Complicating the issue of the NFL’s cratering TV ratings, a new report by The Wall Street Journal claims that ratings for the league are worse in blue states than they are in red states. Leading some to wonder if the national anthem protests are having less of an impact than conventional wisdom maintains.
According to the Journal, overexposure, not national anthem protests, is what is really behind the NFL’s ratings crash:
A recent HBO Real Sports/Marist poll showed that 84% of Trump supporters believe the NFL should require players to stand for the anthem; only 27% of Democrats hold that view. Yet there is no evidence of a significant red-state boycott, according to data compiled for The Wall Street Journal by measurement firm Samba TV, which analyzes data from 13.5 million smart TVs across the country. Through seven weeks, the share of TVs tuning in to NFL games was down 8.7%, on average, in the “red states” while in blue states viewing was down 10%.
It isn’t easy to take these red state-blue state statistics at face value, though. Firstly the left has been trying to destroy football for years, now. With attacks on domestic violence, player injuries, the danger the game represents to kids, and the left’s general dislike of the manliness of the game, liberals have been targeting the NFL for a lot longer than the anthem protests have been around. So, it might seem natural that the NFL’s blue state ratings are worse.
Further, the NFL has always been more popular in the traditional red states, so, with all that it may not be so surprising that ratings are down more in blue states than in red states.
However, the numbers weren’t drilled down far enough to say what they might mean. Trump won several states that are traditionally considered blue or “purple,” mixed states and many red states have large, highly populated blue counties and it isn’t known how those numbers affected the overall rating for the states.
The Journal is right, though, in saying that the NFL’s loss of fans is clearly not driven by any single factor. Many reasons factor into the league’s problems. From people dropping cable (known as “cord cutting”), to the left’s attacks on the game and the anthem protests, and, yes, even that over saturation the executives have been talking about. Many factors have come to play to put a dent in the once supremely powerful sports league.
The problem of over saturation has been a topic of discussion all season. Recently several TV executives came out to complain that the 18 games on Thursday nights gives fans too many football options and dilutes ratings as a result. Some have even suggested that those 18 games be trimmed to only 10.
But, even as the NFL has lost millions of viewers, it is still a powerhouse on TV. Pro Football Talk recently pointed out that “the NFL’s ratings are down 5 percent from last year, while overall prime-time programming on the four broadcast networks is down 8 percent from last year.”
Even with that, though, the league’s loss of fans is enough to spark questions over whether or not ESPN will drop its huge financial stake in the NFL and dump its NFL broadcast rights.
But not everyone is so willing to dismiss the negative impact that the national anthem protests may be having on the league’s fans. One of the NFL’s biggest sponsors, the Papa John’s pizza chain, reported a $70 million loss in sales due to its status as the “official pizza of the NFL.”
In a recent company conference call, company founder and CEO John Schnatter said that the anthem protests have seriously hurt his company’s bottom line.
“The NFL has hurt us,” Schnatter said, according to ESPN. “We are disappointed the NFL, and its leadership did not resolve this.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.