Have NFL ratings peaked?
Everybody loves football. Except those who don’t.
A game between the Kansas City Chiefs at the New England Patriots (8:30 p.m., NBC) kicks off the regular season. A special edition of “Football Night in America” (7:30 p.m., NBC) initiates the hoopla.
NFL football continues to be among the most widely watched programming. For years, ratings for NFL games offered one of the bright spots for network bean-counters.
But last year, according to a report from ESPN’s website, ratings were down about 8 percent. Some watchers have attributed this to some less than stellar matchups. Others point to an overall decline in cable subscriptions.
For years, live sports was among the reasons that people kept their ever-more-expensive cable packages. But now some streaming services, like Amazon Prime, are streaming select NFL football games. Amazon will stream CBS’s “Thursday Night Football” feed beginning next week.
It’s interesting to note that the NFL came of age with television as America’s pre-eminent sport. Games like the 1958 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts attracted millions to their tiny black-and-white sets. The arrival of “Monday Night Football” in 1970 all but announced the marriage of the sport and the medium.
The action-based sport lent itself to breathless coverage much more than the languid pace of Major League Baseball, which had been the dominant sport in the pre-television age.
So it’s interesting to see what happens to the NFL as television itself continues to “mature” and transform.
I’d venture a guess that some of the decline in NFL ratings is attributable to factors that transcend television. The league’s concussion crisis cannot be ignored.
Just last week, ESPN analyst Ed Cunningham, an NFL veteran, resigned rather than continue as what he characterized as a “cheerleader” for a sport that resulted in so many deadly brain injuries.
Parents with no relationship to the NFL have also begun pulling their sons out of midget and high school football. All over America, high schools have been forced to merge or cancel football programs because not enough players have signed up.
I have no doubt that NFL ratings will be strong this year and probably next. But what about five years from now? Or 10? Or when a generation of would-be players have begun participating in other sports or activities?
I know a lot of people watch football to unwind and avoid the many troubles in the world. But the sport itself is facing an existential crisis.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@ gmail.com.