After pushing back the late afternoon games from 4:15PM ET to 4:25PM ET to try to eliminate any overlap from the earlier 1PM games it looks like the NFL is going to take another step in making television viewership easier for the fans. According to the Wall Street Journal the NFL will lighten up on their blackout restrictions which previously required 100% sellouts in order for games to televised in the local markets.
“Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it is 85% or higher. To discourage teams from setting easy benchmarks, teams will be forced to share more of the revenue when they exceed it.
Since 2007 ticket sales league wide have been down as average attendance has fallen 4.7%. This however doesn’t mean the league is losing popularity as broadcast and online viewership is way up.
The league also announced that it plans to introduce wireless internet in all stadiums as well as phone apps to enable fans to listen in on players who are mic’d up.
Ref: Wall Street Journal