The NFL’s season-opening slump has extended to FOX.
The Week 4 NFL national window, featuring Cowboys/49ers in 84% of markets, earned a 13.1 final rating and 22.7 million viewers on FOX Sunday afternoon — down 13% in ratings and 12% in viewership from coverage featuring Packers/49ers last year (15.0, 25.9M) and down 12% in both measures from coverage featuring Eagles/49ers in 2014 (15.0, 25.8M).
The 13.1 rating tied as the lowest for the Week 4 national window since 2008 (13.1), matching 2009. Viewership was the lowest since 2012 (22.3M). The national window has now hit a multi-year low in three straight weeks.
Not including Week 17, when both FOX and CBS air competing doubleheaders, Sunday’s telecast was the lowest rated edition of “America’s Game of the Week” on FOX since Week 16 in 2011 (12.9) and the least-watched since Week 4 in 2012 (22.3M).
In addition to those multi-year lows, the telecast was also the third straight national window to earn fewer than 23 million viewers — compared to just one such telecast all of last season (again excluding Week 17).
Earlier in the day, regional action featuring Seahawks/Jets had a 6.7 and 11.2 million — down 14% in ratings and 13% in viewership from coverage featuring Giants/Bills last year (7.8, 12.8M) and down 26% in both measures from coverage featuring Packers/Bears in ’14 (9.1, 15.1M).
Sunday’s telecasts were the first and second on FOX this season to post declines. The network had been the only NFL broadcast partner to avoid declines in the first three weeks of the season.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 10/4)
