Another weekend of NFL games, another example of the trend of reduced TV viewership of games.
Via SportsBusiness Daily, Monday night’s Buccaneers-Panthers snoozer generated a 6.5 rating, down from 8.5 from last year’s Steelers-Chargers game to cap Week Five. That’s a 24-percent drop.
As expected, Sunday night’s Giants-Packers dropped sharply, thanks to a presidential debate that gobbled up a rating of 37.2, which translates to 69 million viewers. Sunday Night Football managed a 10.2 rating according to Forbes.com. That’s 22 percent less than last year’s Week Five Sunday night game.
In Wisconsin, however, fans chose to watch the Packers at normal levels. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the 43.7 rating locally was comparable to normal circumstances for a Packers game.
There’s nothing normal about TV viewership this year for the NFL. If the election is primary culprit for the dip, the proof will come once the election ends and viewers return to watching other things. Unless they’re in the process of moving to Canada, regardless of which candidate wins.