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Poll says protests are biggest reason for rating decline

tapeANaspirin2it

tapeANaspirin2it

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ESPN has the article, which must kill them to publish, that shows that it was in fact the protests and not the distraction of the Presidential election that was the biggest reason for ratings decline.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...-protests-no-1-reason-viewers-tuned-nfl-games

It is interesting that the 2 main reasons ESPN and the NFL blamed, election and cord cutting, were the bottom reasons.

ESPN seems to work under the impression that the public wants politics mixed in with sports. They don't. Even those who may agree with a protest tend to hate it when it gets mixed in their entertainment. People hate it when a movie or TV show puts a lecture in there. They hate it when a singer stops the show to tell you their beliefs on global warming or whatever.

It's safe to assume ESPN's own rating decline is mostly due to them becoming a sports themed MSNBC. Will this finally get them to face facts and get back to sports?
 
I forget what show I was watching on ESPN last week, but they began to lecture the audience on some political issue and I immediately changed the channel. I wanted to watch highlights and analysis and wasn't getting that.
 
SteelerFan448 said:
I forget what show I was watching on ESPN last week, but they began to lecture the audience on some political issue and I immediately changed the channel. I wanted to watch highlights and analysis and wasn't getting that.
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Really? Wow. I stopped watching ESPN and the NFL network 5 or so years ago. I was always one to turn it on when I got up in the morning...when I got home from work and before I went to bed...or just when I had spare time... at some point it stopped being just about sports....and I just don't miss it. Same with the NFL. If a game was on I didn't care who was playing...if I could watch it I did.....now I am a one game a week guy.
 
ESPN is owned by Disney which also owns ABC and probably a few other media outlets. Since they pay so much money to the NFL (MLB, NBA too for that matter), its not surprising they are also lock step with many of their agendas

Maybe I'm just getting to be an old f'er but I think all of the pro sports are on the decline. Especially football. I think they hit their peak in the early to mid 90s. The NFL was on fire and new teams were coming into the league and you had a broad range of fans young and old. Now there is way too much entertainment industry BS, too many overpaid prim donna athletes, and not enough of the game we grew up loving still left.
 
JMM said:
ESPN is owned by Disney which also owns ABC and probably a few other media outlets. Since they pay so much money to the NFL (MLB, NBA too for that matter), its not surprising they are also lock step with many of their agendas

Maybe I'm just getting to be an old f'er but I think all of the pro sports are on the decline. Especially football. I think they hit their peak in the early to mid 90s. The NFL was on fire and new teams were coming into the league and you had a broad range of fans young and old. Now there is way too much entertainment industry BS, too many overpaid prim donna athletes, and not enough of the game we grew up loving still left.
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Agreed.

However I think the NFL peaked in the mid 2000's.
Imo the sport became over saturated. I've always been a Steelers game only watcher. But even then, the constant commercial breaks, with every week headline is "this player is protesting" or "Tom Brady ate this tonight" --- just play the damn game.

Steelers football is pro sports royalty. Now those media agenda pushers stop tarnishing my sundays!!!
 
I agree, there is no place for politics in music or sports. Do your agendas on your time.
 
Political viewpoints continue to ruin entertainment.
 
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Just running with this story in hopes people will start to believe that instead of the real reason ....................................... Goodell has ruined the game by chasing after all the fantasy fans.
 
MT~Forged said:
Just running with this story in hopes people will start to believe that instead of the real reason ....................................... Goodell has ruined the game by chasing after all the fantasy fans.
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TRUTH





Salute the nation
 
Watched a bit of the *''s, NFLN, last night. Too much talk about the *''s and why bell isn't at practice rather than what was actually going on.
 
MT~Forged said:
Just running with this story in hopes people will start to believe that instead of the real reason ....................................... Goodell has ruined the game by chasing after all the fantasy fans.
Click to expand...

The NFL has slowly alienated its core fan base. I was just checking out some of the Steelers merchandise this year, $25 for a t-shirt all the way up to $50. Who is going to pay that much for a shirt, especially if you have a family with a few kids? Rising price of merchandise, tickets, concessions, parking make it tougher for anyone to go to games while having football and now that games no longer fit nicely into the three-hour time window makes it an even bigger commitment--and that's due to commercials and replay reviews.

I still think the biggest issue is an oversaturation of games on TV, particularly the Thursday night game. As a diehard football fan, my viewing decreased coincided with the extra games. Terrible matchups and games on what seemed like all of the time and I stopped caring if I missed a game here or there. A few years later, I am basically limited to Sunday day games and part of the SNF game.

Back to the politics, I was flipping through the channels there was just a guy on ESPN who said the only reason people were mad at kneeling during the National Anthem was because a) who it was and b) why he was kneeling. Left no other possibility why people disagreed with Kaepernick's form of protest.
 
Steelerfan448, I will say that $25 for a branded T-shirt is a little high, but not insane. We sell our Brewery shirts for $18.00 to $20.00 and we're just a local state brewery, not a nationally known spot. That's just standard market value.

Personally, I have an issue with games being sprayed across 4 different channels and services. I suppose that makes it convenient for some folk to get games from different sources, but I personally just use standard channels for my games. I don't subscribe to cable or dish so please, just put the f'n games on standard channels. Don't throw **** on ESPN and then whine about the fact that I didn't pay extra to watch it. And no, I'm not going to pay an entire ******* dish service fee to watch MY teams' games. I'm sorry. If you had a decent package where I could be guaranteed to see just Steeler games and nobody else and it wasn't ridiculously expensive, I'd look at that. Then I'd catch other teams games (you guessed it) on standard airwaves.

Since that's not an option, I will catch what games I can at the local sports bar when it is convenient for me and the rest I will watch as replays. The NFL has turned in to too much of a money grab and we as fans have too much access to highlights, statistical information and information sharing. We don't NEED to see every frickin' game from every frickin' team to be relatively informed. I'd certainly watch more if it was convenient and affordable. But since it's not - FU Goodell.

Simple as that.
 
wig said:
Steelerfan448, I will say that $25 for a branded T-shirt is a little high, but not insane. We sell our Brewery shirts for $18.00 to $20.00 and we're just a local state brewery, not a nationally known spot. That's just standard market value.
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$18-20 is about right for a branded t-shirt. $25 as the cheap end product is quite high, especially when a majority seem to range between $28-$35. Seriously, $35 for a t-shirt? That's insane.
 
politics and running lame stories into the ground are the reason they suck...they focus too much on what fringe fans might be interested in like anything tebow or manziel......go so ******* sick of hearing about each time they **** themselves.....
 
Hard core fans will watch, but I do know some casual level fans who didn't watch because of the protesting. The main reason a player like Kapernick was blackballed. And those causal fans are happy he's out of the game.
 
Coach said:
Hard core fans will watch, but I do know some casual level fans who didn't watch because of the protesting. The main reason a player like Kapernick was blackballed. And those causal fans are happy he's out of the game.
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Kapernick simply isn't good enough to offset the negative publicity he brings. If he was, the Bengals would sign him in a heartbeat.
 
MTC said:
Agreed.

However I think the NFL peaked in the mid 2000's.
Imo the sport became over saturated. I've always been a Steelers game only watcher. But even then, the constant commercial breaks, with every week headline is "this player is protesting" or "Tom Brady ate this tonight" --- just play the damn game.

Steelers football is pro sports royalty. Now those media agenda pushers stop tarnishing my sundays!!!
Click to expand...

This why I am so thankful for hockey and the NHL. Sad, but they too will suffer the effects that come from gross income and advertising influence as their popularity grows. Last true vestige of professional sports.


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