The NFL TV audience is "doing fine, even after a ton of talk has centered on domestic violence and concussions recently," according to Frank Schwab of YAHOO SPORTS. TV ratings would be the "one key area in which you'd see a dip" in the wake of the league's off-field issues, but they are "as strong as ever." The various Sunday TV packages have seen a minimal ratings drop through this point of the season, while both the Monday and Thursday primetime packages are up. Schwab wrote, "Unless you bought into the hot takes that the NFL was going to fall off the face of the earth because of Ray Rice, the ratings being strong shouldn't surprise you." Fans care about "their favorite teams in other sports more than the league as a whole." But the NFL's appeal "goes well beyond that," as fans will "obviously watch their favorite team, but they also want to watch Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers on 'Sunday Night Football' even with no specific rooting interest." Fantasy football, and "to a lesser extent gambling are the drivers," as is the "relatively short schedule that creates urgency with every game." You "don't get 18.8 million viewers for the Cowboys-Redskins on Monday night" just on fans of those two teams. There are "a ton of fans who would watch any two teams play, or at very least tune in to see if Dez Bryant can get the 15 points they need to win their fantasy game" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/29). In Baltimore, David Zurawik writes at the beginning of this "scandal-plagued season, some analysts were predicting that ratings for Sunday, Monday and the new CBS Thursday night telecasts were going to suffer because of widely publicized cases of domestic abuse." But at the season's midway point, the ratings are "as good as or better than ever," and "expected to rise even higher" (Baltimore SUN, 10/31).
CREATURES OF HABIT: THE MMQB's Richard Deitsch wrote, "History shows us there is rarely any longterm sports television viewing drop-off for major pro or college sports when an athlete, coach, or league executive does something that people consider personally abhorrent or immoral." Univ. of Michigan professor and media scholar Amanda Lotz said, "It isn't domestic violence that is being broadcast on Sundays. Even though women and men may feel strongly that the acts were criminal and that the league was wrong to cover them up, it is difficult for that to override what might be a lifetime of fan behavior and one often linked closely to identity of place and family. As for women in particular, I wonder how many of those are individual women viewers. If other members of the household are watching and that is a family ritual, that too makes behavior change difficult” (MMQB.SI.com, 10/29).
