The Real Reason NFL Ratings Are (Slightly) Down
The Lead
Audible
3.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2020
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the NFL’s embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement would impact television viewership. After the first week of play, some media outlets jumped on preliminary reports to argue that fan support was waning because of the league's support for social justice causes. But it turns out, the truth is more complicated. The Athletic's Dan Kaplan joins us to break down the numbers and to explain what conclusions the experts are reaching about viewership trends.
More from Dan Kaplan:
https://theathletic.com/2068692/2020/09/15/kaplan-the-nfls-week-1-ratings-are-down-but-not-as-dramatic-as-reported/?source=theleadpodcast
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Transcript
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| 0:06.1 | Hello, I'm Hannah. |
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| 1:08.0 | There's been a lot of speculation about how the NFL's embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement would affect TV ratings. |
| 1:15.5 | The ratings are out and the numbers are down according to Nielsen, the average viewership for all games Thursday to Sunday was down. |
| 1:21.9 | About 4% across Fox CBS and NBC. |
| 1:31.0 | The athletics Dan Kaplan on what the numbers actually show. |
| 1:34.3 | If you looked at the top four or five reasons why sports ratings are down and social justice issues, |
| 1:40.8 | whether it's Black Lives Matters or for other initiatives, |
... |
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