NFL season, it will continue to dominate.

PeakOutput

there will definitely be a 2011 season of some sort

baseball is traditionally americas game but i dont see it ever coming back strong, its season is stupidly long there are way way too many games that dont matter and its too much of a commitment to watch just one game

the nba has much the same problem as far as length of season and nothing mattering accept the playoffs

every game counts in the nfl

its once a week for under 5 months really so the very important games come around thick and fast

PeakOutput

just heard on espn there that the ratings for the superbowl this year were about 111million

that does not include people who watched it in bars/ restaurants/casinos

it only counts televisions not people watching the televisions

it dosnt include people under the age of 18

and there are plenty of other things it dosnt include that when totted up basically suggest almost 100% viewing figures

the americans have a rating system for rating the ratings if that makes sense and the superbowl was awarded a 52. this is more then the nba playoffs, the world series and the nhl combined which was suprising to me

if anyone wants to hear the full breakdown espns thundering herd podcast explained it all yesterday it was very interesting

cooker3

It doesn't just dominate every other sport on the box. It dominates at the game itself
http://www.sportingintelligence.com/finance-biz/business-intelligence/global-attendances/

The NFL really is in a league of it's own.

RuggieBear

total baseball figures are insane tho...and the average is very impressive considering the sheer amount of games played

Haruki

The channel 4 coverage this year was outstanding, took one or two weeks for Imlach and Carlson to gel, but when they did it was a joy to watch. Hope its back next year.
Sorry that was a little off topic.

But as a game i can totally see why it gets so high ratings....it's bloody brilliant.

theslug88

Paddy C wrote: »

Last week, the NFL on Sky Sports 2 had 46,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 44,000 viewers for the 9pm game and were placed 6th and 7th respectively on the most watched programmes on Sky Sports 2 that week.

The week before that, the NFL was on Sky Sports 4 and received 55,000 viewers for the 6pm game and 63,000 viewers for the 9pm game, and were placed 3rd and 4th respectively on the top 10 programmes on Sky Sports 4 that week.

Hi all, new to this! Just wondering are these figures for the UK alone and would anyone know where to get the viewing figures for NFL in Ireland alone or are they obtainable?

Rick_

I believe that they were the UK only figures, but I'd have to check. I don't know if the ratings system in Ireland covers just the main terrestrial channels or whether there are actually methods in place for records of non-Irish satellite channels in Ireland.