ESPN last night saw its first year-over-year "MNF" ratings increase in '16, as the Packers' 27-13 win over the Eagles earned an 8.9 overnight, up 20% from a 7.4 for Ravens-Browns in Week 12 last year. Last night's game peaked at a 10.2 rating between 9:30-9:45pm ET and likely gives ESPN a win in primetime across broadcast and cable. Last night's game also is up 25% from a 7.1 for Ravens-Saints in Week 12 of '14, which was ESPN's lowest-rated "MNF" game of that season to date. Packers-Eagles earned a combined 44.8 local rating in Milwaukee (27.4 on WISN-ABC, 17.4 on ESPN) and a 29.9 in Philadelphia (16.1 on WPVI-ABC, 13.8 on ESPN). ESPN’s streaming audience for the game drew an average minute audience of 254,000 viewers across ESPN and ESPN Deportes, up 96% over last year (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor).
TOP DOLLAR: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes even though ESPN's pays the most for its NFL rights, it gets a "less-impactful schedule" than NBC's "SNF." ESPN never gets a Super Bowl and only "began to carry a single annual playoff game" in '15. ESPN also "lacks the flex rights of NBC." ESPN pays the NFL $1.9B annually, "nearly twice what any of its network rivals shell out." The contract "includes the extremely valuable video and highlights rights that sustain the network’s numerous programs and platforms, as well as the draft and other goodies," but it "hardly seems like a bargain." ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus said comparing ESPN’s and other networks’ NFL investments is "apples and oranges to the nth degree." He added, "I understand the comparison, but we don't agonize over it." Sandomir notes ESPN "must endure a schedule that this season, for instance, features only one appearance each" for the Packers, Broncos and Cowboys, while NBC has three for the Packers and the Cowboys and four for the Broncos (N.Y. TIMES, 11/29).
BETTER COMPETITION: In DC, Mark Maske noted viewership of the Thanksgiving Day games "appears to indicate that if the NFL provides compelling games, people will continue to watch in huge numbers." The late-afternoon Redskins-Cowboys game on Fox was "competitive and entertaining," and it drew 35.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season game on the net. The early Vikings-Lions game on CBS, "decided on a late interception and a field goal as time expired," averaged 27.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched game this season on that net. Even if those were games were helped by a "holiday audience," it "doesn’t explain why Thursday night’s drab Steelers-Colts game on NBC," with the Colts playing without QB Andrew Luck, drew 21 million viewers, down from the 27.8 million who watched Packers-Bears on Thanksgiving night a year earlier. Maske: "The quality of the product, it appears, is a significant factor in all of this" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 11/28).
WATCHFUL EYE: Fox Sports President & COO Eric Shanks, on whether or not the dip in NFL ratings this season will continue throughout the playoffs and into the net's telecast of Super Bowl LI, said, "The numbers have shown that the Sunday afternoon windows, when your local team is playing, are holding up relative to the primetime window. There's probably some learning to be gained from that. And seeing exactly what happens after the election. Are we concerned? I don't think so. I think it takes more than eight or nine weeks, it takes more than a season to really understand what's going on" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 11/28 issue).
BREAK IT DOWN: SPORTS ON EARTH's Will Leitch noted one theory is that NFL ratings "are down because fans are mad" over 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick's protest. However, there is "zero hard evidence that Kaepernick's protest has had anything to do with the lower NFL ratings ... outside of the claims of people who already dislike Kaepernick's protest and are inclined to blame it for anything within arm's reach." The idea that someone "would not watch the NFL because of Kaepernick's protest" is "absolutely baffling." It is "illogical, it is irrational and it has no basis in anything remotely factual in the physical world." But it is "not enough to just say that." Leitch: "It must be refuted, meticulously and thoroughly" (SPORTSONEARTH.com, 11/28).
