Auds scout NFL Draft

Opening night for the NFL Draft delivered gains for the event’s media partners. ESPN reports a total live audience of 6,924,000 viewers for its Thursday night telecast of Round 1, which ranks as the fourth most-viewed Round 1 telecast on ESPN since the new primetime format began in 2010, with a 7% uptick over last year. The NFL Draft on ESPN ranked as the highest-rated telecast on Thursday night among all the key male demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54), as well as adults 18-34 and 18-49. Additionally, the telecast helped ESPN win the night among all networks in households, viewers and all key male and adult demos. On television, the telecast peaked in the 9-9:30 p.m. ET half hour with a 4.6 rating and 7,779,000 viewers.

Meanwhile, NFL Network saw day one of the NFL Draft average a 1.52 household Nielsen score and 2.5 million viewers, for markups of 22% and 24% respectively over 2016. Viewership ranked as the most-watched Day 1 of Draft ever on NFL Network. Between ESPN and NFL Network the viewership of 9.2 million combined marks the top draft viewership behind 2014.

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