Seahawks' Win Over Packers Gives NBC Best Overnight Rating For Season Opener Since '11

NBC drew a 16.8 overnight rating for the Seahawks' 36-16 win over the Packers Thursday night, the best figure for an NFL Kickoff game since '11. The 16.8 rating is up 4% from a 16.2 overnight for the Broncos' blowout win over the Ravens last year. The '12 Kickoff game, which featured Cowboys-Giants, aired on a Wednesday night to accommodate the Democratic National Convention. The NFL Kickoff's high mark remains the '10 Vikings-Saints matchup, which drew a 17.7 overnight. Thursday's game led NBC to a win in primetime among all nets. Milwaukee led all markets with a 44.0 local rating, followed by Seattle-Tacoma with a 42.2 rating. Minneapolis-St. Paul (26.6), New Orleans (25.2) and Sacramento (21.2) rounded out the top five markets. The game's live stream on NBC Sports Live Extra had 507,000 viewers, marking a record for the platform for a non-Olympic and non-Super Bowl event. The 507,000 viewers were up 51% from Ravens-Broncos last year (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

CHART NOTES: * = Game aired on a Wednesday night due to DNC. ** = Game aired on a Thursday, but began at 7:00pm ET to accommodate RNC.

ALL EYES ON ME: CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said the "Thursday Night Football" package is the "most important franchise we've launched at CBS Sports since we got the NFL back in 1998." Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, who chairs the league's NFL Network committee, added, "The quality of production on CBS Sports' broadcasts has Sean's fingerprints all over it, and that's not just with the NFL." McManus added, "The two things I enjoy most are production and negotiating deals" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 9/1 issue). CNBC's Julia Boorstin said CBS now is "running its biggest-ever promotional campaign and weaving NFL analysts into programming." Boorstin noted Boomer Esiason will appear on "Blue Bloods," while Phil Simms will have a guest spot on "Elementary" ("Squawk Alley," CNBC, 9/4). 

CLIMBING THE LADDER: In Albany, Pete Dougherty notes CBS' Andrew Catalon in his first season as a full-time NFL play-by-play announcer "will anchor the first three-man NFL booth" for the network since '03. He will join analysts Steve Tasker and Steve Beuerlein, and as CBS' No. 6 announcer team, the three "aren't likely to get many high-profile games." Their telecasts "generally will be seen only in the markets of the competing teams." Beuerlein said he and Tasker "are two guys who have been looking for a way to differentiate ourselves." Beuerlein: "We've been stuck down at the bottom of the CBS totem pole for a while. Is it ideal to be in a three-man booth? Maybe it is. Maybe that's what is going to give us an opportunity to get noticed a little bit more and get an opportunity to get some bigger games, if we can develop the rhythm and rapport that we think we can" (Albany TIMES UNION, 9/5).

NEW DIRECTV DEAL CLOSE? Patriots Owner Robert Kraft on Friday said the league is hopeful a new deal between the NFL and DirecTV for the Sunday Ticket package is "going to close shortly." He said, "They have presented our product beautifully and we're really happy to have them." Kraft said if AT&T acquires DirecTV, he thinks the league is "going to do okay" in the deal ("Squawk Box," CNBC, 9/5).

SELLING THE ASIAN MARKET: The NFL has hired IMG to handle media rights sales and distribution across Asia for the next three seasons. The deal expands IMG’s work with the NFL beyond the TV licensing work it has done in Europe for the past five years. In Asia, IMG will sell the rights to the entire regular season, playoffs and Super Bowl. It also will sell programming like “NFL GameDay,” “NFL Extra” and the NFL Draft. The league previously handled licensing agreements in Asia independently. The Asian markets with the most interest in the NFL include Hong Kong and Thailand (Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer).