Even with the Patriots a mere 2-10 entering the night, Thursday Night Football delivered yet another double-digit increase in viewership over last season.
The latest edition of NFL Thursday Night Football (Patriots-Steelers) averaged a 5.3 rating and 10.71 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, marking a 30% increase in ratings and viewership from last year (Raiders-Rams: 4.1, 8.26M). All 12 editions of TNF this season have posted a double-digit increase in viewership.
The Patriots’ upset win, which peaked with 11.60 million viewers, still ranks among the least-watched games on Prime this season. Only Panthers-Bears in Week 10 (9.56M), Jets-Dolphins on Black Friday (9.61M) and Jaguars-Saints Week 7 (9.79M) averaged fewer viewers.
TNF is now averaging 12.42 million viewers this season — not counting the Black Friday game — up 29% from the same point last year (9.62M). Viewership is up a more modest 17% in adults 18-34 (to 2.55M) and 21% in 18-49 (to 5.82M), resulting in a median age (48) that is slightly higher than a year ago (47). TNF is nonetheless skewing noticeably younger than the other NFL telecast windows (55) or primetime broadcast television (62).
Notably, the increase in viewership among women this season — 37% to 4.03 million — outpaces the overall gains.
There is no recent precedent for an NFL television package posting increases in viewership every week of the season. Thursday Night Football came close in 2014 — the first year games began airing on broadcast television — with gains in all-but-two weeks. There is no obvious reason why games on Amazon specifically should be up to such an extent every single week, regardless of matchup, short of viewers simply becoming more used to games airing regularly on a streaming service.
Nielsen planned this season to begin incorporating Amazon’s internal data into viewership estimates for TNF, but backtracked after considerable outcry from the competing networks. Nielsen instead decided to incorporate Amazon’s data into a separate “Integrated Live Streaming Report” that has yet to be accredited by the Media Rating Council. Under that measure, Thursday’s game averaged 11.65 million viewers and TNF is averaging 13.59 million for the season.
For more sports ratings from Thursday, see the linked page.
