“The stories get people there. The product keeps people there.”

The NY Times's Bill Carter takes a while to clear his throat but as usual delivers some compelling reasons for the NFL's massive ratings this season. Ponte Vedra, take note...

Fox has an inclination to take the movie comparison to the next level. For the last two weeks, on regional games with smaller audiences, the network has played a musical score in accompaniment with the coverage of the games. The idea, Fox contends, could be the next big innovation in television football coverage because the audience is growing more accustomed to having music with every form of entertainment.
“I think that’s a bridge too far,” Mr. Ebersol said. “I don’t think football is remotely comparable; it’s much bigger than a movie.”

All of the network executives cited how effective what they called the story lines behind this season had been, from the electrifying play of Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles after his prison sentence for running a dog-fighting business, to the seeming omnipresence of Brett Favre in news headlines.