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PEOPLE/ARTS Saturday 4 November 2017
Midway through NFL season, football ratings are down

By DAVID BAUDER Two worries for the rest of
NEW YORK (AP) — Midway the NFL season are injuries
through a season remem- that have sidelined mar-
bered for its protests by quee players like Odell
some players during the Beckham, Jr., Aaron Rodg-
national anthem as much ers and J.J. Watt, and lousy
as bone-crunching hits, teams with little to play for
viewership for NFL football in major markets like New
games is down 5 percent York and Chicago. Viewer-
from last year. ship for this past weekend’s
The NFL has slowed a de- games was the lowest of
cline that was more pro- the season, Nielsen said.
nounced in 2016, and the The NFL has focused with
erosion is actually less than some success this season
it is for other forms of tele- on improving prime-time
vision programming. Yet products, said Michael
Wall Street analysts have Nathanson, an analyst
noticed the trend and for MoffettNathanson Re-
sports programmers are search. Viewership is up 5
searching for reasons. The percent for ESPN’s “Mon-
NFL’s aura of invincibility as day Night Football,” which
an entertainment product is concentrating this year
has taken a hit. on rivalry games between
“It’s certainly not cause for teams in the same division.
panic,” said Rick Gentile, In another healthy sign, ad
a former CBS Sports ex- prices for NBC’s Sunday
ecutive and now a Seton night game are going up
Hall University professor, In this Oct. 22, 2017, photo, Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Cutler (6) looks to pass, during the first 12 percent next year, ac-
“but they like to keep go- half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets in Miami Gardens, Fla. cording to a survey by Va-
ing up.”The average NFL Associated Press riety magazine.
game this season has at- by players kneeling for “The tionwide poll on sports is- the people who watched “Ratings go up and rat-
tracted 14.8 million view- Star Spangled Banner” be- sues for Seton Hall, said his fewer games, 47 percent ings go down, but the NFL
ers, down from 15.6 million fore the games, an action surveys show differently. said it was because of the is actually stronger than it
at the same point last year, that incurred the wrath of “I was in denial for a while,” protests, by far the most fre- has been in recent years,
the Nielsen company said. President Donald Trump. he said, “but every time quent reason cited. relatively speaking, to
The decline was 14 per- It briefly brought the na- we asked the question, Shrinking audiences are the rest of the television
cent between the 2015 tional anthem back to TV ‘why do you watch fewer the norm, rather than the world,” said CBS Sports
and 2016 mid-seasons, broadcasts. Since then, the games?’ it came back the exception, for most TV President Sean McManus.
although more people networks usually tape it in same way — the protests.” shows, and the NFL points “The good news is that
returned when election case there’s a significant In the last week of Sep- out that the audience for viewers are consuming
year politicking left the air- protest to report. tember, Seton Hall’s poll of prime-time broadcast pro- more NFL programming.
waves. Asked about the impact 850 people found that half gramming has dropped 9 We’re just trying to make
What has put the NFL in of the protests, NFL spokes- were watching the same percent this fall. That com- sure that we still allow ac-
news headlines this fall, in- man Alex Riethmiller said number of football games parison isn’t totally fair since cess to that programming
stead of just the sports pag- the league believes the they watched in the past. one of the biggest reasons without hurting the tradi-
es, is the protest primarily ratings drop is part of a Twenty-nine percent ratings are off for entertain- tional packages.”The chief
by black players about the broader trend in television said they watched fewer ment shows — people re- weakness has been the
treatment of minorities by consumption instead of a games, 5 percent said they cording them to watch lat- Sunday afternoon games,
law enforcement. It has single issue or controversy. watched more and the re- er — usually doesn’t apply the league’s bedrock, and
been expressed most often Yet Gentile, who runs a na- mainder didn’t know. Of to a live event like football. among younger viewers. q
Disney bars L.A. Times film

coverage after critical piece

By LINDSEY BAHR erage” of its business ties statement Friday that the
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In with Anaheim. Upcoming Times’ series showed, “a
response to a Los Ange- Disney films include “Thor: complete disregard for ba-
les Times series about the Ragnarok,” ‘’Coco” and sic journalistic standards.”
relationship between the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” “Despite our sharing nu-
Walt Disney Co. and the The paper ran a two-part merous indisputable facts
city of Anaheim that Disney series in late September with the reporter, several
claims is “biased and inac- looking into what it charac- editors, and the publisher
curate,” the company is terized as a complicated over many months, the
barring the paper from ad- and increasingly tense re- Times moved forward with
vance screenings of its films lationship between the city a biased and inaccurate This Jan. 22, 2015 file photo shows Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at
and access to its talent. and the Disneyland Resort. series, wholly driven by the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, Calif.
The editors of the Times said The Times says it will review a political agenda,” the Associated Press
Friday that Disney declined and cover Disney films statement continued. per had “no further com- have not responded to The
access to its slate of films when they become avail- Hillary Manning, the com- ment” to the allegations Associated Press’s request
for the paper’s holiday film able to the public. munications director for Los made by Disney. for details on which facts it
preview citing “unfair cov- Disney responded in a Angeles Times, said the pa- Disney representatives is contesting in the series.q