Fantasy football is also an extremely important reason for the continued popularity of the NFL, and the NFL and the TV networks know it. As I type this at 8:05 pm EST, BSPN is running an hour long fantasy football show. They recently had a ff marathon that stretched on for many hours. BSPN and the NFL Network constantly scroll fantasy stats and rankings during shows. If fantasy football -- played by some 30 million people, making it far more popular than fantasy baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, etc. -- ever loses its appeal, then the NFL will follow in large part, because so many of the games are boring and poorly played, but fantasy players don't notice or care because they are too busy keeping track of how "their" players are doing and whether they are beating their make-believe opponent(s).
The NFL Sunday Ticket alone is a gold mine for the league and DirecTV. It goes up in price every year and costs nearly $400 for this season. Probably 95%+ of the people who purchase it do so because of fantasy football.
The NFL Sunday Ticket alone is a gold mine for the league and DirecTV. It goes up in price every year and costs nearly $400 for this season. Probably 95%+ of the people who purchase it do so because of fantasy football.