The numbers don’t lie when it comes to the NFL. The numbers support theories that fans virtually live for the football season. The numbers are astounding.
Just how large are the NFL’s numbers?
A record 108.4 million people tuned in to watch NFL Kickoff Weekend games on CBS, ESPN, FOX and NBC to rank as the most-watched opened weekend ever, according to a league news release.
It also marked the fourth straight Kickoff Weekend when viewing audience numbers totaled more than 105 million viewers.
Notable items pointed out by the league’s news release:
NATIONAL
• With 28.5 million average viewers, the FOX national telecast (mostly Packers-49ers) posted its best Kickoff Sunday ever, surpassing 28.0 million for Packers-Eagles in 2010.
• ESPN’s Monday Night Football opener (Eagles-Redskins) was the most-watched Week 1 game ever on ESPN with 16.54 million viewers and posted the highest rating ever for a season opener on ESPN (11.8).
• On Sunday afternoon, an average of 19.8 million viewers watched NFL games on CBS and FOX, making it the highest Kickoff Sunday audience for the networks, surpassing the previous record average of 19.0 million in 2010.
LOCAL
• NFL games ranked first in all 30 NFL markets for the fifth consecutive Kickoff Weekend. NFL games also topped the ratings in 50 of Nielsen’s 56 metered markets, with college football games as the highest-rated program in the other six markets. In addition, the second-highest rated show in 26 of the 30 NFL markets was also NFL programming.
• Three teams delivered record-setting ratings for season-openers in their home markets led by Washington (38.8 rating) followed by Philadelphia (35.1) and Seattle (34.1).
Eight clubs (Atlanta, Buffalo, Houston, Indianapolis, Miami, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington) posted local ratings increases of at least 20 percent for Week 1.
NFL NETWORK & NFL DIGITAL MEDIA
• For the seventh consecutive year, NFL Network posted its best-ever Kickoff Sunday viewership with an average of 310,000 viewers tuning in for shows including the debut of the new GameDay First at 7:00 AM ET, NFL GameDay Morning, NFL GameDay Highlights and NFL GameDay Final.
• NFL Network’s audience peaked between from 9:00 AM-1:00 PM ET when it averaged 622,000 viewers for NFL GameDay Morning, making it the most watched regular season episode of that program in NFL Network history.
• NFL Digital Media properties, including the newly redesigned NFL Mobile from Verizon app, saw a 38 percent year-over-year increase in visits and 41 percent rise in total time spent for the 2013 NFL Kickoff Weekend. Overall, the total cumulative audience for NFL Digital Media properties, across desktop, tablet, and phone was 35.9M uniques.
• The majority of visits to NFL Digital Media properties during the 2013 NFL Kickoff Weekend came from a mobile device and mobile specific properties, including NFL Mobile from Verizon, which had an 77 percent increase in user visits during that period.
It’s the NFL world, indeed.
Everybody else just lives in it.
