How Superstar Economics Is Killing the NFL's Ratings
National sports are like Hollywood franchises. They need heroes to thrive. And pro football’s bench of healthy superheroes is surprisingly thin.
For years the National Football League has been the uncontested king of media in an age of fragmentation. But in 2016, it seems to have run into an even greater force for absorbing the nation’s attention: a presidential election, featuring Donald Trump. After years of steady growth, the NFL’s average television audience fell 8 percent from the previous season.
After the election, the NFL’s ratings perked up a bit, but were still flat-to-down through the end of the season and even through this past weekend. The audience for
