For decades, the National Football League (NFL) has dominated not only professional sports television, but the entire field of network programming. During the 2015 season, the NFL owned all of the top 25 programs on television after years of climbing ratings and brought in $15 billion in revenue (The Ringer<\/a>). However, the 2016 season has been a different story. Through Week Six, overall NFL\u00a0ratings were down 11%, causing the national media to question if the NFL was beginning a permanent decline. Ratings have slightly rebounded, but the NFL has been exposed as a vulnerable property, something that was once unthinkable. The decline in NFL ratings can be attributed\u00a0to a combination of competition from other entertainment sources, oversaturation of games and a lower quality\u00a0product, issues it will have to resolve to stay relevant.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n 2016 has been a rough year for the NFL because it has faced unprecedented competition for viewers from the historic presidential election and Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs.\u00a0 NFL ratings have declined in the past due to the presidential election, with declines of -10% in 2000 and -2% in 2008 (Washington Post<\/a>). However, declines were as high as -15% during the 2016 election (Washington Post<\/a>). This can possibly be written off\u00a0as a product of the media circus surrounding this election, but is nonetheless\u00a0the highest decrease in recent history. After the election, games did slightly rebound, with the Cowboys-Steelers prime time game finishing +2% and the Patriots-Seahawks prime time game finishing +16% (Forbes<\/a>). Still, the regional games on Fox finished -19% while the CBS regional games were down -7% (Forbes<\/a>). The election is likely partially responsible for the decline in overall ratings, but is not the sole culprit.<\/p>\n Perhaps more concerning was the success of the MLB against the NFL. While football ratings languished, baseball ratings skyrocketed. This culminated in the October 30th Chicago Cubs-Cleveland Indians World Series matchup having more viewers than the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles Sunday Night broadcast. This is only the third time the MLB beat the NFL since they began going head-to-head in 2010 (USA Today<\/a>). The World Series even drew 40.045 million viewers for the final game, more viewers than any NFL game since Super Bowl 50 (Rum Bunter<\/a>). Like the election, this unlikely success for baseball might be due to the exciting narrative of the Cubs snapping their 108 year drought against the similarly long-suffering Indians. Ultimately, baseball beat football for the first time in the 2010’s\u00a0and the NFL proved it was\u00a0not matchup-proof.<\/p>\n Another simple economic explanation for the NFL is the supply for the product has increased, causing demand to decrease. For much of its history, NFL games were on Sunday afternoons with one Sunday night game and one Monday night game. Now, the NFL airs 15 games per season on Thursday nights along with the Sunday and Monday night games, which are sometimes doubleheaders (The Ringer<\/a>). The NFL has also added 9:30 a.m. EST games in London to build an international audience (The Ringer<\/a>). There are also multi-game packages geared towards fantasy football players such as DIRECTV Sunday Ticket and streaming options on WatchESPN and Twitter. Others simply follow games at bars or via scoring or fantasy apps on their phone.<\/p>\n The NFL has created a problem for itself by making its product too widely available. By increasing its supply of games, it is making it harder for viewers to devote time to games. Viewers used to be able to watch their team\u2019s Sunday afternoon game interspersed with highlights from other games, leaving time to watch the prime time matchups. Committing to a Thursday night game, three Sunday games and a Monday night game is a lot of time for a person to spend watching television. It doesn’t help\u00a0that games run for three hours, much of which is advertising. Encouraging people to spend more time watching football does not reflect trends in television viewership. Since 2010, the time Americans spend watching TV has dropped 11\u00a0percent (Washington Post<\/a>). For social media-obsessed people under 24, TV time has plunged more than 40\u00a0percent (Washington Post<\/a>). As commercial-free streaming options such as Netflix and HBOGo continue to grow, less people will want to watch three hours of ad-heavy football. Time is scarce, and people are choosing to spend less of their time watching television. The NFL is fighting this trend by making their product less of an event and demand is decreasing as a result.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The oversaturation issue is further amplified by the concern that the quality of product the NFL is pushing has declined. Thursday night games are frequently criticized as less entertaining than Sunday and Monday games. Teams have only four days to create a game plan and recover from injuries, resulting in sloppy games that often end in blowouts. The average margin of victory for 2016 Thursday night games is over two touchdowns while the Vegas underdog team has only won twice (Sports Illustrated<\/a>). This is not just a Thursday night issue, competition is down overall. Through Week 12, Vegas underdogs have only won 39% of the time (Sports Illustrated<\/a>).<\/p>\n Not only are games more predictable, there is a growing concern that officials are making them more unwatchable through excessive penalties and fines. Many of these penalties have been unsportsmanlike conduct flags thrown for rather innocent\u00a0touchdown celebrations by superstars such as Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. Viewers\u00a0have taken notice, including\u00a0Monday Night Football<\/em> announcer Sean McDonough:<\/p>\n “If we\u2019re looking for reasons why TV ratings for the NFL are down all over the place, this doesn\u2019t help.\u00a0The way this game has been officiated is not something anybody wants to watch.\u201d (The Ringer<\/a>)<\/p>\n