What is the NFL saturation point?

[mraynrand]

NFL games were special when they were limited to Sundays. NFC was CBS, AFC was NBC. You always knew where to find a game. The late games were limited to west coast teams playing at 1:00 their time. For a while, CBS and NBC alternated having a national broadcast of a second game at 3:00. Saw a lot of the Raiders, 49ers and Rams in those days. Three games on Sunday, but you had to switch back and forth between the two early games played at the same time, That was a lot of work in the days before remotes, and, yes, mechanical tuners could wear out!

The radical move to add Monday night games on ABC was a huge deal. Most of you might not appreciate what a big deal that was. People talked about the games all day Monday and all day Tuesday. Monday night football parties were huge, they felt almost like playoff games. Not many people I knew had more than one TV, so sometimes non-fans (usually wives/girlfriends) would get together at one house while other met at another to watch the game. For a while, NBC and CBS ran Monday night movies opposite ABC's Monday night football.

Every game was still a special event.

Now, I look at the jumbled up mess, with four time slots on Sundays, one or two on Mondays, plus Thursday. (Do they still play any Saturday games? They did for a while.) Never knowing when your team plays, with the possible last minute time shift, and bye weeks thrown in, it has gotten to be too much work to foloow teams and scores. Games aren't "special" at all anymore.

Unbelievable. The NFL was total crap in the 70's, 80's, and 90's for seeing a breadth of teams and players. If you were out of market, good luck getting to see some of the great players playing for other teams. I saw my first Packer game in Iowa in '73 and only saw a handful for the next 6 years until moving back to WI (some would argue this is a blessing). In the meantime I got steady dose of Dallas, Pittsburgh Oakland and Miami - and the Vikings losing in Superbowls. Can't even remember other teams. Deacon Jones? Only saw him on 'The Odd Couple.' Hardly ever saw Fouts, but at least had a chance with the late games.

Monday Night Football was so popular because it was the only game in town - literally - no other sports on the tube and three other channels. It's either that or "Falcon Crest," reruns of "Hogans Heroes," or "bowling for dollars," "Night Rider" and "Murder, She Wrote."

The extra days of football are great, but I'd gladly give up Thurs if it helped players.

With NFL Sunday Ticket, and streaming. you can get as much as you like. That's saturation.

But what the hell, if you're getting too much, flick the power switch and do something else.

Gotta love Capitalism and all the options.

Who wants fewer options, fewer choices?

[Patler]

Unbelievable. The NFL was total crap in the 70's, 80's, and 90's for seeing a breadth of teams and players. If you were out of market, good luck getting to see some of the great players playing for other teams. I saw my first Packer game in Iowa in '73 and only saw a handful for the next 6 years until moving back to WI (some would argue this is a blessing). In the meantime I got steady dose of Dallas, Pittsburgh Oakland and Miami - and the Vikings losing in Superbowls. Can't even remember other teams. Deacon Jones? Only saw him on 'The Odd Couple.' Hardly ever saw Fouts, but at least had a chance with the late games.

Monday Night Football was so popular because it was the only game in town - literally - no other sports on the tube and three other channels. It's either that or "Falcon Crest," reruns of "Hogans Heroes," or "bowling for dollars," "Night Rider" and "Murder, She Wrote."

The extra days of football are great, but I'd gladly give up Thurs if it helped players.

With NFL Sunday Ticket, and streaming. you can get as much as you like. That's saturation.

But what the hell, if you're getting too much, flick the power switch and do something else.

Gotta love Capitalism and all the options.

Who wants fewer options, fewer choices?

It was much the same for me, even though I lived in WI in the '60s and 70's. Cable was just in its infancy, and living in the far north we received only 3 over the air TV stations, all out of Duluth. The only Packer games I saw were against the Vikings and the Thanksgiving game against the Lions. Once in a great while, if the Vikings were playing out west, the early game would be the Packers, but for some reason they often seemed to carry the Bears instead. If the Packers were out west, it would depend on whether their game was chosen for the national broadcast.

Don't get me wrong, I agree having options is nice, and being able to see (record and replay, which is now my preference) every Packer game is great. But the question presented was when or if the NFL could hit a saturation point. I think maybe it has, because nothing about being able to watch a game is special anymore. But how can they not have reached a saturation point when, if you want, you can watch each and every game whenever you want. Even without a subscription, just basic cable service, I had 5 different games available to me yesterday. With Monday and Thursday, I can see half of all games played.

Either they have reached a saturation point, or there is no such thing for the NFL. I think it is the former, because wasn't there a big deal a year or two ago about the SB having to reduce ad fees?