Dive Brief:

• The National Football League has had a rough year with ratings overall, though its ad revenue continued to rise in September and October. Adweek reported, however, that those circumstances changed dramatically last month when overall revenue fell 17% year-over-year.
• The ad revenue data comes from Standard Media Index, an organization which tracks 70% of national ad spending from global and independent agencies. Overall broadcast spend dropped by 10.6%. 
• Even though ad revenue was strong in the early months of the season, according to Adweek, a major cause of the massive November drop-off was ADUs — audience deficiency units, a.k.a. "makegoods" — which networks had to pay back to earlier advertisers after not meeting guaranteed impressions during September and October.

Dive Insight:

Broadcast woes in 2016 can perhaps best be encapsulated by the ongoing struggles of the NFL, once a destination viewing powerhouse that now seems to be flagging when it comes to keeping up consistent ad revenue during key moments of the season.

Per Adweek, spokespeople for the league and some industry insiders weren’t overly concerned about the sluggish ratings, at least publicly, citing the presidential election as an event that stole a lot of oxygen, with debates slotted directly against primetime football programming. Given the most recent revenue woes, it’s likely that concerns are growing for some, as the election explanation no longer flies.

A separate report in The Wall Street Journal from last week noted that CBS cable programs like The Big Bang Theory and NCIS now beat out Sunday Night Football for viewership numbers. While marquee events like the Super Bowl still dominate as most-viewed of the year, a growing trend toward cord-cutting in favor of digital channels means that regular season games could continue to take a hit going forward.  Digital ad spend is also forecast to surpass that on TV in 2017, and the NFL having issues with ad revenue is likely a bad sign for other programs.