Moussa81/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The National Football League’s television ratings fell by nearly ten percent during the 2017 season, according to numbers registered by Nielsen.
According to ESPN’s reporting, the typical game this year was watched by about 14.9 million people. During the 2016 season, the average game had 16.5 million viewers.
The league had hoped to halt the drop in ratings by attempting to speed up the game and change their television commercial strategy.
Last year’s ratings drop was blamed in part on the presidential election. This year, however, some of the decrease can be attributed to fans upset with players kneeling during the national anthem. That action led to a war of words between the league and President Donald Trump.
Other factors in the league’s ratings fall include the dilution of Thursday night games, which were aired on the NFL Network, NBC, CBS and Amazon Prime in various weeks.
While television in general has seen a viewership decline, the NBA has seen a 20 percent increase in viewership this year.
Still, 20 of the top 30 highest rated shows on television in 2017 were football games, and NBC and ESPN had the most watched shows in every single week with their Sunday Night and Monday Night Football games.
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