This graphic is a bar chart designed to show the NFL viewership trends over the past four seasons. This chart shows the combined number of viewers of the first eight weeks of the 2013-2016 seasons of the four major networks (Fox, CBS, ESPN, and NBC) for three different age demographics: 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 year old adults. The point of the trend is to illustrate a few general, big picture points. First, that NFL viewership really has been going down as of late. Second, this trend is actually not a new trend, and has been going on for at least three seasons (which means that certain controversies that occurred right before the 2016 season are not solely to blame for the drop in viewership.) The graph also shows that the NFL appears to be struggling with the age demographic considered to be the most valuable (18-34 year olds). The graph is also designed to lead into several more detailed graphs that are placed later in the article. The graph on it’s own is not trying to give arguments as to why less people are watching the NFL, and is designed to supplement the main article, which does provide some possibilities.
Before I go on, let me address some immediate questions that might come up while looking at this visualization. This graph is only focused the viewership by age groups, and does not break things down by other factors, such as gender and race. However, this is because this and a separate article do feature bar graphs that focus on these factors. However, I will only be focusing on the first bar graph.
One thing that the graph does well is that it remembers to start the y-axis scale at 0. From what I understand, one of the main mistakes that bar graphs do is to start the scale at something other than 0, which can make things look different than they actually are. For example, if the graph had started at 3000 viewers, then the 18-34 viewership bars would be super short, which would give the impression that this demographic is not important (even though it is)
One of the things that this graph does well is that it has visual clarity. I like that the viewership numbers are not all on top or inside each bar. Instead, the graph stacks the numbers, which prevents the numbers from crowding one another out, and keeps things clear. By having the numbers, it also makes it much more clear that the numbers are actually declining. For example, if the red and green bar in the 18-49 portion did not have numbers, one might think that viewership did not change. I also think that the graph, for what it’s trying to do, does convey it’s information well enough. It makes it clear that for every age demographic, less people have been watching in each consecutive season (although only using the first eight weeks, where the games might not be considered as important, could make the graph not as accurate as it wants to be).
The most obvious criticism of the graph is that there is an overlap between the first and second demographics, and an overlap between the second and third demographic. This adds some confusion to the graph. If the graph is trying to compare the drop in viewers by age group, then this graph is not clear. In addition, as mentioned before, this graph does not do a good job at letting the audience draw any conclusions as to why viewership is down.
If it wanted show this, it would make sure the age groups were separate, without an overlap. I also question why the visualization is not a line graph, as the point is to track a trend over four years. The line graph could have three different color lines for each age demographic (no overlap), and the weeks of each season on the x-axis. I would also try to compare the viewership totals for other sports, so that there is some comparison point for the NFL. If NFL viewership is still much higher than that of it’s competitors, than the drop in viewership might not be as much of a problem
The NFL’s ratings are down – but just who exactly isn’t watching anymore?