Whatever the reason, NFL ratings this season are up, up, up
Eric Deggans |
Nov. 10, 2009 8:01 a.m.
Want to get a spirited conversation going in sports media circles?
Point out that ratings for pro football this year are rising like the Balloon Boy’s chances of landing in serious therapy — especially on the big showcases such as NBC’s Sunday Night Football and ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Then ask why.
The answers you get often depend on the story folks want to tell.
Ask those who broadcast the games, and they’ll tell you that it’s the programming; exciting matchups combined with outstanding performances and great marketing efforts.
“Football and sports is the ultimate reality TV,” said Leah LaPlaca, vice president of programming for ESPN. “You look at the first couple of weeks of the season – who would have predicted that New England would have been leading, that Peyton Manning would barely be on the field…and Brett Favre coming back? Those were tremendous storylines.”
You can toss in Michael Vick’s return to play after his dogfighting convictions, the Dallas Cowboys debuting a $1.2-billion stadium in September and both the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints remaining undefeated long into the season.
And, as the sports blog Deadspin noted last week, seven NFL quarterbacks had a rating of 100 or higher, with 12 QBs earning a passer rating above 90. That means lots of exciting plays, which only adds to the buzz about games.
For ESPN, that has resulted in total viewership numbers for Monday Night Football up 18 percent from last year for the first nine games of the season — with their nine MNF telecasts producing cable TV’s biggest audiences of 2009.
Indeed, their broadcast of Vikings QB Favre’s Oct. 5 victory over his former teammates in the Green Bay Packers drew 21.8-million viewers; the most-watched show in cable television history.
As LaPlaca also noted, games are insulated from the digital video recording habits and online video outlets that are chipping away at other TV fare. Fans want to see these nail-biting conflicts play out when they happen; and thanks to the NFL’s tight-fisted control on content, any online material is mostly going to support rather than substitute for the game experience.
“(It’s) the ultimate appointment viewing,” she added. “(Fans) want to be part of shared experience. It appeals across a wide range of demographics. It’s basically DVR-proof.”
Ask some other media professionals, however, and they’ll say something different: It’s the economy, stupid.
As sports media analyst Neil Pilson told the Washington Post, “I think people are making conscious decisions that their entertainment dollars are best spent watching NFL games for free on their television sets.”
I heard similar sentiments a few weeks ago from a ratings analyst for Tampa’s NBC’s affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8, where the station saw Sunday Night Football ratings jump 11 percent among young viewers for the season’s first five games.
“In this recessionary age, where people do not have discretionary income to attend many live sporting events, people will turn to their comfortable favorites – events like televised pro football games,” WFLA research director Jennifer Yarter wrote to me in an e-mail. “Families can gather around the television, have a good time, and need not spend a dime.”
But when I asked Robert Seidman, one of the gurus behind the ratings-obsessed Web site Tvbythenumbers.com, he threw a bit of cold water on the recession hypothesis with a simple observation: There are really no facts to prove this is happening.
“It’s an interesting story without any data to back it up,” said Seidman, noting that sports fans may be watching more TV at home because they’ve invested in nice home theater systems and high-definition television broadcasts are so prevalent.
He suspects viewing in sports bars and other public places might actually be down, because people have created such quality home viewing environments for themselves. But since TV ratings provider The Nielsen Company doesn’t measure viewing in sports bars or other out of home environments, there’s no way to confirm his suspicions.
And wait – there’s another wrinkle.
As we reported in the St. Petersburg Times Sunday, NFL viewership among Hispanic fans is also up double digits – with Hispanic households up 19 percent from last year and Hispanic female viewing up 32 percent from 2007.
ESPN also reported its Spanish-language channel ESPN Deportes was seeing record numbers, with its telecasts of MNF up more than 130 percent from last year. Marketing experts from the channel told the newspaper that some surveys suggested the more Americanized Hispanics become, the bigger football fans they are.
So is the NFL’s TV success these days the result of great games, tight economic times, better home theater equipment, status as one of television’s last appointment viewing experiences or the country’s biggest minority group increasingly discovering football as a gateway to American culture?
This highly trained and experienced media critic will hazard a guess: It’s probably all those influences and more (we didn’t even mention the popularity of fantasy football leagues, which has sparked a new comedy series on FX called – what else? – The League).
The bottom line here? Like a penguin stuck on an ever-shrinking ice floe, television offers a diminishing number of mass viewing experiences; where everybody gathers around the tube to see a popular series finale or landmark political event.
So maybe we ought to just savor one of the last communal TV experiences left, enjoying the camaraderie which comes with an enthusiasm cutting across all areas of American culture, regardless of why it’s happening.
Quick as things change in media these days, it’s not likely to last long.
Point out that ratings for pro football this year are rising like the Balloon Boy’s chances of landing in serious therapy — especially on the big showcases such as NBC’s Sunday Night Football and ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Then ask why.
The answers you get often depend on the story folks want to tell.
Ask those who broadcast the games, and they’ll tell you that it’s the programming; exciting matchups combined with outstanding performances and great marketing efforts.
“Football and sports is the ultimate reality TV,” said Leah LaPlaca, vice president of programming for ESPN. “You look at the first couple of weeks of the season – who would have predicted that New England would have been leading, that Peyton Manning would barely be on the field…and Brett Favre coming back? Those were tremendous storylines.”
You can toss in Michael Vick’s return to play after his dogfighting convictions, the Dallas Cowboys debuting a $1.2-billion stadium in September and both the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints remaining undefeated long into the season.
And, as the sports blog Deadspin noted last week, seven NFL quarterbacks had a rating of 100 or higher, with 12 QBs earning a passer rating above 90. That means lots of exciting plays, which only adds to the buzz about games.
For ESPN, that has resulted in total viewership numbers for Monday Night Football up 18 percent from last year for the first nine games of the season — with their nine MNF telecasts producing cable TV’s biggest audiences of 2009.
Indeed, their broadcast of Vikings QB Favre’s Oct. 5 victory over his former teammates in the Green Bay Packers drew 21.8-million viewers; the most-watched show in cable television history.
As LaPlaca also noted, games are insulated from the digital video recording habits and online video outlets that are chipping away at other TV fare. Fans want to see these nail-biting conflicts play out when they happen; and thanks to the NFL’s tight-fisted control on content, any online material is mostly going to support rather than substitute for the game experience.
“(It’s) the ultimate appointment viewing,” she added. “(Fans) want to be part of shared experience. It appeals across a wide range of demographics. It’s basically DVR-proof.”
Ask some other media professionals, however, and they’ll say something different: It’s the economy, stupid.
As sports media analyst Neil Pilson told the Washington Post, “I think people are making conscious decisions that their entertainment dollars are best spent watching NFL games for free on their television sets.”
I heard similar sentiments a few weeks ago from a ratings analyst for Tampa’s NBC’s affiliate WFLA-Ch. 8, where the station saw Sunday Night Football ratings jump 11 percent among young viewers for the season’s first five games.
“In this recessionary age, where people do not have discretionary income to attend many live sporting events, people will turn to their comfortable favorites – events like televised pro football games,” WFLA research director Jennifer Yarter wrote to me in an e-mail. “Families can gather around the television, have a good time, and need not spend a dime.”
But when I asked Robert Seidman, one of the gurus behind the ratings-obsessed Web site Tvbythenumbers.com, he threw a bit of cold water on the recession hypothesis with a simple observation: There are really no facts to prove this is happening.
“It’s an interesting story without any data to back it up,” said Seidman, noting that sports fans may be watching more TV at home because they’ve invested in nice home theater systems and high-definition television broadcasts are so prevalent.
He suspects viewing in sports bars and other public places might actually be down, because people have created such quality home viewing environments for themselves. But since TV ratings provider The Nielsen Company doesn’t measure viewing in sports bars or other out of home environments, there’s no way to confirm his suspicions.
And wait – there’s another wrinkle.
As we reported in the St. Petersburg Times Sunday, NFL viewership among Hispanic fans is also up double digits – with Hispanic households up 19 percent from last year and Hispanic female viewing up 32 percent from 2007.
ESPN also reported its Spanish-language channel ESPN Deportes was seeing record numbers, with its telecasts of MNF up more than 130 percent from last year. Marketing experts from the channel told the newspaper that some surveys suggested the more Americanized Hispanics become, the bigger football fans they are.
So is the NFL’s TV success these days the result of great games, tight economic times, better home theater equipment, status as one of television’s last appointment viewing experiences or the country’s biggest minority group increasingly discovering football as a gateway to American culture?
This highly trained and experienced media critic will hazard a guess: It’s probably all those influences and more (we didn’t even mention the popularity of fantasy football leagues, which has sparked a new comedy series on FX called – what else? – The League).
The bottom line here? Like a penguin stuck on an ever-shrinking ice floe, television offers a diminishing number of mass viewing experiences; where everybody gathers around the tube to see a popular series finale or landmark political event.
So maybe we ought to just savor one of the last communal TV experiences left, enjoying the camaraderie which comes with an enthusiasm cutting across all areas of American culture, regardless of why it’s happening.
Quick as things change in media these days, it’s not likely to last long.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
One reason not mentioned
HDTV makes the experience much better