Thanks to #TakeAKnee and cord-cutting the NFL ratings are going downhill in a big way. While cord-cutting is hurting the ratings a lot, the social justice league activities are also playing a roll. In week 11 the losses are getting even worse.
Per Daily Wire:
The NFL's numbers throughout the season have followed a relatively consistent trend, falling an average of around 6% from the previous year. The New York Post notes that Week 11 saw a slight steepening of that decline, pushing the total average losses to 6.3% behind 2016. In total, the league has lost about 1 million viewers on average compared to last year, down to 14.9 million from 15.9 million.
The Post notes that "only two games had audience gains": the Sunday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys (up 12%) and the single-header on Fox between the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins (up 10%).
The decline in ratings from the 2016 season is even more troubling for the league in light of the even steeper decline from 2015 to 2016, in which the ratings were down 9% during the regular season and 6% in the playoffs. Since 2015, regular season ratings are currently down around 15%.
One of the reasons for the slight downturn in viewers in Week 11 might be some of the continued on-and-off-the-field turmoil, including President Trump once again condemning the protests by slamming the Oakland Raiders' Marshawn Lynch for sitting for most of the national anthem and then standing for the Mexican national anthem before the game against the New England Patriots in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Sunday.
President Trump has locked horns with the NFL and their social justice warrior stance several times. For instance he called out Marshawn Lynch for sitting for our anthem, but stands for the Mexican anthem.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/932570628451954688
JD Power conducted a poll over the summer that determined the number one reason viewers were tuning out the NFL was because of national anthem protests.
Another important league issue is the battle between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Roger Goodell.
One thing is for sure. NFL ratings are certainly trending downward. Will they be able to address the issue and get them going the other one? At this point is not looking likely.
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