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.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS