NFL ratings continue to decline as many fans are tuning out what was once America's most popular sport. Many believe the ongoing protests during the national anthem are to blame for the lower ratings. To make matters worse, the low ratings are being driven by the loss of 18-34-year-olds, a key marketing demographic.
The low ratings are starting to worry some TV executives because they spend billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast NFL games every week. Lower ratings equals lower advertising revenue, which hurts their bottom line.
Many of the executives believe that the NFL has become over saturated and that there are too many games spread throughout the week, which is causing fans to tune out. Currently, the NFL week kicks off on Thursday night, then follows with a slate of games all day on Sunday and finishes up on Monday night. Add to that the increase of games played in London, which kick off bright an early around 9:30am on East Coast and an ungodly 6:30am on the West Coast. And don't forget those Saturday games later in the season.
As a solution, some want to cut back the number of games played on Thursday night. A report by Sports Business Daily says that the executives want to cut the number of Thursday night games down to eight, and move games played in London to a later time slot.
They hope that by cutting the number of games on Thursday, more people will tune in on Sunday.