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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nfl-e ... nnel=11563

By Tim Baysinger

If not for this past Monday night's highly watched NFL game, The Walt Disney Co's ESPN network would have had its smallest audience for "Monday Night Football" in 2016 since the 2006 season.

The National Football League has been plagued all season by ratings downturns, forcing its TV partners to give free extra commercial time to advertisers to compensate for lower-than-promised ratings. Advertiser demand has remained high though, as NFL games still attract more viewers than almost everything else on television, according to the Nielsen ratings service.

Monday's Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions game averaged 18.6 million viewers, the most ESPN has garnered for a "Monday Night Football" game since 2014. That helped ESPN post an average of 11.4 million viewers for its 17 games this season, finishing ahead of only the 2007 season, when it drew 11.2 million, according to Nielsen data provided by ESPN.

The NFL franchise moved from ABC to ESPN for the 2006 season; both companies are owned by The Walt Disney Co

This year marks the third consecutive year that ESPN's "Monday Night Football" audience has declined, and the fifth decline in the past six years.

The NFL ratings downturn was most notable in primetime. ESPN was among the hardest hit, with viewership falling nearly 12 percent from last season, according to the Nielsen data. ESPN had to contend with the contentious U.S. presidential election, often cited by league officials as a key cause for lower ratings this season.

While the election hurt NFL ratings, the three major U.S. cable news networks – 21st Century Fox's Fox News, Comcast Corp's MSNBC and Time Warner Inc's CNN – all benefited from the unpredictable race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Fox News finished 2016 as the most-watched U.S. cable network in primetime for the first time in its history, according to Nielsen data released late on Wednesday. Time Warner's CNN and Comcast Corp's MSNBC also had huge viewership gains.

I wonder if the streaming had anything to do with that? I don't think they count those as people watching. Could be quite a bit. You can watch any game you want on the internet.

snackdaddy wrote:I wonder if the streaming had anything to do with that? I don't think they count those as people watching. Could be quite a bit. You can watch any game you want on the internet.

yeah, wake me up when nielsen and other rating services figure out how to accurately capture online viewing or, better yet, wake me up when an article makes it a point to mention the decline in overall tv viewership when reporting on nfl ratings, as opposed to implying that ratings are fine across the board expect when it comes to nfl viewership...



http://www.marketingcharts.com/televisi ... -tv-24817/

snackdaddy wrote:I wonder if the streaming had anything to do with that? I don't think they count those as people watching. Could be quite a bit. You can watch any game you want on the internet.

I get that with the Sunday games, but Monday Night Football?
I find watching individual games to be a bore, unless its my team playing. The games are too long, the officiating is terrible and there's just too much commercials.
Sundays are great because we can switch to another game during a break in the action.
Just my .02, but NFL is reaching NHL level with me, and that is wake me up when its playoff time

On a side note, Gruden is done for the year now right? Isnt he fair game for a "sit down" now? Or has that ship sailed

dieterbrock wrote:On a side note, Gruden is done for the year now right? Isnt he fair game for a "sit down" now? Or has that ship sailed

Gruden is done for the regular season, but he's calling one of the wild card games. I think unlike an NFL coach, he could interview before his season is over.

RamsFanSince82 wrote:Gruden is done for the regular season, but he's calling one of the wild card games. I think unlike an NFL coach, he could interview before his season is over.

He can interview whenever he likes, unless ESPN has some sort of clause.
I thought that I read somewhere that Gruden had said something to the effect of waiting for the season to be over. I forgot about the playoff schedule. I could see him waiting for that to be over

My MNF viewing has waned ever since it went to ESPN. If one has to pay to see it, I think the numbers will dip right away.

Another reason the stupid Thursday night games need to go away.

moklerman wrote:My MNF viewing has waned ever since it went to ESPN. If one has to pay to see it, I think the numbers will dip right away.

Pay per View would kill it.
I'm with you,, once it went to cable it lost the magic. ABC was the only evening game in town. It was special and the cast was great.
Now Thursday, and Sunday night as well as the crappy cast kind of killed it. NFL 24-7 on The NFLN is saturating the experience.
I still remember waiting to Frank Gifford's halftime highlights where I could catch a brief glimpse of the Rams. Miss those days.

Hacksaw wrote:I still remember waiting to Frank Gifford's halftime highlights where I could catch a brief glimpse of the Rams. Miss those days.

Don't you mean Howard Cosell?

When I was a kid it was a treat to stay up late on Monday night just so I could watch the other game highlights at halftime at around 9:45pm central on MNF. Had to have my pjs on, teeth brushed and ready for bed.