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What Super Bowl LV’s ugly TV numbers really mean

The top 10 games in 2020 viewing wise was well below the top 10 games in 2019.
For me that seems strange considering we're all supposed to be home with nothing to do. Personally, I took little interest, but that's because FSU football was a train-wreck and I wasn't able to watch with the local Alamo Seminole Booster Club. bleh season
 
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"First, it wasn’t a particularly good game " - So this says that if it were a better game, more people would have heard about it and started watching in the middle? Sorry, bogus. Fewer people wanted to watch from the beginning
I dont think that is how it works. I think the numbers are an average number at any point. So if people turn off a crappy game the average goes down.

It doesnt increase by having new people tune in. It increases by having viewers tuned in longer.
 
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I dont think that is how it works. I think the numbers are an average number at any point. So if people turn off a crappy game the average goes down.

It doesnt increase by having new people tune in. It increases by having viewers tuned in longer.
I think you are spot on. Don't remember which one but there was a prior Superbowl which was a snoozer and the rating were down. It was explained that at that time the ratings dip was directly tied to the boring game because they monitored EACH quarter. Part of why that is needed is for marketing (advertising) purposes.
 
Technically I'm part of that 91.62 million, but it was a boring, over-hyped game between teams I don't really care about, the worst halftime show I can ever remember, and truly forgettable commercials. I had it on the whole time, but I can't say I really watched more than a half hour of it. I fell asleep for most of the 3rd quarter.
 
Until something beats the NFL in ratings they are the king.

the actual number doesn’t matter a hell of a lot.
 
I don’t think I saw it in the lengthy write up, but I worry for sports in general becoming way too dated. My teenagers and so so many of their friends don’t give a flying **** about watching sports on TV. In contrast myself and my friends were rabid basketball, baseball and football watching fools by middle and high school

I am too lazy to look up but I think I saw a lot of youth sports are seeing declines of participants as well. They got other things they would rather do and play.
Back when I was young, there weren't sports on 24/7 like there is today. The game of the week on Saturday afternoon for baseball, and occasionally a Cubs game on Sunday afternoon. A college football game on Saturdays, an NFL game(usually the Bears) on Sunday until the AFL started. Big ten basketball on one station and big 8 on another on Saturday afternoons, and an NBA game and an NHL game on Sunday afternoons. I was lucky to get to watch a baseball or college football game as my father had better(in his opinion) things for me to do.
 
Until something beats the NFL in ratings they are the king.

the actual number doesn’t matter a hell of a lot.

This. Folks simply just don't understand how high and consistently high the NFL viewership is. This is why networks pay big money for a known commodity vs take risks on hit and miss shows.

People also watch the NFL and don't fast forward through commercials. Ex) Sunday Night NFL is the number one show on TV for a decade to be watched when it is on.
 
Until something beats the NFL in ratings they are the king.

the actual number doesn’t matter a hell of a lot.

Sorry, but that statement just isn't true. It makes a big difference in the price they can charge for their high priced advertising. Poor market share is going to make it a lot harder to command this years contracted price for next years Superbowl. At the very minimum the advertisers have some solid leverage on next years negotiations.
 
Also live sports isn’t saved for later so you can zip through commercials. It’s live and more commercials are watched by more people.

football is king.

of the top 100 TV shows watched in 2020 69 of them were NFL games.
 
For the life of me I cannot understand why they continue to hold the Super Bowl on a Sunday. It would be so much better on a Saturday night. Maybe they think it’s a captive audience on Sunday, but it’s hard to get excited about staying up late drinking and partying on Sunday.

I addressed this in the other thread. Saturday is the least watched TV day. Sunday is the most. By moving the game your hurting youself on top of the loss from cord cutting.

As a business why would you volunteer to give up business for nothing?
 
I addressed this in the other thread. Saturday is the least watched TV day. Sunday is the most. By moving the game your hurting youself on top of the loss from cord cutting.

As a business why would you volunteer to give up business for nothing?

I don’t see how that is relevant to the Super Bowl. People don’t watch TV on Saturday because they are doing other things . But the Super Bowl is the thing that weekend. People want to party and watch the game. Since I turned forty, however, I am less enthused about the Super Bowl because I have to go to work the next day; and I know a lot of people are the same — especially on the east coast. I am certain a Saturday game would result in more viewers.

It’s like when Halloween comes on a Saturday; there’s more parties going on than when it comes on a week night.
 
I don’t see how that is relevant to the Super Bowl. People don’t watch TV on Saturday because they are doing other things .

You guy keep saying this and just ignore everything else. Numbers are down across the board on Saturday. Doesn't matter the program. doesn't matter the sport, doesn't matter the time of the year. Down.

Same thing would happen to the superbowl.

A Saturday game with increased ratings over a Sunday would buck all history, trend and facts. Saturday starts from a lower base of people watching TV!

Remember when we talk about viewers we're talking ratings, so if you have 10 people watching 1 set. That's 1 . On Sunday, you have more of a chance of 10 people watching 10 TVs.

Your Halloween point, that you thought was smart, only proves the argument above. Sure there might be more parties, that means less viewers.

You guys keep thinking of this like its 1992. It's not. People don't gravitate around the Superbowl like then. There are way more distractions nowadays. Way more channels and for casual viewers all the commercials are online a week before the Superbowl.

The argument people want to party and watch the game is your life. Most people I know are just perfectly happy staying home with their kids and watching the game. They don't need a big group setting to be entertained.

A Saturday game would be great for people like you that have to go to work the next day. But, you're going to watch anyways. You need to think about the random watcher and a TV exec. What night do I have a higher chance of them sitting at their own TV and watching the game. Same concept is why the CFP final and NCAA March madness are held on a Monday.

Oh and the whole work the next day point is laughable. The game is over by 10:30 eastern time. The average american bed time is 10:55
 
I don’t see how that is relevant to the Super Bowl. People don’t watch TV on Saturday because they are doing other things . But the Super Bowl is the thing that weekend. People want to party and watch the game. Since I turned forty, however, I am less enthused about the Super Bowl because I have to go to work the next day; and I know a lot of people are the same — especially on the east coast. I am certain a Saturday game would result in more viewers.

It’s like when Halloween comes on a Saturday; there’s more parties going on than when it comes on a week night.
It has more to do with the money made in the host city. If it plays Saturday you lose an entire day of hotels, food, entertainment and booze dollars. It'd be a loss of millions.
 
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