TiVo Report: 18.2% of People Watched Fewer NFL Games in 2016; ‘Political Issues’ Played a Major Role

This week, TiVo released its Q4 2016 Video Trends Report, which delves into the root cause for the drop in NFL ratings during the 2016 season. NFL viewership fell an average of 8% compared with 2015 (16.5 million vs. 17.9 million), the steepest drop in viewers in a decade. TiVo’s survey results showed that 18.2% of respondents were watching fewer NFL games than they did one year ago.

Among the other revelations was that 10.7% of total respondents based their decision to watch fewer NFL games on “political issues.” TiVo also found that respondents with a streaming device often “found reasons” not to watch the NFL. And TiVo’s data indicated that younger generations are not the issue for the NFL: the sum of the 18-30 age brackets was about the same as the 51-60 age bracket.

Why Did They Tune Out? 
In its Q4 2016 survey, TiVo posed a series of questions meant to gauge respondents’ level of NFL-
game viewing and, if that level is lower that before, why?  The top three reasons respondents gave for watching fewer NFL games are “My schedule is busier this year” (36.1% ), “Games are not as exciting this season” (25.9% ), and “Too many commercials” (21.3% ).

However, the third-highest answer choice was “other” at 23.0%, which triggered a deeper analysis in an effort to identify noteworthy trends. Of respondents who selected “other” when asked why they watched fewer games this year, 46.5% wrote that the change in viewing habits was due to political issues (for example, kneeling during the national anthem). Theoretically, if, instead of “other,” the survey had listed an answer choice like “politics related to teams/players,” 10.7% of total respondents would have fallen in that answer choice.

Additional comments included with “other” responses were related to
favorite players retiring, individual teams underperforming, or issues unique to individual respondents.

The Streaming Factor
In an effort to determine why viewership has declined, TiVo’s Data Science Team also found that one of the strongest predictors as to whether a respondent watches fewer NFL games is whether he or she owns a streaming device. Although those who own one did not cite a particular reason (no single reason was overrepresented in this group), those respondents systematically found reasons not to watch the NFL. Essentially, streaming-device owners are finding excuses for watching fewer NFL games.

The Kids Are Alright 
Because younger generations tend to be more likely to own a streaming device, the Data Science Team decided to further analyze whether age played a role in NFL’s loss of viewership.

TiVo also examined whether any trends or correlations in age groups watching NFL games.
 Although many in the industry are concerned about younger viewers’ watching less, the report actually showed that the percentage of those reporting lower NFL viewing was similar across all age groups.

Regarding future NFL viewership, TiVo also sees that many NFL fans are in the younger age brackets, with the total of the 18-30 age brackets about the same as the 51-60 age bracket. This suggests that a decrease in viewership is not necessarily a demographics problem but instead is due to other reasons.

CLICK HERE to download the full report.