Declining TV Ratings for the NFL have been a well-documented topic during the last two seasons, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith believes the players should be involved to discuss the league’s future.
“I think that the ratings information is significant and important. If we don’t pay attention to it, I think that we do so at our own peril, from a macroeconomic standpoint,” Smith told ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “Certainly, I recognize that we’re lucky that over 30 of the top 50 shows were NFL broadcasts. But I think that you ignore at your own peril not so much just the decline in football, but the overall decline in ratings for most television shows and particularly sports broadcasts.”
While the NFL has experienced consecutive seasons of television declines nearing 8%, the NBA has enjoyed increases of 12% for its national broadcasts. DeMaurice Smith recognizes the success of the NBA and believes the NFL should look to their model.
“I think that you could make the argument that a lot of their programming is fresher, hipper. They do, I think, a great job of marketing their individual players, sometimes at a time when the [NFL] looks for ways to take their star players off the field. I would be interested in better understanding the relationship between the broadcast partners and the NBA, what that relationship is like, how they do their TV deals, their rights deals.”
Smith continued, “But I think that, given the year-over-year ratings issue in football, it begs the question, ‘Should we be doing something different?’ And that might mean the restructuring of the season in a way to make it more fan-friendly.”
In terms of what the NFL needs to improve on, Smith told Graziano improved matchups should be a focus of the league, using fan intrigue of divisional and playoff games as an example.
“You look at the ratings, and you see that marquee matchups buck the trend on declining ratings,” Smith said. “When you do look at playoff games, when you do look at whether they’re division rivalries or games that have a level of significance, those games are not only exciting and people still want to watch them, but those marquee games are still big-time, high-viewership games.”
Smith’s thought process falls in line with what Fox CEO James Murdoch discussed last fall. Murdoch believed the NFL might be reaching a point of oversaturation. While Smith wouldn’t go as far as to say the league should cut back on its games, he was clear in stating fans lose interest in lesser matchups.
“I do think the proliferation of Thursday availability — and the proliferation of football generally — does mean that you’re asking a lot from customers to watch Thursday,” Murdoch said. “And then they watch a lot more college football game on Saturdays, and then on Sundays, and then on ‘Monday Night Football,’ etc. It’s a lot. So I do think that preserving the scarcity value of those events and that audience is something that is worth thinking about.”
Fox did go on to spend nearly $3 billion for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package, signaling the league remains healthy and networks have confidence with its future on television even as the ratings decline.
Still, Smith and the players look at declining ratings as a concern especially while the NBA is seeing their ratings rise. The current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA is set to expire in 2021 and ratings will surely be a topic of conversation for the two sides before then.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
