Skycam did not seem to have much of an impact on Thursday Night Football ratings.
Titans-Steelers drew an 8.2 rating and 13.5 million viewers on NBC and NFL Network last night, down 36% in ratings and 38% in viewership from the second NBC simulcast last season, Cowboys-Vikings in Week 13 (12.8, 21.8M). That was the most-watched TNF game ever.
Compared to last year’s Week 11 TNF game, Saints-Panthers on NBC and NFL Network, ratings and viewership increased 1% from an 8.1 and 13.3 million.
The Steelers’ win, which peaked with 15.2 million viewers from 9:45-10 PM, was the third straight TNF simulcast with fewer than 14 million viewers. Prior to this season, only four of 26 TNF simulcasts had fallen below that mark.
As for Skycam, the special primary game angle did not seem to have much impact on the numbers. Thursday’s viewership was up 3% over Seahawks-Cardinals the previous week, indicating that the angle did not attract — or repulse — a meaningful number of viewers.
Thursday’s game had a streaming audience of 409,000 viewers across Amazon Prime and NBC and NFL digital platforms. Amazon alone accounted for 303,000. Including the streaming audience, TNF had 13.8 million viewers.
TNF scored a 4.2 rating in adults 18-49, down 38% from Cowboys-Vikings last year (6.8) but even with last year’s Week 11 game.
Pittsburgh led all markets last night with a 36.7 rating, followed by Nashville (22.3). Richmond, Va. (14.7), New Orleans (13.6) and Norfolk, Va. (12.9) rounded out the top five.
The full list of 2017 NFL ratings is available here.
[Thu. numbers from NBC Sports PR 11.17, NBC Sports]
