Super Bowl Delivers Thrills, but No Ratings Record | Hacker News Reader

Super Bowl Delivers Thrills, but No Ratings Record

nytimes.com

Anecdotally, I feel football is gradually losing ground among younger generations. My sports-watching-est friends seem to be less and less devoted to football in particular and more interested in other, more niche sports. Even those strongly allegiant to football are less insistent on catching many individual games real-time as they are staying informed about the league overall and watching highlights or stream or DVR when they can.

I used to love watching football but I have grown to hate TV ads with a passion. I had to quit watching after draftkings was everywhere.

Aren't the ads the appeal to many to watch the Super Bowl in the first place?

Nowadays, if the ads are your draw, just watching them on YouTube is a lot easier.

Right. You used to have to see the ads during the actual game, but now they show the ads that will be shown during the game during the "news" in a "you have to watch these ads" segment.

or even before the super bowl.

I bet some significant portion of the Super Bowl audience is not watching alone... I partially rationalize going to a super bowl party _because_ at least I get to watch the ads. On my own I'm watching neither.

Plus kids are being discouraged from play. My guess that beyond the South, football programs will start shutting down in the next decade due to liability.

The NFL nailed it with Sunday games (although more and more are added to the schedule). It allowed you to to follow the sport closely without memorizing a team schedule, and every fan had the day off from work to watch. I wish more sports followed that system. It was easy to get into.

I still enjoy watching the game, but sadly it's become a sport I watch but won't play (or have my kids play).

The younger generations don't purchase cable television. It's netflix and youtube for almost all video.

The NFL comes with a heavy price that most consumers won't pay unless it comes in a standard package.

NFL needs to end their exclusive deals with satellite providers and find a mainstream platform to stream on if they're going to be relevant in the future.

The NFL is the only reason I still have cable tv. If I could get any kind of reception for over-the-air TV, I'd dump the basic package I still have, but I'm just far enough away from where Fox, CBS and NBC locals broadcast from to make that practical.

The amount of money you have to pay to watch any game you want is unreasonable. $360 for Sunday games, 40-70? for cable if you don't have reception for prime time games. 150-200 for the NFL network for Thursday night games.

Luckily nfl2go exists.

If you're worried that route you can just proxy out of the US and buy NFL gamepass, they're still getting their money. Although not as much as their rip off exclusive satellite deals.

Interested to know the niche sports you're finding people showing interest in.

soccer. no ads except for half time

I guess you consider it niche in the USA but soccer is the most popular game world wide[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football

It's definitely niche in the US.

As long as you define "US" as "white, male, >25".

It's popular with women. It's popular with kids (age 12-17, more popular than MLB). It's popular with the latino population.

Not really. They can't get people to watch it on TV, which is why it doesn't make any money.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/sports/soccer/nbc-retains...

Two years of success broadcasting England’s Premier League proved a basic truth to NBC Sports: It would have to pay a lot more to keep carrying the league’s games.

Now it will. Under a six-year agreement announced Monday that starts next season and is worth about $1 billion, NBC retained the rights to the Premier League through the 2021-22 season.

...I wouldn't call (arguably) the most popular sport in the world niche.

It is (also arguably) a niche in the US. My totally subjective perception is that it's been on an upswing here for many years, and in a few more years will be up to the popularity level of basketball and hockey at least.

Soccer broadcasts usually have overlay ads, rather than advertising breaks, because therevaren't breaks in gameplay to stuff ads into. But they definitely are not ad-free outside of halftime.

I watched the Superbowl last night for the first time, and I can assure you that even the worst football (yes, football) matches have nowhere near as many ads.

I can't tell which of the sports you're referring to.

Haha, and how did I not notice?! Thanks for pointing that out.

Since I can't edit my comment: Even an ad-heavy football game (aka soccer in the US) has way fewer ads than the what I saw during the Superbowl.

NBC Sports's Super Bowl counter-programming was curling

was it seriously? I guess the people who weren't watching the super bowl (the Canadians) would enjoy it...

I like my action sports, but I do find curling really compelling to watch, it's extremely tactical. Curling is the only sport I care about in the winter olympics.

Australian Rules Football is fantastic to watch, IMO.

I watched online and the stream was excellent although it lacked commercials which would normally would be a plus but not for the superbowl (anyway I got a roundup of them elsewhere).

Just shows you how broken online advertising is when they don't even play the very best video commercials on offer to 2+ million people watching their stream.

I think Super Bowl commercials have jumped the shark. They used to be a fun interlude during timeouts. Now they are just over the top "who can cram the most CGI into 30 seconds of the most impossibly contrived scenario"

Maybe I'm just old. I didn't watch the commercials though.

I did think the halftime show was good. I appreciated the lack of overt political statements.

> Now they are just over the top "who can cram the most CGI into 30 seconds of the most impossibly contrived scenario"

Isn't this a good thing though? They're like an art scene now. Fun for the viewers, (I'd guess) fun for the people making them. Just probably not good ROI for the advertisers, which I'd judge as a positive development.

Where did you watch the stream? We watched it on the Fox Sports Go app on our Roku and it had all the commercials. It was identical to watching the game on Fox.

>> high enough to tie it for fourth place among the most-viewed programs in TV history

So still huge ratings and only down 600k on last year, which isn't bad when there's over 110m viewers.

Secondly although it was a pretty thrilling final quarter and OT at the half it looked like it was all over so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people turned off (as it was nearly 2am for me I nearly did).

Finally, these are only ratings for Fox - I'd be interested to know how it did globally.

This was really a response or additional evidence that the NFL ratings continue to be in decline.

There were a ton of stories during the season how the ratings were falling off a cliff. Although not bad in the larger picture like you point out, it would seem there is a general downward trend of viewership for NFL games.

Power Rankings: The reasons why NFL ratings are down: http://www.si.com/nfl/photo/2016/10/20/nfl-television-rating...

NFL ratings are still way down and getting worse: http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/nfl-ratings-are-still-way-do...

10 theories why NFL TV ratings are down: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2016/11/05/theor...

I wasn't really aware of the problems during the season. Such a small drop in SB ratings seems like a bit of a victory then I guess.

The stuff that goes with the Superbowl - parties, jerseys, office pools, etc has turned the game into a pseudo-holiday for a lot of people. I expect the Superbowl will hang around for awhile as a cultural icon even if they can't stem the audience bleed for the regular season.

> Secondly although it was a pretty thrilling final quarter and OT at the half it looked like it was all over

This is exactly what I did - following through halftime, I didn't exactly watch Lady Gaga's halftime show, and just never came back.

Was in shock later when others told me that the Patriots had won...

is the superbowl broadcast globally? I can't imagine it has a huge audience outside the US

As at-fates-hands showed it is. In the UK it's on the BBC from about 10mins before the coin toss. We get US commentary but during your ad breaks it cuts to our presenter/pundit team which includes Osi Umenyiora. We also have a weekly NFL roundup show on the BBC and Sky (paid TV) shows live games during the season.

There's also Game Pass where you pay something like £150 a year to stream all games live (although they blackout the ones shown on Sky) and on demand which also gives condensed and highlights version of the games.

Wow, so you guys had to suffer through Joe Buck too?

From last year:

Super Bowl 2016: How Many Countries Will Watch Carolina Panthers vs. Denver Broncos?: http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2016-how-many-countries-wi...

Though the Super Bowl lacks the global reach of the World Cup, it still has a growing audience outside the United States. More than 170 countries and territories around the world will have the opportunity to view a live broadcast of the NFL's championship game between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Bradcasting vs viewership is different (Aussie rules football is broadcasted in many countries in Asia too). The Superbowl used to be broadcasted in India when I was there (prior to 2005). Firstly it was at 2-3 am in the morning, nobody knows the rules and there are ads every 2 mins. I highly doubt anyone cares about American Football even today in India at least.

I'm currently in Buenos Aires and went to a pub last night. It was packed and the game was on. So yes, people watch it abroad.

There were numerous legal ways to stream the Super Bowl online and on mobile this year for free, it appears these numbers may not include those? I would be curious to see what percentage of viewers used an app or site to view the game this year, and if it makes up for the relatively small drop in TV viewers.

I bought my milennial-border kids a box each in the pool. I texted them the pic

They said "we don't have cable" I totally forgot about that. They had NO PLANS to watch any way.

They will watch a replay if Gaga on their commute.

How times they are a changin'

How do the ratings compare to the Champions League final?

180m in 2015 [1]

[1] http://heavy.com/sports/2016/05/champions-league-final-tv-ra...

I have no data, but I find it hard to believe such measly numbers. The viewership in Asia itself would be upwards of 200 million (India, China, SE Asia, Middle East where football/soccer is popular).

Those numbers are actually originally sourced from UEFA so I would expect them to be accurate. I know the World Cup Final has hugely larger ratings figures but Champions League being a European tournament maybe it isn't very popular outside Europe.

I think that probably the Champions League, World Cup and Euro Cup final have much more viewers than the Super Bowl.

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