Nielsen insights heading into the NFL season

The numbers to beat

Ratings for the first game of the NFL season have climbed the past two years. The Steelers and Patriots are set to square off Thursday to get the 2015 campaign underway.

Kickoff game ratings trends

In 2010, 1.08 million Hispanics ages 18-49 watched the NFL Kickoff, representing less than half the size of the African-American 18-49 audience. Last year, 1.32 million Hispanics ages 18-49 watched the game, more than two-thirds the size of the African-American 18-49 audience.

In 2010, 45 percent of total audience of the NFL Kickoff game was age 55+. Last year that group made up 52 percent.

Source: Nielsen

Social standing

The top five most social, regular-season games during the 2014 season generated a total of nearly 6 million game-specific tweets and an average unique audience of 7.9 million people. During the Sept. 4 game between the Packers and Seahawks, 8.1 million people saw one or more of the 948,000 tweets associated with the game. Nielsen Social captures relevant tweets in the U.S. from three hours before through three hours after a broadcast, local time. Unique audience measures the audience of relevant tweets ascribed to a program.

Rank	Game	Network	Date	Audience (000s)	Tweets (000s)
1	Packers at Seahawks		9/4/14	8,063	948
2	49ers at Cowboys		9/7/14	8,026	1,416
3	Cowboys at Giants		11/23/14	7,844	1,136
4	Redskins at Cowboys		10/27/14	7,790	1,624
5	49ers at Broncos		10/19/14	7,556	860

The road to LA

All signs point to an NFL franchise returning to the Los Angeles market for the first time in 20 years. According to Nielsen Scarborough research, compared to the typical U.S. adult, adults in the Los Angeles market are:

• 27% less likely to be very interested in the NFL.
• 24% less likely to be very or somewhat interested in the NFL.
• 15% less likely to have any level of interest in the NFL.

Still, with an overall market size of 14 million adults, Los Angeles has the numbers that could pay off for the NFL. As a comparison:

• 2.8 million L.A. adults are very interested in the NFL (more adults than live in either the San Diego or St. Louis markets).
• 4.9 million L.A. adults are very or somewhat interested in the NFL (roughly the same number of adults who live in the Houston market, the nation’s 10th-biggest market).
• 7.2 million L.A. adults have some level of interest in the NFL (slightly smaller than the nation’s third-largest market, Chicago, and about 1 million more adults than live in the nation’s fourth-largest market, Philadelphia).

Source: Nielsen Answers Core; Total US

Drink up!

Americans spend approximately 15.5% more on malt beverages and beer during NFL opening week than the average week. The U.S. is on track to spend approximately $2.1 billion on malt beverages and beer during this year’s opening week.

Don’t forget the snacks

Americans also spend 8.5% more on salty snacks and 8.8% more on soft drinks during opening week.

Brady’s image deflated

N-Score measures a sports figure’s overall endorsement potential, based on awareness and various traits identified in a survey of consumers. When reviewing data fielded before and after Deflategate, Tom Brady’s image took a hit across many of the measures. To read: Of those who are aware of Brady, 35 percent believe that he is influential.

Source: Nielsen