Much was made of the NFL’s ratings slide last year, and through the first four weeks of the ’17 season, that trend appears to be continuing. Viewership for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and the Sunday afternoon windows on CBS and Fox are down to date, while ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” is up. It remains too early to make any sort of call on “Thursday Night Football” due to a shift in TV schedule for ’17. The decline for NFL viewership comes with plenty of caveats. Week 1 was heavily affected by Hurricane Irma, which led to several big Florida markets not reporting. Week 2 also saw some lingering effects. The storm also saw a major uptick for news networks like Weather Channel carrying coverage of the storm. Perhaps a bigger influence on NFL numbers is a continued uptick for major cable news networks, reflecting a trend that started around last year’s election. In September this year, MSNBC saw total-day viewership rise 45%, while CNN was up 33% and Fox News up 7%.
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NFL GAME VIEWERSHIP THROUGH WEEK 4
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NETWORK
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'17 (000)
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'16 (000)
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1-YEAR % +/-
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'15 (000)
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'14 (000)
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NBC*
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20,095
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22,032
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-9%
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25,311
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22,979
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|
Fox
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18,219
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19,331
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-6%
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19,900
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20,600
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CBS^
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15,182
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17,246
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-12%
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17,827
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18,280
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|
ESPN
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11,904
|
11,306
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5%
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13,624
|
13,568
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| CHART NOTES: * = Includes NFL Kickoff. ^ = Sunday telecasts only. |
LOOKING FOR DAYLIGHT: Both the CBS and Fox Sunday afternoon packages are seeing their lowest figures in at least a couple years through Week 4. Fox is averaging 18.2 million viewers, marking the net’s lowest figure at this point in the season since ’09. Fox also is down 6% from last year. The heavy hurricane coverage in Week 1 had a big impact on Fox, which had the national window that week. Excluding Week 1, Fox actually is up 3% when compared to Weeks 2-4 last year. Meanwhile, CBS is averaging 15.2 million viewers, its lowest mark in at least a decade and down 12% from last year. Despite the declines for both nets, the late afternoon Sunday national game windows continue to be among the most-watched programming on all of TV. Fox’ two national windows have averaged 24.4 million viewers to date, while CBS’ two windows have averaged 18.7 million viewers. CBS' Week 4 national window also had only one game, whereas there were three last year.
PICK UP THE PACE: NBC’s “SNF” is averaging 20.1 million viewers to date, marking the primetime package’s lowest figure since ’08. NBC is down 9% compared to ’16 at this point, and “SNF” has yet to compete with “The Walking Dead” on Sunday nights (the AMC show returns Oct. 22). The Thursday night season opener featuring Chiefs-Patriots was no help either, as that game was down 13%. NBC's five games to date also have had an average point differential of more than two touchdowns (14.2 points) at the end of the third quarter. NBC could get some help in Week 5. A strong Chiefs-Texans matchup will compare to Giants-Packers last year, but that matchup was NBC's second-lowest figure of the ’16 season, as it went up against the second Trump-Clinton presidential debate. A close game could deliver a big audience and big increase for NBC, and that could subsequently help close the year-over-year gap. Despite the drop for “SNF” to date, the show continues to lead Sunday primetime among all shows and is on pace to be TV's No. 1 primetime show for the seventh straight season.
BEACON OF HOPE: ESPN’s “MNF” is the only NFL package seeing an uptick to date. The net is averaging 11.9 million viewers to date, up 5% from last year. Aiding ESPN was a big year-over-year gain in Week 3 for Cowboys-Cardinals, which compared to a game last year that went up against the first presidential debate. That ended up being the least-viewed “MNF” game on record. ESPN also has a Monday primetime crown on lockdown to date. ESPN will look to maintain its gains, but it has already aired the lone appearances for the Giants and Cowboys -- two normally strong draws. Both of those teams had yet to be on “MNF” at this point in the ’16 season. Time spent viewing per "MNF" telecast also is up 10% year-over-year. Fans who watched "MNF" are tuning into an average of 70.2 minutes per telecast, up from 63.6 during the first four weeks of '16.
CHECK YOUR PROGRAMMING GUIDE: The “TNF” schedule was once again a laboratory for experiment this season. After starting the last three seasons with a CBS telecast, the league reverted back to having its first two games on NFL Network for the first time since ’13. Week 4 -- the third “TNF” game -- went back to CBS. A better look at the performance of “TNF” is likely better left for the halfway point of the ’17 season, when CBS’ complete package of games will be in the books.
