Sky Sports has seen their ratings for the English Premier League drop by 19 percent in England compared with last season.

The decline mirrors and even surpasses what is being experienced by the NFL where ratings are down by about 11 percent.

While viewership is down, Sky's subscriber base is actually growing.

There's some speculation of people illegally streaming matches online or a late-summer heat wave in England drawing people away from their televisions. 

“We have to confront the possibility that people like everything about (soccer) except watching it,” writes Ken Early of the Irish Times.

NBC's ratings in the United States, however, rose last season by 26 percent.