Whether this season's NFL ratings declines were an election-fueled anomaly—as many network and NFL execs insist—or a lasting trend, they started affecting networks' bottom lines last month, according to new data from Standard Media Index.
NFL ad revenue, which had been increasing in September and October, was down 17 percent year over year in November.
While that was partially attributed to there being four fewer football games this November than last year, the chief revenue drop-off was caused by a sharp increase in ADUs (audience deficiency units, or makegoods), for advertisers who didn't receive their guaranteed impressions earlier in the football season.
In SMI's findings, which tracks 70 percent of national ad spending from global and independent agencies, NBC, the only network with the same number of November NFL games as last year (six), lost 17 percent in year-over-year football revenue.
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