MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL HITS FOUR-YEAR RATINGS LOW

[TMC]

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/december/monday-night-football-hits-four-year-ratings-low.html

Written by Joe Lucia on Friday, 28 December 2012 07:30.

Another Monday Night Football season is in the books for ESPN, and the
results aren't good. The ratings for this year's season were the
lowest since 2008, a four year low for ESPN due mostly to some
terrible matchups and ugly blowouts that killed any sort of momentum
ESPN had.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/12/nfl-wrap-espn-has-lowest-rated-least-viewed-mnf-season-since-08/

The highest rated game of the season featured the lone Cowboys
appearance on Monday nights this year, with their Week 4 loss to the
Bears drawing 16.6 million viewers and a 10.5 rating. That was the
final game of a three week stretch that saw ESPN draw at least 15
million viewers an a 10 rating, peaks that ESPN reached for just one
game over the season's final three months (Giants-Redskins, Week 13).

The final 12 weeks of the season were a horror show for ESPN in terms
of both pregame hype and on-field competitiveness. From Weeks 5
through 12, seven of the eight games that ESPN aired featured a team
that currently has at least nine losses, with Week 11's Bears-49ers
matchup being the lone outlier. Over the season's final three months,
there were just two games on the slate featuring potential playoff
teams: the aforementioned Bears-49ers matchup, and Week 13's Texans-
Patriots game.

ESPN also banked on perennially good teams having good years and
bringing in ratings, a formula that has worked in the past. Well, the
Jets and Eagles were on Monday Night Football twice each, and have
combined for 20 losses this year. The Lions were a great story last
year, were featured twice, and have lost 11 games. The Chargers were
on twice, and have 9 losses.

Only 9 of the 17 games aired were decided by one score, and 4 ended up
being decided by at least 20 points. Contrast that to Sunday Night
Football, which had 11 games decided by one score and 3 being decided
by at least 20 points, and Thursday Night Football, which featured 4
close games and 3 blowouts in their expanded slate, and you can see
that ESPN drew the short straw this year.

It's clear that with the addition of a full slate of Thursday Night
Football, ESPN is going to suffer with some of their matchups. The NFL
has ESPN in a hard spot, knowing that they're never going to simply
throw their hands up and walk away from the league if their schedule
doesn't improve. And while the ratings for the NFL Network this year
have been up, ratings across the board have been down everywhere else,
including on CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoons. The NFL might be able
to get away with pulling the carrot away from ESPN a little bit, but
they may have to find some way to ensure MNF can get some consistently
better matchups.

[Sports Media Watch]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/12/nfl-wrap-espn-has-lowest-rated-least-viewed-mnf-season-since-08/

[7...@gmail.com]

On Tue, 1 Jan 2013 21:34:06 -0800 (PST), TMC <tmc...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Another Monday Night Football season is in the books for ESPN, and the
>results aren't good. The ratings for this year's season were the
>lowest since 2008, a four year low for ESPN due mostly to some
>terrible matchups and ugly blowouts that killed any sort of momentum
>ESPN had.
>

How much of this is due to lower cable subscribers? Only 35% of homes
have cable.