Ratings Roundup: 2019 NFL Campaign Hits Quarter-Mark, NL East Champs Grab Seven Year Regular Season Best By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor Friday, October 4, 2019 - 8:40 am
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Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the major networks churn out numbers for Week 4 action, the final MLB regular-season ratings are in, and Telemundo Deportes once again captures the best Spanish-language sports show.
NFL's Past Week on the Airwaves
The Thursday Night Football game featuring the Philadelphia Eagles' 34-27 win over the Green Bay Packers was seen by an average audience of 18.6 million across all platforms, including Fox, NFL Network, FoxDeportes, NFL digital, Fox Sports digital, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, and Yahoo Sports.
The 18.6 million viewers for Eagles-Packers across all platforms is up 25% versus the 2018 11-game Fox Thursday Night Football average and up 23% versus last year's Week 4 Thursday Night Football matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams.
Eagles-Packers is the second most-watched game since Fox began broadcasting Thursday Night Football in 2018, behind the New Orleans Saints-Dallas Cowboys matchup in Week 13 last season (22.2 million).
The Nielsen-measured audience was 17.7 million - up 23% versus the 2018 11-game FOX Thursday Night Football average (14.3 million) and up 22% versus the 2018 Week 4 Thursday Night Football game (14.5 million). Additionally, Eagles-Packers averaged a 10.5 HH rating - up 21% versus the 2018 11-game Fox Thursday Night Football average (8.7 HH rating) and up 18% versus last year's Vikings-Rams matchup (8.9 HH rating).
Digital streaming across Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, NFL digital, Fox Sports digital, and Yahoo Sports platforms produced an average minute audience of 1.4 million - the highest digital average minute audience for any regular season NFL game on record. Additionally, digital audience increased 91% versus the 2018 11-game Fox Thursday Night Football average (728K) and 70% versus last year's Week 4 Thursday Night Football matchup (817K).
Amazon Prime Video and Twitch reached a total of 3.2 million combined viewers worldwide for the FOX NFL Thursday pregame show and the Eagles-Packers game. For the Eagles-Packers game alone, 2.9 million worldwide viewers initiated a stream on Prime Video or Twitch. The average worldwide audience watching the Thursday Night Football game for at least 30 seconds on Prime Video or Twitch was 877K
CBS Sports' NFL national game scored in the ratings with 13.0/26 average household rating/share in the metered markets, a 6% increase versus its comparable national game window last year (12.3/24; Week 4 - 9/30/18). The national game was highlighted by the Minnesota-Chicago game.
Through the first quarter of the NFL season, The NFL on CBS' season-to-date rating is its highest in three years, up 5%, averaging an 11.0/23 household rating/share in the metered markets (2016; 11.3/23).
The regional game coverage window earned a 9.3/21 average HH rating/share, up 1% from last year's 9.2/20
NBC Sports saw its best Week 4 finish in Sunday Night Football history, with a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 24.7 million viewers, according to fast national data released by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics. The game eclipsed the network's best start through Week 4 since 2016.
The Cowboys-Saints TAD of 24.7 million viewers across NBC TV, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital platforms, represents a 35% increase over last year's Week 4 game (18.2 million for Ravens-Steelers) and is the most-watched regular-season game on NBC in nearly three years (26.7 million for Cowboys-Giants on Dec. 11, 2016).
NBC's Sunday Night Football is averaging 21.4 million viewers across all platforms this season - the best start for the series through Week 4 (five games) since 2016, and up 5% from the same point last season (20.3 million viewers).
The Average Minute Audience (AMA) for Sunday night's live stream via NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital platforms was 599,000 viewers - NBC Sports Digital's most-streamed, authenticated SNF regular-season game on record, and more than double last year's Week 4 SNF game (286,000 for Ravens-Steelers). NBC Sports Digital's AMA of 519,000 viewers for SNF through Week 4 is up 36% from the same point last season.
Last night's game averaged 24.1 million viewers on NBC TV, marking an NFL-high 26th time (in 29 appearances) since 2011 that the Cowboys played in an NBC SNF game which delivered at least 20 million TV viewers. The Saints moved into the top 10, with their sixth such SNF game in that stretch. Below are the teams to play in the most blockbuster viewership games (20 million viewers) since 2011, when NBC Sunday Night Football began its streak as the #1 primetime show for an unprecedented eight consecutive years:
The late-night game (8:23 p.m.-11:18p.m. ET) registered a national TV household rating of 13.7/27, and peaked at 26.0 million TV viewers from 9:30-9:45 p.m. ET. The top 10 metered market ratings include New Orleans (57.0/74), Dallas (38.2/59), San Antonio (31.1/47), Austin (28.8/48), Albuquerque (23.6/38), Norfolk (20.3/34), Richmond (20.0/31), Memphis (20.0/30), Houston (19.8/35), and Philadelphia (19.0/31)
MLB Closes Book on 2019 Regular Season
The 2019 Major League Baseball season generated consistently strong fan engagement, increased consumption, and significant accomplishments in participation and fandom over the past six months.
MLB's three national TV partners registered viewership increases during the 2019 season. The MLB on Fox package averaged 2.403 million viewers, marking an 8% increase over last
