Awful Announcing
The average Canadian audience of 9.5 million viewers for Super Bowl LIV was an all-time record, and the return of simsub was important there.
"As the sports gambling market matures and you have more [casual] people coming in, it will be those people who will tune in more often and for longer. There are early signs that that will be the case. But you’re not going to see that at the moment."
NBC posted their best regular-season NFL ratings since 2015, while CBS and Fox each had their best ratings since 2016.
This window was up 17 percent from last year's eighth doubleheader (Steelers-Saints on Dec. 23), and The NFL on CBS is up two percent on the year overall.
Cowboys-Patriots aired nationally on Fox, with only limited competition in some markets from Jaguars-Titans on CBS. That, plus the strong ratings draws involved and the possible playoff implications, helped lead to a massive 19.5 metered market rating.
CBS is now off to its best NFL start since 2016.
Shockingly, the winless Steelers and Bengals drew less viewers than last year's Chiefs-Broncos matchup.
Improved 2018 regular-season ratings likely played a role here.
The Broncos-Falcons Hall of Fame Game Thursday averaged 5.329 million viewers, down from last year's 6.679 million viewers for Bears-Ravens.
Further NFLN access might boost ratings, but top recruits might have some concerns.
Every wild card window grew this year, but that's partly because the ratings last year were so bad.
There was little evidence of Trump's September comments producing a ratings impact, and Trump-favoring markets saw ratings declines at a similar rate to tossup markets.
Both CBS windows and the NBC Sunday night game were up double digits year-over-year.
"I think we've got to do a better job on our messaging. General television, broadcast television, ratings are down across the board, but the NFL is still pretty strong."
NBC's Sunday Night Football posted its best Week 3 overnight since 2015, while Fox's Cowboys-Seahawks broadcast did well despite competition from Tiger Woods' victory at the Tour Championship.
CBS, Fox, and NBC all reported overnight ratings increases compared to Week 2 in 2017.
Despite a downward trend in NFL ratings, there may be a rise in one part of the NFL schedule.
