Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers runs up field as James Bradberry of the Carolina Panthers attempts a tackle at Heinz Field on Nov. 8, 2018. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Digital streaming of NFL Thursday Night Football more than doubled its total audience for last Thursday’s Steelers-Panthers game compared to 2017’s Week 10 Seahawks-Cardinals offering.
Accounting for all digital platforms—Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, NFL properties, Yahoo Sports, and Fox Sports—the average minute audience (AMA) for the Steelers’ 52-21 win over the Panthers was 782,000, an increase of 105 percent over last year (439,000). The NFL has enabled wider reach of its streaming this year and has reaped benefits in all game windows. Yahoo Sports, for instance, has set several records for app usage.
A reported 2.2 million viewers worldwide opened a stream on Prime Video or Twitch for either the game or pregame shows last Thursday. The AMA on Amazon-owned platforms was a season-high 540,000. Amazon’s AMA for the 2018 season’s TNF package has been 455,000 through the first seven games, a nearly 47 percent increase over the 2017 AMA of 310,000. (Amazon defines AMA as the viewership that tuned in for at least 30 seconds.) A little more than two-thirds of the overall streaming audience, 69 percent, watched on Amazon platforms last Thursday.
Amazon said its highest audience in 2017 was two million for a Dec. 7 Saints-Falcons game, a number matched or eclipsed five times this season. The viewership has reached 2.4 million twice: Patriots-Colts on Oct. 4 and Eagles-Giants on Oct. 12.
There are two related statistics worth noting: both TV ratings and scoring are also up this season. (CNN speculated in October that NFL ratings might be up exactly because of the increased scoring and excitement.) Through seven games in 2018, TNF has seen an average of 58 points scored per game, compared to a league-wide average of 48. Last season, Amazon’s 11 TNF games had an average of 45 points, compared to a league average of 43.
Amazon’s 2018 Thursday Night Football audience metrics (Data from Amazon)
SportTechie Takeaway
When Amazon claimed victory with a larger AMA for the Thursday Night Football digital package in 2017 over what Twitter had in 2016, that tout was a little hollow because the comparisons were not exactly apples-to-apples. This year’s metrics, however, show that 2018 streaming viewership is clearly way ahead of 2017. Amazon is reportedly paying $65 million per year for the rights in 2018 and 2019—as opposed to $50 million for 2017—and the tech giant has been investing in innovation. The broadcasts have become more interactive and offer unique choices for audio feeds. Such additions presumably can only help enhance what’s already been a captivating NFL season.
