At times the relationship between TV’s biggest player and the researcher is colored by “hostility” and league execs aren’t sure Nielsen is up to the task
I wonder if some of this is less about Nielsen than about what the numbers might start to say.
The NFL still has enormous audiences. But audience size and audience engagement are not the same thing. There is a real difference between someone sitting on the couch waiting for the game to come back and someone who has it on while doing something else, looking up only when the crowd noise tells them something happened.
Both count as viewers. They are not equally valuable to advertisers, the networks carrying the games, or ultimately the NFL.
That may be the more uncomfortable risk: not that people stop watching, but that for more of them the NFL is moving from foreground entertainment toward something closer to Muzak.
I'm confident in saying that's the only "Revenge of the Nerds" video clip ever shown in an article about the NFL.
I wonder if some of this is less about Nielsen than about what the numbers might start to say.
The NFL still has enormous audiences. But audience size and audience engagement are not the same thing. There is a real difference between someone sitting on the couch waiting for the game to come back and someone who has it on while doing something else, looking up only when the crowd noise tells them something happened.
Both count as viewers. They are not equally valuable to advertisers, the networks carrying the games, or ultimately the NFL.
That may be the more uncomfortable risk: not that people stop watching, but that for more of them the NFL is moving from foreground entertainment toward something closer to Muzak.