Cover 7 | Friday A daily NFL destination that provides in-depth analysis of football’s biggest stories. Each Friday, Richard Deitsch examines some of the biggest storylines in the NFL media world.
The power of the NFL on American life is such that a column like this — one that focuses on the intersection of media and pro football — can exist. It also existed at my previous employer. No other entertainment content in America comes close to delivering consistent and devoted interest. In many ways, it is America’s obsession — and that’s not overstating it.
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Money drives the league, and sports viewership is intertwined in that calculus. The NFL always makes decisions to maximize the amount of eyeballs on its product. Less than a month away from the first NFL postseason game, it’s a good time to analyze the league’s viewership for the 2023 regular season.
Austin Karp, the ratings expert from Sports Business Journal, and Anthony Crupi, the viewership expert from Sportico, passed along some updated viewership numbers: NFL games are averaging 17.48 million viewers this season across TV and digital platforms excluding international games. That’s about an 8 percent year-over-year increase from this time last year. “Monday Night Football” is up 24 percent over last year (a direct result of more games on ABC) and Amazon is up 23 percent. NBC is averaging 21.8 million viewers — the best “Sunday Night Football” viewership number at this point since 2015. (All sports have gotten a boost from better accounting for out-of-home viewership in places like bars and restaurants and viewing parties.) What’s worth noting, as Crupi points out, is an NFL viewership increase is an impressive lift given there is an overall 8 percent decline in U.S. TV usage this fall.
Another of these experts I trust implicity on NFL viewership is Jon Lewis, the founder and editor of the invaluable Sports Media Watch. He was gracious enough to partake in a back-and-forth this week on where things stand with NFL viewership.
Deitsch: NFL games season to date are averaging 17.5 million viewers across TV and digital platforms, excluding international games. The average would be a tick lower if you added those 9:30 a.m. international starts in. Our buddy Austin Karp says that’s the highest average through Week 15 since 2015. Give me your big-picture thoughts on why viewership is up.
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Lewis: “Monday Night Football” getting those ABC simulcasts is definitely one factor. Basically, MNF has gone from being closer to “Thursday Night Football” as a ratings draw to being closer to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” Amazon has been extremely strong this season as well, which I guess you can chalk up to viewers being more used to games airing on Prime Video since there is no obvious Nielsen-related reason. CBS has also had a great year, and NBC has had some bigger than usual Sunday night audiences. Really, the only network that has not blown past expectations is Fox, and it hasn’t done badly.
As for why, it’s really tough to say. I think the NFL is just in a good place right now. You could credit it to all the great young quarterbacks, but so many have taken a step back this season or gotten injured. I think it helps to have strong, contending big-market teams like (the) Philadelphia (Eagles) and off-the-field storylines like we’ve seen with (the) Kansas City (Chiefs).
Deitsch: The “Monday Night Football” doubleheader experiment has been interesting. Brian Rolapp, the NFL executive vice president and chief media and business officer, told The Boston Globe this week that the league likes the doubleheader model. If I’m analyzing the MNF doubleheaders from a viewership perspective, the one experiment I would not repeat was the Week 14 doubleheader, which featured concurrent kickoffs at 8:15 p.m. That was a poor experience for viewers, as well as a bust viewership-wise for each of the individual games. How did you analyze the MNF doubleheader viewership?
Lewis: I actually tend to think having both games at 8:15 p.m. ET was not the worst idea. Sustaining a combined audience of 20 million over three hours is a pretty good outcome, in my view. Of the three doubleheader formats, I suspect ESPN will eventually decide on the staggered start with ABC having the early game and ESPN the late game, as that was the format that generated the largest audience on ESPN.
Deitsch: Give me staggered start times, Jon. I beg you. On another topic: Amazon’s numbers interest me for a number of reasons. They’ve been up all year, and their average (viewer) age is significantly lower than the networks’. That’s a great story to tell given the biggest proof of concept they needed to show was that an audience would regularly tune into a streaming product. But then the (Las Vegas) Raiders-(Los Angeles) Chargers blowout was the least-watched (7.98 million viewers) game of the season for Amazon and the lowest number outside of the international games. I’m not sure we’d ever see that low a number for any other partner. Give me your analysis of Amazon this season.
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Lewis: I think you’re right that no other NFL network — outside of NFL Network — would average as small an audience for any game, but that’s part of the compromise with Amazon. You’re getting smaller viewership numbers, but the demographics are pretty unmatched. I’m not really sure why Amazon is doing so well this season; there’s no obvious reason why. The games aren’t that much better than last season, there’s been no change in time slot, etc. Assuming there’s no Nielsen-related change that has not been disclosed, the only explanation is that viewers are just becoming more used to tuning to a streaming service for these games.
Deitsch: Within our world, there’s a very interesting story brewing. CBS has a slight edge over Fox for viewership in the 4:25 p.m. ET NFL national window season to date. CBS is averaging 24.853 million viewers for its late national window; Fox is at 24.105 million viewers. Fox has held this crown for what seems like forever. The Dallas Cowboys vs. Miami Dolphins viewership (this Sunday) is a huge game for Fox if it wants to try to catch CBS. How significant would it be for you if CBS won out here?
Lewis: I think it would be somewhat significant, though maybe not as much now as in the days before the “cross-flex.” CBS is definitely helped by the fact that the Chiefs and (Buffalo) Bills have become such major draws, plus the plethora of young star quarterbacks in the AFC. I would note that once you get past Bills-Eagles on CBS in Week 12 — the most-watched national window on either network this season at 30.9 million viewers — the next four most-watched were all on Fox.
The Nov. 26 Bills-Eagles showdown on CBS racked up 30.9 million viewers, the top national-window Sunday game on either Fox or CBS this year. (Andy Lewis / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Deitsch: One of the things I subscribe to for sports viewership is momentum. If a league has a strong regular-season viewership, it usually predicts postseason success. Obviously, there are always mitigating factors: matchups, margin of victory, weather, the media markets of the teams. But all things equal, I think we will see a playoff increase from last year. What say you?
Lewis: I think as long as the best teams advance. It just so happens that the teams with the best records this season are all good or excellent TV draws, so the numbers will be customarily strong. The league has a pretty good setup potentially getting Dallas, Kansas City and Philadelphia on wild-card weekend. As long as the three of them aren’t knocked out on wild-card weekend, I think there should be good times ahead.
NBC’s Melissa Stark will serve as the sideline reporter for her 100th NFL regular-season game Saturday as the Chargers host the Bills. The game is airing exclusively on Peacock (and over-the-air stations in those markets) at 8 p.m. ET. NBC said Stark, whose work resume includes “Monday Night Football,” has worked in 39 stadiums during her career, including seven games at Lambeau Field. She’s been assigned 12 Green Bay Packers games (tops for her among all teams) and 11 Los Angeles Rams games (second on her list).
NBC also announced that Ahmed Fareed will host “Football Night in America” on NBC and Peacock for the remainder of the 2023 NFL season while regular host Maria Taylor is on parental leave.
Episode 356 of the “Sports Media” podcast features Fox NFL producer Richie Zyontz and Fox NFL director Rich Russo. They are the lead production staffers on Fox’s top NFL team. In this podcast, Zyontz and Russo discuss their second year working with Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen; doing Dallas-Miami this Sunday; how having two sideline reporters affects a broadcast; navigating Taylor Swift if she’s at a game; Fox’s 30th year of football; rules analysts; a shared love of Jack Buck; the number of cameras for playoff games; and more.
GO DEEPER NFL games have become a Christmas Day tradition, and it’s not slowing down
(Photo of the San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle after the Thanksgiving night game against the Seattle Seahawks: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Why are NFL ratings defying TV viewer trends? Here’s one expert’s take
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