Early NFL TV Ratings Are Taylor Made

Through four weeks of the young NFL season, average viewership per game on TV networks and video platforms is up 9% to 18.8 million Nielsen-measured viewers so far.

Amazon is a major winner -- up 14% from a year ago to average 14.2 million viewers through three games. ABC-ESPN is another big winner, as ABC only recently committed to airing all “Monday Night Football” games on the ABC Television Network this season, along with its ESPN and ESPN2 networks. That has boosted overall viewership by 30% to 21.0 million.  NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” is up only slightly 0.7% so far to average 20.5 million viewers. 

In its most recent “SNF” airing, it had the best viewership performance of the season so far, with 24.8 million in week four when the Kansas City Chiefs eked out a tight win versus the New York Jets -- boosted by cameo shots of Taylor Swift in the stands.

NBC says that game witnessed two million more female viewers than the week before.

Adding in NBC “KickOff” game -- the first TV-aired game this season -- boosted NBC’s results by 5% over a year ago to 21.4 million

CBS is down slightly so far 3% to 18.5 million viewers, while Fox also slightly down 1% to 17.2 million so far.

Total national TV advertising spend through four weeks is $887.6 million, up 5% from a year ago ($846.5 million), according to EDO Ad EnGage. Fox is at $168.9 million in ad spend so far, with NBC at $241.8; ABC-ESPN at $156.8 million (ABC, $97.6 and ESPN, $59.2); CBS, $175.1 million, and Amazon Prime Video, $145 million.