NFL Gives Explanation for Early-Season Ratings Dip

The National Football League sent out an internal memo Thursday to provide its explanation for the decreased television ratings during the first month of the regular season. The NFL cited interest in the presidential election as a key factor in the early decline. 

Darren Rovell of ESPN.com, who noted the overall drop across all networks that carry NFL games is 11 percent through four weeks, passed along comments from the release sent to the media committee by league media executives Brian Rolapp and Howard Katz.

"Prime-time windows have clearly been affected the most, while declines during the Sunday afternoon window are more modest," Rolapp and Katz wrote. "While our partners, like us, would have liked to see higher ratings, they remain confident in the NFL and unconcerned about a long-term issue."

The memo pointed toward a similar decrease in viewership during the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, according to ESPN. Each broadcast network has seen a decline of between 4 and 11 percent in that cycle.

The ongoing campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has also attracted a massive amount of attention. Sam Thielman of the Guardian reported the first debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees on Sept. 26 set a viewership record with 83 million people tuning in.

One theory the NFL memo ruled out was a potential negative impact from the national anthem protests, which have stolen the spotlight at times since the preseason, per Rovell.

Rolapp and Katz stated they saw "no evidence that concern over player protests during the national anthem is having any material impact on our ratings. In fact, our own data shows that perception of the NFL and its players is actually up in 2016."

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick spearheaded a movement that's continued to grow in size since he refused to stand for the anthem during the exhibition slate. He explained his decision to highlight the issues of racial injustice and police violence to Steve Wyche of NFL.com in August.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick said. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

All things considered, Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated believes the election has played a role, but he provided some additional reasons for the drop in viewers:

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I'm also of the belief that the league has been hurt this year by a number of factors including a smaller group of star quarterbacks (no Peyton Manning or Tom Brady), an awful set of Monday Night Football games, a potential slowing down in fantasy football growth, some fatigue from what Mark Cuban discussed as the NFL expanding its television package to an additional night, and some truly awful games on Sunday.

"

The NFL internal memo also tried to provide a silver lining to the situation, stating NFL ratings are still up 27 percent over the past 15 years.