Thursday Night Football is dragging down NFL viewership

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https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.co...ll-Amazon.aspx

BY AUSTIN KARP
11.4.2022

Viewership of "Thursday Night Football" on Amazon has become a slow drag on the NFL’s overall numbers through Week 8, with average viewership now down 5% after being up earlier in the season. All NFL games are averaging 15.7 million viewers to date, down from 16.5 million at the same point in 2021 (which also was the best start for the NFL since 2015). Compared to two years earlier, however, the NFL is up 4% -- even with the "TNF" move.

LINEAR PARTNERS: The traditional NFL media partners (NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN) are seeing averages right at where they were last season. “Sunday Night Football” is down just 1% to date, and that’s despite the average margin of victory (10.2 points per game) being up from 7.1 last season at this point. NBC continues to easily lead all primetime shows. Over on ESPN airwaves, “Monday Night Football” is flat at 13.7 million viewers (includes any simulcasts on ABC and ESPN2). It is a good spot for ESPN considering its experiment in Week 2, when two “MNF” games overlapped (one on ABC, one on ESPN/ESPN2). Excluding that Week 2 test, "MNF" is averaging 14.8 million viewers. One potential area of concern could be the ManningCast, which is down 8% to date (1.47 million vs. 1.59 million on ESPN2). On Sunday afternoons, CBS windows are down just 1% to date, and that is with one less doubleheader window compared to the same period in 2021. This season’s figure for CBS is also the second-best yet for the network. Fox’s Sunday afternoon package is seeing a 1% uptick to date.

THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Where the NFL is feeling the pinch is on Thursday nights. Amazon is averaging 10.3 million viewers to date. That is 16% lower than what Thursday night games drew through Week 8 last year, which was a combo of games on Fox/NFL Network and NFL Net alone. However, the Thursday slate of games this season is up 7% from the same point in 2020 (also a mix of NFL Net and Fox/NFL Net). If international games from London are excluded, the NFL average this season jumps to 16.2 million.

[Yong Fang]

I dont know if many people do this, but I will watch a synopsis of a game on YouTube, usually between a ten to twenty minute video of the highlights of the game. I do not really care that much for the NFL, my city does not have a home team, and the NFL in general are ran by incredibly greedy owners.

I wish I can expose Amazon and their awful business practices and the criminal ways they treat their employees in their sweatshop warehouses. I absolutely refuse to spend a penny on anything Amazon.

Do we really need NFL four nights a week? It used to be just Sundays and a Monday Night game (on ABC, where it was free, no cable needed).

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Thursday Night Football' Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

Amazon Prime Video averaged 9.6 million viewers for its first season as exclusive rights holder to the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package.
That viewer average represented a whopping 41% audience shortfall from the 16.2 million viewers the package averaged in 2021, when it was shared by Fox, the NFL Network, Amazon and local broadcast channels.

Amazon's 9.6 million viewer performance was also the lowest since the NFL started selling the "Thursday Night Football" package to TV companies in 2014.

The better news for Amazon and the NFL: The median age for the Prime Video "TNF" viewer was 47 this season, which was seven years younger than the median age averaged by the rest of the NFL's TV rights packages.

Amazon's highest rated game was a week 2 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers, with the game featuring two eventual playoff teams averaging 13 million viewers.

In all, six games averaged more than 10 million viewers.