September 9, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — As the National Football League's 2011 season begins, "there is no questioning the NFL's cultural clout in America," writes the Christian Science Monitor's Daniel B. Wood, in an article that quotes a DePauw University professor. "Twenty-eight of last year’s 30 highest-rated TV programs were NFL games,
and the league just signed a $1.9 billion deal with ESPN to broadcast
Monday Night Football. That’s on top of media deals already worth $3
billion –- enough to pay all the payrolls of the NFL’s 32 teams without
any revenue at all from stadium ticket sales," Wood reports.
The league does face challenges, according to the story. For one, some fans are deciding to stay home and watch the games on their high definition television sets instead of forking over money for high-priced seats, parking and concessions.
Wood notes, "The NFL has been
very careful to craft its image while TV networks have invested heavily
in
making the NFL connection one of the most lucrative and steady
partnerships in the history of TV, going back to the first contract with
CBS in 1961."
Jeff McCall, professor of communication at DePauw, tells the Monitor, "It has been amazing to see that football's popularity carries on in spite of labor unrest and some of the high-profile players being in legal trouble. It seems nothing can disrupt the sport's momentum."
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Jeffrey M. McCall, a 1976 graduate of DePauw, is frequently called upon by major news outlets to discuss media matters and has been quoted in more than 100 newspapers. He was recently cited in a Kansas City Star piece and offers analysis on reality TV shows in the latest Weight Watchers magazine. His recent op-ed on "checkbook journalism" was published in several newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Indianapolis Star.
The professor, who serves as faculty adviser to student radio station WGRE, is the author of Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences.