Spending cuts within the automobile and drug industries could have a negative impact on revenue for broadcasts of football games this upcoming season.
According to a report from Sports Business Daily, networks such as ESPN are bracing for a dramatic drop in ad revenue for the 2017 college football and NFL seasons.
“Sources said that a decline in ratings for NFL games last season has hurt sales this year, along with a saturated market for college games and spending cuts by drug and auto companies,” the report read.
Despite a drop in overall ratings last season, NFL television ad revenue set a record with a whopping $3.5 billion. Though, there’s definitely more components to this than simple television ratings. It really is about supply and demand. The NFL isn’t supplying a product that sponsors are willing to go over the top in terms of spending. At the very least, when it comes to regular season football.
It was also reported last week that Viagra and Cialis — two popular drugs — were decreasing their advertising presence for the upcoming 2017 NFL season.
It remains to be seen exactly how this will impact the bottom lines for networks such as CBS and ESPN. But it’s readily apparent that the advertising boom over the past decade surrounding football has come to an end.