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Chris Ostrow
John Durand
Sports Business Journal
The NFL Rocks On
Fans across the world grabbed chips, their favorite beverage, and watched Super Bowl 44
with their closest friends and family’s this weekend. Seats were decided on a first come first
serve basis and people were only silent when the commercials came on. There have been many
different headlines this weekend such as will Payton Manning lead the Colts to victory and go on
to be known as the greatest quarterback of all time? The only thing that stood in Payton and the
Colts way was the underdog Saints. The small in stature Drew Brees put the Saints and the
whole city of New Orleans on his back after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The charismatic
and charitable Brees captured the nation. I wasn’t the only one watching Super Bowl 44 as it
moved past the series finale of Mash as the most watched television event in history.
According to The Sports Business Journal the AFC Championship posted 46.9 million
viewers. While the NFC Championship game posted 57.9 million viewers. This was the NFL’s
most viewed games since the conference championships in 1982. “This is an amazing statistic
considering the fragmented television audiences, with more channel choices.” According to
John Durand.
It’s easy to say that ratings are so high because the games were close but most of the NFL
playoff games all turned out to be blowouts. Many people may think that the reasons ratings are

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so high are because of the big markets that the teams play in. New Orleans, Indianapolis, and
Minnesota don’t exactly jump out as top ten in the highest populations of cities in the United
States. My New York Jets fell apart down the stretch like they usually do leaving me
disappointed once again in my life. So why have the ratings this season reached levels they
haven’t reached in two decades?
According to Fox Sports David Hill “The reason why ratings are so high are the NFL’s
new rules tinkering to make the game more appealing.” He also goes on to say that “I don’t
know of any sport in the world that spends so much time examining all options to make its
games better. The NFL is unbelievably adept at adding things to make the game better and
eradicating things that fans don’t enjoy so much. On top of that the playoffs have been filed with
interesting story lines.”
I myself try to watch every playoff game I am available to watch. I feel like the NFL has
the best set up when it comes to their playoff schedule. It’s easy to set aside a few hours on a
Sunday or Saturday afternoon to watch a game. The MLB playoff games are during the week
and sometimes aren’t finished until 1 am. This would make it difficult for the average working
fan who works a 9 to 5. The NBA finals are exciting but they take too long to get to and there
are far too many bad teams that make the playoffs. The NBA playoffs start in April and do not
finish until June. It is absolutely outrageous how long the duration of the NBA playoffs are.
According to Neil Pilson a long time media consultant “You can turn to the upgrade in
technology in High Definition televisions and the recession as a reason why ratings have gone
up. With more family’s staying home due to the recession it has made football a more appealing
watch.”

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I myself went to one football game this season. I spent 150 dollars on an upper deck seat
had to pay 25 dollars for a parking pass, and then spent around 50 for me and my girlfriend’s
food and beer. Yesterday I watched the NFL in the luxury of my living room with replays I
could never see at the stadium. I am a big fantasy football player why should I leave my house
when I can follow all the games from my computer. I never thought of it from this perspective
but it makes sense to me after reading this article why ratings are going up. In conclusion I feel
this is an important article to examine for this class because it shows us different key strategies
why the NFL is the most successful sport in North America. It also shows that as a culture that
we have so many choices with the Internet, and thousands of channels to select but on Sunday
we all are tuning in for some football.
References
Durand, John 2010 Sports Business Journal