Although its viewership took a 2.2 percent tumble last year, the NFL’s numbers far eclipsed all other programming in US broadcasting — sports or otherwise.
Among the top 100 broadcasts in the US last year, the NFL claimed 70 — down from 93 the previous year.
Across all networks, the NFL averaged 17.5 million viewers, down from 17.9 million, but the league’s media presence received a massive boost from Amazon and Netflix this season. The league’s average viewers per game does not include Peacock, ESPN+ or international games on NFL Network.
Photo: AP
Streaming also played a major factor, as broadcast networks saw record numbers of their audiences turn to digital platforms to access football broadcasts. Netflix broadcast its first live NFL games at Christmas, while Amazon saw the biggest year-to-year boost of any NFL rights holder.
Amazon’s Thursday Night Football coverage jumped 11 percent to an average of 13.2 million, and when including its Black Friday game, that number rose to 13 percent.
As for Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service’s live debut at Christmas averaged more than 24 million viewers for the Kansas City Chiefs-Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans matchups.
Over at ESPN, the outlet owned by Disney averaged 15 million viewers for all 22 of its NFL games, its second-best season in 24 years. However, the figure is down about 14 percent from last year’s 17.4 million average viewers.
Last year’s average was partly due to 19 Monday Night Football simulcasts or exclusives airing on ABC, mainly because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood.
At Fox, its pre-game show was the most watched of any pre-game show for the 31st year, but the entirety of its NFL coverage took a 3 percent tumble.
Fox’s late Sunday afternoon America’s Game of the Week was down 3 percent to 23.9 million, but still led all league broadcast windows.
NBC saw a 1 percent uptick from 2023 for Sunday Night Football, which brought in 21.6 million viewers on a weekly basis. However, the digital audience from NBC’s Peacock and NBCSports.com, along with NFL Digital properties, drew an average of 2.2 million per game — a 38 percent increase over 2023.
For CBS, the Nov. 17 Chiefs-Buffalo Bills matchup drew an average of 31.1 million, one of the biggest audiences last year.
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