Once again, the NFL rules the media roost

If there was any doubt about who rules the media realm, the NFL once again ascended the audience throne, opening its centennial season before 109 million viewers. The slate posted an average minute-audience per game of 17.1 million viewers across Nielsen-measured platforms, representing a 5% gain over the first week of the 2018 campaign. NFL contests scored the six largest audiences during the week of Sept. 2-8, led by 23.9 million for FOX’s coverage of Dallas/New York Giants and 22.2 million apiece for NBC’s pair of primetime telecasts: Green Bay/Chicago and Pittsburgh/New England. The league pointed out that the top non-NFL programming for the week tackled 9.1 million viewers.

The Sept. 9 twin bill on Sept. 9 also delivered, as New Orleans/Houston and Oakland/Denver averaged 12 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, marking an 18% increase year-over-year and the rights-holder’s most-viewed doubleheader since 2015 Livestreaming on NFL, Verizon Media and broadcast network digital platforms combined to garner an average-minute audience of 514,000, a 43% jump from the inaugural week a year ago.

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