Halfway through the season, through eight weekends so far, the NFL has seen an 8% decline in Nielsen-measured viewership versus a year ago to 14.5 million viewers per game. Analysts and network executives attribute the decline to an overload of sports TV competition due to the end-of-the-season NBA playoffs and finals and Major League Baseball’s World Series TV games.
While football, baseball and basketball still rule TV, Americans are also embracing other sports including soccer, surfing and rugby. The increased number of people tuning in to to watch such sports reflects the growing diversity of the population.
