Keeping the current trend alive, NFL TV ratings continue to sink. Every since the un-American anthem protests started, the ship has kept sinking.
According to Nielsen data, the league averaged 15.1 million viewers through week 7. Last year in the same time period it was 15.87 million. In 2015 it was 18.35 million. Do the math and it means the league viewership has dropped nearly 20% in the last two years.
Despite the crashing ratings, over 20 players continued to protest the national anthem in week 7 of the NFL games.
The TV networks refused to show the players protests during the anthem. Per The Sporting News:
There were virtually no live shots of NFL players sitting, kneeling or standing Sunday during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," much less footage of fans booing players. Instead, CBS, Fox and NBC chose to stay in commercial breaks during the pregame presentation of the flag and anthem. Once they returned from commercial, network play-by-play announcers and analysts paid little or no attention to what players did on the field.
In the mean time, media executives continue to pretend that the protests are not the case of the sinking ratings. Fox CEO James Murdoch claims that the ratings decline is a result of "too many games."
Murdoch says the NFL ratings decline is due to the “proliferation” of games, esp on Thurs. “You’re asking a lot from customers.” #PaleyIC
— Jason Lynch (@jasonlynch) October 25, 2017
Can someone say delusional?
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