Amazon Prime Video, which stream’s the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football package, will get an NFL playoff game to stream next season, a source confirmed.

Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock paid $110 million to stream an NFL playoff game for the first time last month. The game attracted 23 million viewers, making it the most streamed program in U.S. history.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, Peacock wanted to stream a playoff game again, but Amazon’s contract with the NFL gave it superseding rights to stream the game.

Amazon was offered the game that was streamed by Peacock, but opted out. Amazon did stream the NFL's first Black Friday game after Thanksgiving last year.

Amazon and the NFL declined to comment.

The news comes as more sports migrate from broadcast and cable to streaming–something fans and regulators have mixed feelings about. 

Earlier this week, The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they were forming a joint venture that would stream their linear channels that have sports programming. 

Two NFL rights holders, NBCU and Paramount Global were not included in the new sports streaming service.

As the National Football League gets ready to kick off a new season, a new report says that not only is pro football TV’s most-watched programming, but it’s also provides the most impactful advertising environment.

Research and analytics company EDO, in a review of the 2022-23 season said that during the regular season,  advertisers spent $3.7 billion on ads during NFL games on broadcasting and streaming. 

Those ads had an engagement rate 20% higher than broadcast primetime average. 

During the playoffs, advertisers spent $632 million on ads. Those ads had an engagement rate 19% higher than the primetime average.

And for Super Bowl LVII, advertisers spent $757 million and got an engagement rate 221% higher than the broadcast primetime average.

Including the Super Bowl, the NFL had five of the top ten programs for TV advertising effectiveness, EDO said.

Also Read: Nielsen, EDO Integrate Data on Viewership, Outcomes

Three of the five most impactful regular season matchups aired on Thanksgiving day–the lead-in to the year’s biggest shopping weekend. 

And the first night Thursday Night Football streamed on Amazon Prime Video produced the No. 3 most impactful game during the season.

Overall , the first season of Thursday Night Football games on Amazon were 116% more effective at driving consumer engagement than the broadcast primetime average. 

This season, Amazon will stream a game between the Jets and the Dolphins on Black Friday, the heavy-duty shopping day after Thanksgiving.

Also Read: Potential Boon For Amazon and 'NFL Thursday Night Football': Nielsen to Incorporate First-Party Data From Live-Streaming Companies

The strength of sports on both traditional linear TV and streaming was evident in the upfront, where prices for entertainment programming was down, but prices for sports were up, particularly for the NFL. 

“As Convergent TV marketers, we know the NFL has long been the undisputed champion of live TV — keeping our industry running smoothly during more than a decade of time-shifting, cord-cutting, and social media,” said Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO. 

“Only now, a pair of Hollywood strikes are threatening to derail the premium scripted programming advertisers have long used as alternatives to live sports investments. The result? The NFL’s live, premium content has become that much more integral to an effective media plan. Goodbye Saturday Night Live, hello Sunday Night Football, Krim said.

Some NFL advertisers did better than others. EDO ranked the effectiveness of the ads run by marketers in several categories and found that the most effective ads in the alcoholic beverage category were Crown Royal, Patron and Busch.

The luxury auto category was topped by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, and the top non-luxury auto brands were Toyota, GMC and Ford.

Among food and beverage consumer packaged goods, Glaceau Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper were the top brands.

The top home and personal consumer packaged goods advertisers were Invisalign, Chanel and Oral-B.

In financial services, the leaders were SoFi, Experian and Nerd Wallet. The insurance category was topped by Aflac, USAA and Allstate. 

Restaurant advertisers Panera Bread, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Pizza Hut did best with the NFL and Dick’s Sporting Good, Old Navy and Rakuten were the  top retailers.

“Luxury auto and restaurant advertisers had particularly strong investment and ad engagement throughout last NFL season,” said Laura Grover, SVP, Head of Client Solutions, EDO. 

“Regular season ad engagement for categories including CPG: Food & Beverage, Non-Luxury Auto, and Retail performed about the same, on average, as their respective category primetime performance benchmarks,” Grover said.  “Despite this, ad performance for these categories saw a major boost from campaigns run during the playoffs. Ads from CPG Food & Beverage brands were 102% more effective than the category's primetime average in the playoffs, Non-Luxury Auto ads were 42% more effective than its category average, and Retail ads were 35% more effective.”

National Football League owners were unable to approve a plan to “flex” games to create better matchups for Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football and tabled discussions until May.

The league and Amazon want to prevent poor matchups in primetime and a proposal would have allowed games to be moved from Sunday to Thursday with 15 days notice.

NFL owners did approve letting teams play twice on Thursday nights. The prior rules let teams play only once on Thursday.

Amazon pays about $1 billion a year to the NFL to stream the exclusive national Thursday Night Football package.

Also Read: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

The NFL for years has flexed games from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night to improve matchups on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Starting next season, ESPN will be able to flex games from Sunday to Monday Night Football late in the season.

The number of games that can be flexed is limited because Fox and CBS each can opt to protect at least one game a week from being moved from their Sunday afternoon slots.

Some owners, including New York Giants co-owner John Mara, were concerned moving games from Sunday to Thursday — and vice versa — would inconvenience fans who buy tickets for games.

The issue was addressed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at a press conference.

“Obviously, providing the best matchups for our fans is part of what we do,“ Goodell said. “That’s a part of what I think our scheduling has always focused on. And flex has been a part of that. We are very judicious with it, and we are very careful with it. And we look at all of the impacts to that.

"So before those decisions are made, I think we average in the years we’ve been doing it, about a flex and a half a year. It can vary any particular year,“ Goodell said. “So it’s a very important thing for us to balance with the season-ticket holders and the in-stadium audience. We have millions of fans who also watch on television. Reaching them is a balance that you always strike, and making sure we do it right.”

According to Sports Business Journal, only 18 games have been flexed for Sunday Night Football since 2014, including four last season. ■ 

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of January 9-15, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL continues to reign supreme for the most-watched program on TV, with games during the first week of playoffs capturing 8.31% of all minutes watched (down from about 10% the previous week).

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The College Football Playoff national championship takes second place on the ranking, capturing 1.68% of watch-time, while men’s college basketball lands in third place, down from No. 2 previously.
• NBA games increased their share of watch-time week-over-week, accounting for 1% this time around, up from 0.72% previously.
• Several news programs move up the ranking from their previous positions, including Fox & Friends (from No. 14 to No. 10), America’s Newsroom (from No. 23 to No. 12), CBS Mornings (from No. 17 to No. 16) and America Reports (from No. 25 to No. 17).
• Week-over-week ranking newcomers include The First 48, which moves from No. 41 to No. 20 thanks in part to a marathon on A&E, NFL on Fox Postgame (No. 21) and ABC World News Tonight With David Muir (No. 22).

Thanks in part to NFL games, news programming and the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards telecast, NBC takes first place in our network ranking with 9.12% of minutes watched, up from 7.45% the previous week. 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from January 9-15:

• Fox moves up a tick to third place from No. 4 previously, fueled by NFL games and post-game coverage.
• TNT has the biggest jump up the ranking, going from No. 24 to No. 16, capturing 1.18% of watch-time. NBA games accounted for a third of the minutes watched on the network.
• While TV Land and History maintain their chart positions week-over-week, both had an increase in watch-time: TV Land snagged 1.06% of minutes watched, up from 1.03% previously, while History had 1.0% (up from 0.98%).
• Week-over-week ranking newcomers include Comedy Central (No. 23 with 0.86% of minutes watched), Discovery Channel (No. 24, 0.85%) and A&E (No. 25, 0.84%).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL was yards ahead of other programming on television when it came to share of TV ad impressions last week, although its 17.39% share was a slight decrease from the previous week’s 19.53%. College football (specifically the CFP national championship game) takes second place with a 4.02% impressions share.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• College basketball remains in third place week-over-week with a 2.09% share of impressions, while NBA jumps into fourth place with 1.82% (up from 1.25% the previous week).
• The 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards telecast lands at No. 22 on the ranking, capturing a 0.69% impressions share of voice.
• Several news and daytime talk programs have week-over-week rankings increases, including Fox & Friends (up to No. 10 from No. 13 previously), The View (No. 15 from No. 18), America’s Newsroom (No. 18 from No. 22) and Today With Hoda & Jenna (No. 19 from No. 20).
• Week-over-week chart newcomers include The Five (0.69% share of impressions), CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell (0.66%), The Talk (0.66%) and GMA3: What You Need to Know (0.64%).

CBS remains in first place but increased its share of impressions from 16.65% the previous week to 17.55%. NBC moves into second place from third last time, with a 15.8% share. Both networks benefitted largely from NFL games when it came to impressions. 

Additional notes on the top networks by share of TV ad impressions from January 9-15:

• Fox moves up a few notches to third place from sixth previously, with a 9.45% share of impressions. Although NFL games and related coverage contributed the lion’s share of impressions for the network, men’s college basketball and Friday Night SmackDown were two other top impressions-driving programs.
• Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo both move up a spot on the ranking, although Univision actually had a slight decrease in its share of TV ad impressions (down to 3.74% from 3.90%) while Telemundo increased its share (from 2.61% to 3.11%).
• TNT glides from No. 14 to No. 12 with a 1.02% share of impressions. The vast majority (nearly 80%) of TNT’s impressions came from NBA games.
• All of the week-over-week ranking newcomers were sports-related networks: ESPNU (No. 14), ESPNEWS (No. 19), Fox Deportes (No. 20) and SEC Network (No. 22).

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of January 2-8, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of VIZIO with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL finished its regular season strong, capturing nearly 10% of all minutes watched (up from about 5% the previous week) and maintaining its first-place position week-over-week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The college football playoffs wound down, with the Rose Bowl taking No. 4 (0.81% of minutes watched).
• Basketball jumps up in our ranking, with college games grabbing second place (up from No. 15 previously) and accounting for 1.19% of watch-time, while the NBA swished into seventh place from No. 29.
• Multiple news programs have week-over-week increases, including Fox & Friends (from No. 24 to No. 14), CNN Newsroom (from No. 28 to No. 16), CBS Mornings (from No. 23 to No. 17), Fox News Live (from No. 32 to No. 19), NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (from No. 31 to No. 21), America’s Newsroom (from No. 38 to No. 23) and America Reports, which lands at No. 25 after not appearing in the top 50 shows the previous week.
• Other programs that weren’t in the top 50 last time but make the chart this week include Blue Bloods (0.47% of minutes watched), Chicago P.D. (0.44%) and Forensic Files (0.39%).

CBS is the most-watched network, with 7.77% of watch-time (up from 7.16% the previous week). NFL games led for minutes watched on the network, with The Price Is Right and CBS Mornings also delivering viewership.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from January 2-8:

• Across the other major broadcast networks, NFL games led for minutes watched, helping NBC, ABC and Fox each move up the ranking a tick.
• ESPN2 vaults into the chart at No. 17 (up from No. 40 previously), thanks in part to NFL and college football games, plus college basketball.
• While Fox News maintains its sixth-place position week-over-week, both CNN and MSNBC move up the ranking, into the seventh and eighth places, respectively.
• Week-over-week ranking newcomers include TNT (No. 24 with 0.95% of minutes watched) and TLC (No. 25, 0.92%).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL is back on top this time around with a 19.53% share of TV ad impressions, up from 14% the week before. College football, which enjoyed a first-place position the previous week thanks to the playoffs and various bowl games, is No. 2 with a 3.49% impressions share.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• Things are heating up on the basketball courts, with college basketball moving into third place with a 2.15% impressions share, while NBA games accounted for 1.25% of TV ad impressions.
• Daytime favorites The Young and the Restless (1.12%), The View (0.69%) and The Bold and the Beautiful (0.60%) each move up the ranking with increases in impressions compared to the previous week.
• Week-over-week ranking newcomers include NFL Countdown, America’s Newsroom and Jesse Watters Primetime.
• Exatlón Estados Unidos: All-Stars is the only Spanish-language program on the ranking. The Telemundo reality show accounted for 0.66% of TV ad impressions during the week.

After being eclipsed by ESPN the previous week, CBS is back in first place for share of TV ad impressions (up to 16.65% from 14.97% the week before). A third of CBS’s TV ad impressions came from NFL games, followed by The Price Is Right (7.39%) and The Young and the Restless (6.29%). 

Additional notes on the top networks by share of TV ad impressions from January 2-8:

• News networks that saw week-over-week increases in TV ad impressions include Fox News (up to 7.40% from 6.78% previously), MSNBC (up to 4.43% from 3.92%), CNN (up to 3.94% from 3.52%) and CNBC (0.41%, not previously in top 25 networks by impressions share).
• Additional week-over-week ranking newcomers include TNT (No. 14), Hallmark Channel (No. 20), Bravo (No. 23) and Lifetime (No. 25).
• Weather Channel moves up to No. 21 from No. 25 previously, with America’s Morning Headquarters delivering over 37% of impressions for the network.
• Although Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo had decreases in share of TV ad impressions week-over-week, UniMás increased its impressions share to 0.83% from 0.56% previously.

With millions of fans following the dramatic recovery of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest during the first quarter of Monday Night Football, the National Football League is taking steps to acknowledge Hamlin during this weekend’s games.

The league had devised a number of activities for its teams, designed to help show support for Hamlin, including special shirts, uniform patches and on-field logos.

For example, the NFL distributed a public address announcement that clubs are encouraged to read prior to the national anthem. In addition to Hamlin, the announcement salutes the first responders and medical personnel that aided the player.

"Throughout this week, the entire NFL family has been praying for Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills as he continues his recovery, and we thank the first responders and medical professionals involved in his care," the announcement reads. "The [CLUB NAME] ask you to join us in a moment of support and love for Damar, and cheer for him and his family as they continue their fight."

The Bills will play the New England Patriots at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.

Also: NFL Says Buffalo-Cincinnati Game In Which Player Collapsed Won’t Be Resumed

On NBC’s Sunday Night Football, the opening segment will show scenes from around the NFL on Sunday, including players on-site at Lambeau field wearing the #3 shirts pregame, NBC sports said.

Sportscaster Mike Tirico will voice over these scenes.

The network will then join the public address announcer for the moment of support in stadium.

ESPN said it will cover the events editorially.

The NFL said teams are also permitted to outline the number 3 in each 30-yard line number on the field in blue or red to reflect the Bills' colors and Hamlin's jersey number.

During warm-ups before their games this weekend, all players have the option to wear black Nike T-shirts displaying "Love for Damar 3."

During warm-ups in Buffalo, Bills players will wear a similar Nike shirt but in the team's royal blue. New Era hats embroidered with a "3" on them will be provided to Bills football personnel to wear during warm-ups.

Buffalo Bills players will also be wearing a No. 3 patch on their jerseys for this weekend's game.

The league also noted that fans, clubs and players have been incredibly generous in support of Damar's GoFundMe fundraiser. A fund has been established by his family at The Giving Back Fund and donations can now be made directly by visiting chasingmsfoundation.com. ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for December 26-January 1, highlighting network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

College football’s biggest bowl games helped the sport deliver the largest share of TV ad impressions from December 26-January 1. Major contests like the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl, and thrilling College Football Playoff semifinal matchups in the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl, totaled 20.64% of TV ad impressions — up from 2.04% the previous week.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• This was the biggest week for college football all season by TV ad impressions. iSpot’s 2022 report also revealed college football was the No. 2 program on TV for the year, with 3.11%  impressions.
• The NFL vacated the top spot in our ranking for the first time since the regular season kicked off, but the sport was still No. 1 for the year, with 6.55% of TV ad impressions.
• Even up against the Peach Bowl’s exciting finish, New Year’s Eve specials were still among the week’s top programs, with New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest both making the cut.
• CNN Newsroom gets a week-over-week lift from No. 16 to No. 11 by share of TV ad impressions, in part due to 14% more ad airings.
• NBC’s The Wheel game show (a spinoff of the British show of the same name) climbs from No. 33 to No. 19 week-over-week in our ranking.
• Holiday breaks and big games helped fuel week-over-week growth for SportsCenter, up from No. 9 to No. 4 by TV ad impressions — a fitting close to the year after the program also increased impressions by 38% vs. 2021.

ESPN reaped the benefits of college football’s bowl blitz, as the network soars to No. 1 in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking, with 17.35%. That’s a significant week-over-week increase versus 7.24% from December 19-25, when ESPN was No. 6 by TV ad impressions.

Additional notes on the top networks by share of TV ad impressions from December 26-January 1:

• CBS leaned on late-season NFL action to score nearly 15% of the week’s TV ad impressions; the NFL is also a big part of the network’s No. 1 ranking by share of TV ad impressions in 2022 (at 14.55%).
• Interest in football boosted cable networks, much as it did throughout 2022, with ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS and SEC Network all appearing among the top 25 networks by TV ad impressions from December 26-January 1.
• Continued winter storms around the country fueled another week of The Weather Channel in our ranking, at No. 25 (down from No. 18 the previous week in the lead-up to holiday travel).
• The Wheel and Sunday Night Football pace a week-over-week increase for NBC, from 9.78% to 10.74% of TV ad impressions; the network accounted for 11.83% of TV ad impressions in 2022 (No. 3 overall).

The National Football League announced a multi-year agreement with Google that will bring the “NFL Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market games to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels.

NFL Sunday Ticket has been available through DirecTV since 1994, but that deal expired. DirecTV, which had been paying about $1.5 billion per year, decided it wasn’t worth paying the higher price the league was demanding.

Financial terms and the price for the service were not disclosed. Google will reportedly be paying the NFL $2.5 billion annually for Sunday Ticket, which offers Sunday-afternoon telecasts from CBS and Fox in markets where the games aren’t available locally. The move indicates deep-pocketed tech companies are willing to spend to bring high-profile sports to their streaming platforms.

Sports was seen as the last bastion of traditional linear TV, but increasingly games are becoming available via streaming to cord-cutters no longer willing to buy pricey cable and satellite subscriptions.

NFL Thursday Night Football is on Amazon Prime Video and Major League Baseball games are on Apple TV Plus.

Apple had been the front-runner to win Sunday Ticket, but reportedly pulled out. The Walt Disney Co. and Amazon were also contenders.

“We’re excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans.”

Starting next season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on two of YouTube's growing subscription businesses: as an add-on package on YouTube TV and as a standalone, a la carte offering on YouTube Primetime Channels.

“YouTube has long been a home for football fans, whether they're streaming live games, keeping up with their home team or watching the best plays in highlights,” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said. “Through this expanded partnership with the NFL, viewers will now also be able to experience the game they love in compelling and innovative ways through YouTube TV or YouTube Primetime Channels. We're excited to continue our work with the NFL to make YouTube a great place for sports lovers everywhere.”

The NFL and YouTube said they will work together to determine additional ways to support distribution of NFL Sunday Ticket in commercial establishments, such as bars and restaurants.

As part of the agreement, YouTube and the NFL will facilitate exclusive access to official content and attendance opportunities for select YouTube Creators at key NFL tentpole events. YouTube is now also the presenting sponsor of both “Back Together Saturday” and “NFL Kickoff Weekend.” Back Together Saturday is the league’s official start to training camp, when all 32 NFL clubs hold practices with club-led fan events.

“As the ways fans enjoy NFL football evolve in a changing media landscape, partnerships with innovators like YouTube will ensure that more games are available to more fans,” Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the NFL’s Media Committee, said. “This partnership will grow our game for future generations and allow them to follow their favorite sport.” ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of December 12-18, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

With NFL action airing on Saturday — along with the usual Sunday, Monday and Thursday games — the league keeps its No. 1 spot by watch-time, at 7.25% (up from 5.41% the previous week). NFL Red Zone also appears at No. 22 in our ranking, while NFL Gameday Kickoff is No. 25.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The Voice’s two-night, three-hour season finale pushed the hit reality series to No. 10 in our ranking, up from No. 31 the previous week.
• NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Two and a Half Men are week-over-week newcomers in our ranking, up from No. 28 and No. 27, respectively.
• The 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup concluded its final week with 1.13% of watch-time for English-language airings and 0.30% going toward Spanish-language.
• From November 20 - December 18, World Cup airings (both English- and Spanish-language) combined for 2.55% of all minutes watched on linear TV – third behind only the NFL and college football games.

CBS is the most-watched network for another week, with 8.12% of watch-time from December 12-18 (up from 7.40% the previous week). The boost was fueled in part by an NFL doubleheader on Sunday, which was anchored by the late-afternoon game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cincinnati Bengals.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from December 12-18:

• NFL Network catapults to No. 8 by watch-time (up from No. 42 the previous week), due in large part to the cable channel airing three Saturday games.
• History Channel is the other week-over-week newcomer in our ranking, climbing from No. 27 to No. 24.
• Holiday movies continue to buoy cable networks, including Hallmark (No. 7), Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (No. 12), Freeform (No. 17) and AMC (No. 22).
• TBS climbs three spots week-over-week to No. 11 with a heavy emphasis on Friends re-airs (32.1% of the network’s watch-time).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

More days of the week with NFL games meant a larger share of TV ad impressions from December 12-18. The NFL was No. 1 yet again, with 16.49% of TV ad impressions, which is up from 12.25% the previous week. It’s also more than five times the programming with the next-highest share (college football).

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• The Voice’s season 22 finale paced the show all the way to No. 3 in our ranking this week, up from No. 8 during the previous week’s semifinal round.
• Speaking of reality TV, Survivor jumps into our ranking at No. 19 (vs. No. 59 the previous week).
• The Spanish-language airings of the World Cup’s final matches delivered 0.98% of TV ad impressions on the week, with another 0.92% attributable to the English-language broadcasts.
• Over the course of the entire 2022 World Cup, TV ad impressions jumped 29% vs. the 2018 event — with impressions more than doubling across NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo and Universo.

CBS stays at No. 1 in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking, with 18.23% (a week-over-week increase from 15.87%). On the week, more than 35% of CBS’s TV ad impressions came from the NFL, with another 4.7% from Survivor.

Additional notes on the top networks by share of TV ad impressions from December 12-18:

• NFL Network soars from 0.35% of TV ad impressions to 3.74% week-over-week, courtesy of live game action on Saturday (including the Minnesota Vikings’ historic 33-point comeback over the Indianapolis Colts).
• Fox (No. 5) is one of four networks with World Cup rights in our ranking — along with Telemundo (No. 8), Fox Sports 1 (No. 16) and Universo (No. 23).
• Telemundo actually delivered 57% of all World Cup TV ad impressions over the course of the tournament, with Fox collecting 27.8%.
• From November 20-December 18, Fox Sports 1 served 1.05 billion TV ad impressions during World Cup games, and another 690 million during FIFA World Cup 2022 Today.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of December 5-11, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL maintained its No. 1 spot by watch-time from December 5-11, at 5.41% (down slightly from 5.53% the previous week). However, that doesn’t include another 0.43% of minutes watched on NFL RedZone, which is No. 18 in our ranking.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Basketball watch-time is on the rise, as men’s college hoops moves from No. 5 to No. 4 in our ranking, while the NBA jumps from No. 11 to No. 5.
• NBC’s “One Chicago” franchise grows minutes watched week-over-week, as Chicago Fire climbs from No. 21 to No. 12, and Chicago P.D. increases from No. 28 to No. 22.
• World Cup watch-time is dipping as the field narrows, with English-language share of minutes watched declining week-over-week from 2.55% to 1.40%, while Spanish-language minutes watched drop from 0.81% to 0.43%.
• Beyond Chicago P.D., ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the lone week-over-week newcomer in our ranking, returning at No. 25 (up from No. 27).

CBS stays at No. 1 as the most-watched network, accounting for 7.40% of watch-time from December 5-11 (down from 8.66% the previous week). Along with Sunday NFL action, CBS also aired the annual Army-Navy college football game on Saturday.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from December 5-11:

• With so much attention on the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff election, cable news watch-time shows growth week-over-week -- Fox News moves from 4.64% to 4.86%, MSNBC increases from 1.55% to 1.77%, and CNN is up from 1.31% to 1.54%.
• AMC leaned into classic holiday movies like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf and more to fuel a week-over-week leap from No. 34 to No. 22 in our ranking.
• Similarly, Freeform leaned into (parent company) Disney-owned Christmas flicks to jump from No. 21 to No. 18 week-over-week.
• Beyond AMC, Nickelodeon is also a week-over-week newcomer, joining our ranking at No. 25 by watch-time (up from No. 27 the previous week).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

NFL action delivered 12.14% of TV ad impressions from December 5-11, staying at No. 1 yet again in our ranking among all programs. That was down slightly from 12.25% the previous week, though it’s still more than seven times the program with the next-highest share.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• The list of top five programs is four-fifths sports: the NFL, Spanish-language World Cup games, men’s college basketball and the NBA.
• With two nights of semifinal competition, The Voice sings its way to No. 7 by TV ad impressions (up from No. 13 the week before).
• A busy week in U.S. political news (the Georgia runoff, Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party) helped fuel CNN Newsroom’s week-over-week growth from No. 32 to No. 20 by share of TV ad impressions.
• Just two daytime soap operas appear in this week’s rankings: The Young and the Restless (No. 13) and General Hospital (No. 25).

CBS keeps its spot atop our network ranking, with 15.87% of TV ad impressions from December 5-11 -- down from 16.39% the previous week. The NFL accounts for nearly 17% of impressions on the network, which is more than double the total for CBS’s No. 2 program, The Price Is Right.

Additional insights around the top networks by share of TV ad impressions:

• Baseball’s winter meetings and the continuing free agency conversation push MLB Network into our ranking at No. 24, even in the offseason.
• ESPN2 impressions grew 25% week-over-week, partially on the strength of men’s college basketball (nearly a quarter of the network’s impressions).
• NBC’s share of TV ad impressions increase from 12.04% to 13.29%, as the network leaned on its usual primetime slate, along with the People’s Choice Awards.
• Discovery Channel TV ad impressions leap 17% week-over-week, with Gold Rush accounting for over 26% of impressions.

The National Football League said it worked with Nielsen on a special study looking at viewing of its games on Thanksgiving Day (November 24) in group settings and found its games reach an average of more than 20 million additional viewers.

According to the study, the games had an average-minute audience of 44.1 million viewers, up 31% from the 33.6 million Nielsen initially reported. 

Networks have been challenging Nielsen’s ability to measure audiences. Nielsen lost its accreditation from the Media Rating Council when it was found that Nielsen undercounted viewing during the pandemic.

Also: NBCU Claims Big Ad Impact Over Thanksgiving Weekend

"Quantifying the exact number of people watching NFL games on Thanksgiving presents additional challenges due to the fact that so many people gather in different group settings with family and friends," Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL, said. "As was the case with our study around the Super Bowl, we feel this Nielsen custom survey helps provide a more complete picture of the total viewership for this unique day on the NFL calendar."

Nielsen measures viewing in bars, restaurants and other out-of-home locations and those viewers are included in the national ratings used by networks and advertisers.

The special custom study looked at 5,800 households and was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel. It looked at the size of viewing groups and how much larger those groups are than current measurement systems count.

A similar study found that an estimated 208 million people watch Super Bowl LVI.

“The tradition of family gatherings and NFL football on Thanksgiving Day is endemic to American culture,” Jon Stainer, Nielsen Sports managing director for the Americas, said. “We’re honored to continue working with the NFL on this custom study to help them better understand the size and behaviors of group viewing parties outside our co-viewing measurement.” ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of November 28-December 4, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Program schedules returned to normal following the holiday week, though football still reigned supreme with audiences. The NFL was the top TV program by watch-time from November 28-December 4, at 5.53% (down from 9.24% during the week of Thanksgiving).

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• College football’s championship weekend meant fewer games, but the sport still scored 3.80% of minutes watched to remain at No. 2 in our ranking.
• As the World Cup field narrows, viewership is still going strong. English-language games accounted for 2.55% of watch-time (No. 3 overall), while Spanish-language coverage (Copa Mundial de la FIFA) scored 0.81% (No. 6).
• Morning news programs leap in our ranking week-over-week, with Good Morning America jumping from No. 11 to No. 7, Today moving from No. 10 to No. 8, and CBS Mornings hopping from No. 20 to No. 16.
• The Price Is Right is another beneficiary of the normal TV schedule, experiencing the largest week-over-week climb in our ranking, moving from No. 31 to No. 15 by watch-time.

CBS hurdles back into the lead as the most-watched network, accounting for 8.66% of watch-time from November 28-December 4 (up from 7.83% the previous week). The network scored with a big NFL doubleheader on Sunday, as well Saturday’s SEC Championship Game between Georgia and LSU.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from November 28-December 4:

• Cable news saw benefits from audiences returning to their usual routines post-holiday, as Fox News moves from No. 6 to No. 5 week-over-week, MSNBC goes from No. 21 to No. 9 and CNN climbs from No. 20 to No. 14.
• Procedurals helped push USA Network into the top 10 week-over-week, with Law & Order: SVU reruns accounting for nearly 46% of minutes watched.
• Freeform’s holiday movie focus helped fuel a rise from No. 36 to No. 21 week-over-week, as viewers tuned into seasonal classics like Home Alone (12.75% of the network’s watch-time for the week).
• Family Feud helped pace The CW’s week-over-week climb into our ranking, from No. 27 to No. 22.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

Even without the benefit of Thanksgiving games, the NFL still claimed 12.25% of TV ad impressions from November 28-December 4. When combined with Friday and Saturday’s college games, American football accounted for nearly 21% of TV ad impressions for the week.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• In other “football” programming, Spanish-language telecasts of World Cup games served 2.39% of TV ad impressions, while the English-language telecasts of the games delivered 2.11%.
• NBC’s 90th Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center tree-lighting special arrives at No. 23 in our ranking, with 0.67% of TV ad impressions.
• The Voice leads all reality TV programs, with 1.00% of ad impressions (No. 13 overall on the week), while Exatlón Estados Unidos: All-Stars appears at No. 21.
• The Young and The Restless is the lone daytime soap opera to make an appearance, sitting at No. 11 -- up from No. 20 the previous week.

CBS nabs 16.39% of TV ad impressions to sail into first place in our network ranking, increasing its share from 15.82% the previous week. NFL and college football coverage accounted for more than 46% of CBS’s TV ad impressions from November 28-Decmber 4.

Additional insights around the top networks by share of TV ad impressions:

• Snow forecasts around the country helped drive The Weather Channel impressions up by 219% week-over-week.
• Bravo jumps from No. 27 to No. 21 by share of ad impressions week-over-week, as Below Deck delivered 15.05% for the network.
• 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? delivered over 37% of impressions for TLC, as the network increased TV ad impressions by 17% week-over-week.
• CNBC is another week-over-week newcomer in our ranking, jumping from No. 28 to No. 22 as the network returned to regularly scheduled programming.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of November 21-27, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Thanksgiving Week programming focused on football of all kinds, as audiences tuned into the NFL, college football and World Cup coverage from November 21-27. But it was the NFL that won the week with 9.24% of watch-time (up from 5.68% from November 14-20), as the league was buoyed by three close games on Thanksgiving.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• English-language World Cup games debut at No. 3 in our ranking, with 2.66% of minutes watched as Fox and Fox Sports 1 aired four games per day.
• Spanish-language World Cup coverage (Copa Mundial de la FIFA) also scored with audiences, collecting 1.10% of watch-time on the week.
• NBC’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage accounted for 1.12% of watch-time on the week (No. 5 overall), while CBS’s parade broadcast lands at No. 25.
• The Andy Griffith Show pops up to No. 17 in our ranking (from No. 46 the previous week) due to increased airings on TV Land and Sundance.

Fox assumes the lead as the most-watched network, accounting for 9.99% of watch-time from November 21-27 -- up from 5.22% the week before. The network benefited from big sporting events over the entire holiday weekend, from the World Cup to NFL action and the final weekend of the college football regular season.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from November 21-27:

• Paramount Network leaps from No. 18 to No. 8 week-over-week due in large part to a Yellowstone marathon over the holiday.
• Fox Sports 1 rides World Cup action from No. 40 to No. 9 week-over-week in our watch-time ranking, while Telemundo jumps from No. 41 to No. 10 thanks in large part to Spanish-language coverage of the event.
• TNT makes modest week-over-week gains by share of minutes watched (from 1.03% to 1.17%) thanks primarily to NBA action.
• Hallmark Channel stays at No. 7 week-over-week in our ranking, but holiday specials helped power a watch-time increase from 2.91% to 3.07%.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Thanksgiving games helped the NFL claim 19.39% of the week’s TV ad impressions, rising from 12.21% from November 14-20. On Thanksgiving Day itself, the league served over 47% of TV ad impressions -- 5.6 times the amount of the closest program.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• College football closed its regular season by accounting for 11.49% of TV ad impressions – as rivalry games across Thursday, Friday and Saturday helped power a week-over-week increase from 8.20%.
• Spanish-language World Cup action delivered 3.42% of TV ad impressions on the week (No. 3 overall), while English-language matches were 2.23% (No. 4).
• World Cup studio shows across Telemundo, Fox and Fox Sports 1 also delivered a combined 2.3% of TV ad impressions.
• Other Thanksgiving programming also delivered significant shares of TV ad impressions. NBC’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage had 1.73% of impressions (No. 9), while its National Dog Show broadcast had 0.86% (No. 13).

Fox leaps into first place in our network ranking, increasing its share of TV ad impressions from 5.92% to 15.84% week-over-week. Along with select World Cup games, the network also aired the Thanksgiving game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, NFL Sunday action, and Saturday’s big college football showdown between the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Additional insights around the top networks by share of TV ad impressions:

• NBC and CBS also increased TV ad impressions share week-over-week, largely on the strength of the NFL (each network aired one of the other Thanksgiving Day games) and holiday-specific programming like the Macy’s parade.
• Telemundo more than doubled its ad impressions share of voice from 2.72% to 6.25% week-over-week as the network leaned into Spanish-language World Cup coverage.
• Hallmark Channel TV ad impressions climbed by 109% week-over-week as audiences tuned in for holiday-centric specials to set the mood for the season.
• BET more than doubled its share of TV ad impressions week-over-week, from 0.21% to 0.44% as the 2022 Soul Train Awards telecast accounted for nearly one-fifth of impressions on the network.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of November 14-20, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

While the NFL and college football retain their first and second place positions week-over-week, both had small decreases in minutes watched: NFL games accounted for 5.68% of watch-time (down from 5.87% previously), and college football slipped to 4.26% from 4.50% the week prior.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The NBA and college basketball jump into the top 10 on the ranking, moving from No. 17 to No. 6, and No. 34 to No. 4, respectively.
• Just three programs have lower chart positions week-over-week: Fox & Friends, America’s Newsroom and America Reports.
• Below Deck moves into the ranking at No. 20, thanks to Bravo’s rerun marathons in the week leading up to the season 10 premiere on November 21.
• Additional week-over-week newcomers include Two and a Half Men, Paw Patrol, Family Feud, Ridiculousness and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

CBS leads the list of most-watched networks, accounting for 8.77% of watch-time, up from 7.08% previously. NBC also saw a week-over-week gain in viewership, moving into second place with 7.19% of minutes watched (up from 6.81% the week before).

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from November 14-20:

• TNT is the sole week-over-week newcomer to the ranking, landing at No. 20 with 1.03% of watch-time. NBA games accounted for 16.78% of viewing time on the network.
• Although Hallmark Channel retains its seventh place position week-over-week, it had a slight increase in watch-time (up to 2.91% from 2.63% previously). Holiday fare continues to drive viewership, with the top programming including the original TV movies Three Wise Men and a Baby, Inventing the Christmas Prince and The Royal Nanny.
• History Channel continues to make gains, taking No. 22 with 1.00% of watch-time, up from No. 24 the week previously and No. 26 the week before that. Nearly a quarter (21.24%) of the network’s watch-time came from reruns as well as the first episode of season 10 of The Curse of Oak Island.
• Although Nickelodeon slips to No. 23 from No. 21 previously, it had a week-over-week increase in watch-time (from 0.97% to 0.99%).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL continues to dominate TV ad impressions share, but with a slight week-over-week decrease, from 12.29% to 12.21%. College football also slipped, down to 8.20% from 9.02% previously.

More insights about the top programs by share of TV ad impressions:

• NBA basketball jumps into sixth place with a 1.09% impressions share, a notable increase from the previous week’s 0.44%.
• College basketball saw a similar increase, moving into ninth place with a 1.03% impressions share, up from 0.41% previously.
• Fueled by “Live Top 16 Performances” and “Live Top 16 Eliminations” episodes, The Voice takes 10th place, up from No. 22 previously.
• With two new episodes airing during the period measured, Bachelor in Paradise enjoys a ranking rise, taking No. 18 with a 0.75% share of TV ad impressions.

CBS takes first place in the network ranking with a week-over-week increase in TV ad impressions share, up to 18.77% from 14.06%. NFL games alone accounted for over 31% of the network’s total impressions during the week.

Additional insights around the top networks by share of TV ad impressions:

• While ABC and NBC retain their second- and third-place positions, respectively, both had week-over-week increases in impressions share: ABC went from a 12.03% share to 12.28%; NBC from 11.36% to 12.15%.
• ESPN moves up one place to No. 5 with a 6.80% share of impressions. Over half of the network’s total impressions came from college basketball and college football.
• History Channel makes a notable jump from No. 28 previously to No. 19, with new episodes of The Curse of Oak Island and its spin-offs (Digging Deeper and Drilling Down), as well as Pawn Stars Do America and Mountain Men, contributing top TV ad impression counts.
• TNT is another week-over-week ranking newcomer, doubling its impressions share and moving up to No. 21 from No. 37, with ad impressions primarily driven by NBA games.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of November 7-13, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

While NFL and college football retain their first and second place positions week-over-week, Paramount Network's Yellowstone gallops up the ranking into third place (from No. 26 last time). The beloved Western drama accounted for 1.35% of all minutes watched during the week, thanks to rerun marathons and the two-hour season five premiere on November 13.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Watch-time for NFL games was up slightly week-over-week, to 5.87% from 5.56%, while college football had a small decrease in minutes watched (from 4.70% to 4.50%). 
• Multiple election specials made the top 25 programs, including Fox News Democracy 2022: Election Coverage (1.14% of minutes watched), Election Night in America (0.92%) and Decision 2022 (0.39%).
• Other general news programs have week-over-week ranking increases, including Good Morning America (from No. 8 to No. 7), Fox & Friends (No. 10 to No. 9), America's Newsroom (No. 13 to No. 12), America Reports (No. 16 to No. 14) and The Five (No. 27 to No. 23).
• The 56th Annual CMA Awards telecast lands at No. 16 in the ranking, with 0.49% of watch-time.

Fox hops from No. 2 to No. 1 week-over-week in our list of most-watched networks, thanks in large part to NFL games, which accounted for 35.67% of minutes watched on the network. 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from November 7-13:

• Election coverage helped boost watch-time across cable news networks: Fox News captured 6.44% of minutes watched (up from 5.48% the previous week), CNN had 2.24% (up from 1.39%) and MSNBC had 2.07% (up from 1.47%).
• Paramount Network jumps from No. 23 to No. 12, largely thanks to Yellowstone reruns and the season five premiere, which accounted for 58.54% of the network’s watch-time for the week.
• NFL Network scores a touchdown, jumping into the ranking at No. 22 from No. 42 previously, largely due to the Buccaneers vs. Seahawks game that took place in Germany.
• History Channel is another week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 24 (0.87% of minutes watched).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Once again the NFL takes first place for share of TV ad impressions, with a slight week-over-week increase, from 11.57% to 12.29%. College football, sitting squarely in second place, also had an increase (from 7.62% to 9.02%). 

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• The 56th Annual CMA Awards telecast takes fifth place with a 1.26% impressions share. It saw a 28.82% increase in impressions from 2021’s show.
• With many viewers following midterm election coverage on TV, multiple news programs had week-over-week increases in their share of TV ad impressions, including Fox & Friends, America’s Newsroom, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and America Reports.
• Speaking of the midterms, election-specific specials on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC make the top 25 ranking: Fox News Democracy 2022: Election Coverage (0.92% share of impressions), Election Day in America (0.85%) and Decision 2022 (0.72%).
• Morning talk shows Good Morning America and Today both move up the ranking week-over-week with impressions share increases: GMA takes third (up to 1.61% from 1.43% the previous week) and Today is fourth (up to 1.54% from 1.33%).

CBS takes first place in the network ranking, but had a slight week-over-week decrease in TV ad impressions share, down to 14.06% from 17.71%. Together, NFL and college football games accounted for over 26% of the network’s total impressions during the week.

Additional insights around the top networks by share of TV ad impressions:

• ABC takes second place, increasing its impressions share from 10.84% to 12.03% week-over-week. College football, Good Morning America and the 56th Annual CMA Awards telecast were the top impressions-driving programs.
• Although it remains steady in fifth place, Fox had a notable increase in impressions share compared to the previous week — up to 10.24% from 7.91% — with NFL games delivering over 58% of the network’s total impressions.
• Two sports networks — NFL Network (1.04% share of impressions) and SEC Network (0.39%) — are week-over-week ranking newcomers.
• The Weather Channel is another week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 16 with 0.90% share of impressions, fueled in part by coverage of Hurricane Nicole.

CBS, Fox and NBC will all be paying tribute to former coach and Hall of Fame sportscaster John Madden when they broadcast National Football League games on Thanksgiving Day.

Each network will lead into their games with a recording of Madden — who called 20 Thanksgiving Day games over the course of his career — talking about the relationship the holiday has with football.

Each network will also create segments about the coach that will appear during their games.

At the end of each game, a Madden Player of the Game will be selected, with the winner receiving a $10,000 donation in their name from the NFL foundation to the youth or high school football program of their choice.

“No one cared more or contributed more to our game than John Madden,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “Honoring his memory and impact on the NFL is important and Thanksgiving Day brings all of the elements significant to John to life – family, football, food and fun.”

Madden will also be celebrated with logos on the field at the 25-yard lines and a sticker worn on players’ helmets.

EA Sports, which created the Madden NFL video games, will present a Game Before the Game Madden NFL 23 competition between players from the teams competing in Thanksgiving games.

The @NFL Instagram and Snapchat Thanksgiving AR lens will allow fans to determine "The Best Part of Thanksgiving" via a randomizer. Users will hear the iconic “Boom!” from Madden when the randomizer lands, followed by one of his various Thanksgiving Day in-booth sound bites and surrounded by an illustrated Madden graphic.

Gabe Gault — renowned Metaverse artist and son of former NFL wide receiver Willie Gault — will paint a John Madden tribute mural in the Metaverse. The Metaverse mural will feature Madden throughout his career as a player, coach and broadcaster with his famous Thanksgiving quote stylized and woven through the art. Content will live on NFL social platforms, showing the design process and final outcome. ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 31 through November 6, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Sports continue to reign supreme, taking four of the top five spots for the most-watched programming during the week. NFL games accounted for 5.56% of minutes watched, down slightly from the previous week's 5.89%. On the other hand, college football saw an increase in watch-time, up to 4.70% from 3.95% previously.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• After six games, the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, which accounted for 3.12% of watch-time during the week.
• Chicago P.D. makes a notable jump up the chart, moving to No. 12 from No. 23, fueled by reruns on ION and USA Network, as well as a new episode that premiered on NBC on Nov. 2.
• Fox News programs America's Newsroom and America Reports both move slightly up the chart, to No. 14 and No. 16, respectively.
• Week-over-week newcomers include Chicago Fire (0.39%) and The First 48 (0.39%), shifting into the No. 20 and No. 24 chart positions, respectively.

On the network side of things, CBS is in first place, thanks in part to NFL and college football, with 9.04% of minutes watched (up from 7.32% the previous week). 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 31 through November 6:

• Fox, benefiting primarily from the World Series, edges out NBC to take second place with 8.01% of watch-time.
• Although Fox News Channel, ESPN and Hallmark Channel all retain their chart positions week-over-week, each saw a slight uptick in minutes watched.
• Newcomers that didn't appear on the previous week's ranking include ESPN2, up from No. 27 to No. 22, and Paramount Network, up to No. 23 from No. 38.
• Paramount's notable jump came from a Yellowstone marathon over the weekend — the network's hit show, which returns for season five on November 13 — accounted for over 40% of Paramount Network's total watch-time for the week.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

The NFL remains in first place, but saw a slight decrease in share of TV ad impressions, to 11.57% from 12.29% the previous week. College football is steady at No. 2 with an impressions share of 7.62%.

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Although the World Series stays in third place week-over-week, it saw a notable increase in share of TV ad impressions (up to 5.41% from 3.09% previously), with a nearly 75% jump in total TV impressions compared to the week before.
• The Voice, which premiered two of its three "The Knockouts" episodes during the week, moves into eleventh place with 1.02% share of impressions, up from 0.94% last time.
• ABC World News Tonight with David Muir moves up one place, from No. 18 to No. 17 (from 0.55% share of impressions to 0.87%), while Fox & Friends remains in 10th but with a slight impressions increase (from 1.06% to 1.07%).
• Daytime soap opera General Hospital jumps up the ranking to No. 18 from No. 22 previously, increasing its share of impressions from 0.70% to 0.80%.

CBS takes first place in the network ranking, with a week-over-week increase in TV ad impressions share — up to 17.71% from 14.92%. NBC takes second place, with impressions fueled by NFL games, Today and The Voice.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions share:

• ABC moves into third place, albeit with a slight week-over-week decrease in impressions (down to 10.84% from 11.55% previously).
• Discovery and The CW both have notable upward movement, from No. 22 to No. 17 and from No. 23 to No. 18, respectively. Street Outlaws, Gold Rush and Moonshiners delivered top impression counts for Discovery, while The CW benefited from Stargirl, Walker and Family Feud.
• Food Network moves up the chart from No. 24 to No. 20, with seasonal programming including Holiday Wars, Halloween Baking Championship and Christmas Cookie Challenge generating top impression counts.
• With a 0.44% share of impressions, History Channel was the sole week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 24 from its previous place at No. 26.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 24-30, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Football season is in full swing and nothing can unseat the NFL when it comes to viewership: Games accounted for 5.89% of all minutes watched from October 24-30, up slightly from the previous week's 5.34%.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• College football moves up a notch to second place from third the previous week, increasing its share of watch-time from 3.48% to 3.95%.
• The 2022 World Series takes third place over NBA games, with 1.35% and 1.10% of minutes watch, respectively.
• Two and a Half Men makes a notable jump up the chart, moving to No. 18 from No. 24 the previous week, fueled by reruns across TV Land, Paramount Network and IFC.
• Week-over-week newcomers include NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (0.37%) and Hannity (0.36%), moving into the No. 24 and No. 25 chart positions, respectively.

With assists from NFL games, the World Series and college football, Fox scores a home run as the top network with 8.64% of minutes watched, unseating CBS, which had taken first place for weeks. 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 24-30:

• There's incremental movement within the middle ranks compared to the previous week, with Hallmark Channel (2.58% of minutes watched), Ion (1.82%) and HGTV (1.64%), among others, rising to new heights.
• Speaking of Hallmark, the network continues its early Christmas obsession, with movies including Jolly Good Christmas, A Cozy Christmas Inn and Ghosts of Christmas Always among its top programming for the week. And that's not all: Sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries catapults into the ranking at No. 19 (1.09% of watch-time), also fueled by holiday content.
• Cable news saw a week-over-week increase, with MSNBC moving into 10th place from No. 13 with 1.50% of minutes watched, and CNN jumping from No. 15 to No. 11 (1.44%).
• Discovery was another week-over-week newcomer, capturing 0.86% of watch-time and landing at No. 25.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

Once again the NFL takes first place with a 12.29% share of TV ad impressions, an increase from the previous week's 10.09%. College football marches up the field with an impressions SOV of 7.94%, while the MLB World Series takes third place (3.09%). 

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Good Morning America overtakes the NBA for fourth place, with 1.48% and 1.46% share of impressions, respectively.
• With Election Day rapidly approaching, various news programs saw week-over-week increases, including Fox & Friends (up from 0.90% share of impressions to 1.60%), NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (from 0.77% to 0.95%), ABC World News Tonight With David Muir (from 0.55% to 0.77%), Jesse Watters Primetime (from 0.63% to 0.71%) and America Reports, which wasn’t on the previous week’s ranking but comes in at No. 25 with 0.60% share of impressions, up from 0.52%.
• Thanks to back-to-back nights of episodes, Bachelor in Paradise moves up the ranking from No. 18 to No. 17, with a 0.79% share of TV ad impressions.
• Programs maintaining their ranking spot week-over-week but seeing an increase in share of impressions include Today (up from 1.31% to 1.35%), SportsCenter (from 1.23% to 1.31%), The Price Is Right (from 1.11% to1.27%) and The Young and the Restless (from 1.04% to 1.10%).

CBS once again takes first place in our top-networks-by-impressions ranking, with a slight week-over-week increase in TV ad impression share -- up to 14.92% from 14.36%. Fox jumps into second place with a nearly 30% increase in total impressions week-over-week, thanks in part to the 2022 World Series. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• NBC scored a slightly higher share of TV ad impressions than ABC -- 11.55% vs. 11.41% -- with over a quarter of its total impressions coming from NFL games. ABC was buoyed by college football, which accounted for 18% of the network’s total impressions.
• Spanish-language networks Univision, Telemundo and UniMás all rise up the ranking with week-over-week share of impressions increases, with Telemundo having the largest (from 1.40% to 2.31%).
• The CW arrives in our ranking at No. 23 (up from No. 27 previously) with All American, Stargirl and All American: Homecoming as its top three impressions-driving shows.
• SEC Network was another week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 19 with 0.59% impressions share, up from 0.36% the previous week.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 17-23, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL continues to score with watch-time, accounting for 5.34% of minutes watched from October 17-23, down slightly from the previous week's 6.83%.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Major League Baseball moves up a notch to second place from third the previous week, although it had a slight decline in watch-time (down to 3.67% from 3.71%).
• The first games of the new National Basketball Association season racked up 1.60% of minutes watched, placing the NBA at No. 4 and making the top four programs by watch-time all sports.
• Week-over-week newcomers include NFL RedZone (0.38%) and Paw Patrol (0.35%), moving into the No. 20 and No. 25 chart positions, respectively.
• Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. both jump up the chart, fueled by new episodes as well as reruns on Ion.

Yet again CBS is the most-watched network, with NFL and college football combined delivering 14.49% of its total watch-time.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 17-23:

• TNT has the most notable week-over-week rank increase, moving up to No. 9 from No. 22, with NBA games accounting for nearly half (45.51%) of minutes watched on the network.
• Fox moves from No. 4 to No. 3, with watch-time increasing by 1%, up to 6.94%. Over a third of the network’s minutes watched came from NFL and college football.
• Hallmark Channel, which has already started airing holiday and Christmas movies in earnest, moves into eighth place from No. 13, with 2.10% of watch-time (up from 1.60% the previous week).
• Bravo is the sole week-over-week newcomer to the chart, inching up to No. 24 from No. 26 previously.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL's winning streak continues as it again takes first place for share of TV ad impressions (10.09%), a slight decrease from the previous week's 12.92%. MLB and college football retain their positions at second (8.07%) and third place (6.60%), respectively.

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• NBA action jumps into the top five with a 1.97% share of impressions, but still lags behind football and baseball.
• Although The Voice maintained its 0.95% impressions share, it falls to No. 10 from No. 8 the previous week, while The Young and the Restless remains at No. 9 but had a slight increase in impressions share (from 0.91% to 1.04%).
• The Bold and The Beautiful moves up from No. 33 to No. 25 week-over-week, having increased its impressions share from 0.45% to 0.55%.
• Morning shows Good Morning America, Today and CBS Mornings each had modest impressions share increases from the previous week, and although Today moves into sixth place from seventh last time, GMA falls to fifth from fourth in the ranking. CBS Mornings stays at No. 15.

For the fifth week in a row, CBS takes first place for TV ad impressions share, although it saw a slight decrease week-over-week, falling to 14.36% from 18.49%. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• ABC moves into second place with an 11.58% impressions share, fueled in part by a 41.1% week-over-week impressions increase from college football.
• Thanks in part to the doubling of NFL impressions week-over-week, Fox also jumps up a spot, landing at No. 4 with a 9.29% impressions share, up from 6.81% the previous week.
• TNT vaults into the ranking at No. 12, up from No. 54 the previous week, propelled by the new NBA season, which had a 79.7% impressions share on the network.
• Hallmark Channel also had an increase in impressions share, up to 0.94% from 0.46% previously, driven by the premieres of three new Christmas movies.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 10-16, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again the NFL is dominating watch-time, accounting for 6.83% of minutes watched from October 10-16, up slightly from the previous week’s 6.31%. 

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The top 10 programs all retain their positions week-over-week, although NFL and MLB were the only two that saw increased watch-time, with baseball being boosted by the division series.
• Murder, She Wrote jumps into the ranking as Hallmark Movies & Mysteries aired additional episodes in tribute to Angela Lansbury, who died on October 11 at the age of 96. The show captured over 41% of the network’s watch-time for the week.
• The only other week-over-week newcomer to our top 25 is The First 48, moving from No. 26 to No. 19.
• Blue Bloods, which recently kicked off season 13, moves up a spot to No. 11, although total watch-time had a slight decline (0.51% to 0.49%).

CBS continues to lead our network ranking, thanks mostly to football. NFL and college football combined for over 36% of the total watch-time on CBS, up from 19% combined the previous week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 10-16:

• Fox Sports 1 rockets from No. 31 to No. 8 week-over-week, thanks in part to MLB games and the pre/post-game coverage.
• Other top 25 newcomers include TNT (from No. 27 to No. 22) and Discovery Channel (No. 26 to No. 24).
• TBS jumps up to No. 7 from No. 16, with MLB games delivering over 68% of the watch-time.
• Although TLC and TV Land both move up a spot, they had modest decreases in week-over-week watch-time (from 1.08% to 1.04% and 1.06% to 1.01%, respectively).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

The NFL maintains its upward trajectory, delivering the highest share of TV ad impressions (12.88%), a slight increase from the previous week's 12.51%. MLB overtakes college football, with 8.32% and 7.25% share in impressions, respectively. 

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Although The Price Is Right maintained its 1.15% share of impressions from last week, it moves up to No. 5 (from No. 8 previously).
• News- and talk-related programs sit in 13 of the 25 spots in our ranking, led by Good Morning America at No. 4.
• General Hospital increased its ad impressions week-over-week, from 0.64% to 0.68%.
• Both ABC World News Tonight With David Muir and NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt increased their share of impressions and move up the ranking compared with the previous week.

CBS is No. 1 in ranking of networks by share of TV ad impressions for the fourth week in a row. The network delivered 18.6% on TV ad impressions from October 10-16, up from 16.1% the previous week. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• TBS and Fox Deportes are new week-over-week arrivals in our ranking, with ad impression increases driven by MLB games.
• Speaking of MLB, Fox Sports 1 grew its share of TV ad impressions from 1.57% to 3.79%, thanks in large part to baseball games.
• Hallmark saw a slight increase in impressions share, up to 0.46% from 0.42% the previous week, as it continued to lean into fall-themed programming.
• Bravo also grew its share of TV ad impressions from 0.67% to 0.70%, driven in part by new episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Below Deck Mediterranean.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Oct. 3-9, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL is atop our watch-time ranking for the fifth straight week. NFL games accounted for 6.31% of minutes watched from Oct. 3-9, down slightly from 6.97% the previous week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• MLB's new wildcard round helped boost baseball's minutes watched week-over-week from 0.65% to 1.82%.
• Blue Bloods' season 13 premiere helped drive the show from No. 24 to No. 12 by watch-time week-over-week.
• Syndicated sitcoms like Two and a Half Men (from No. 26 to No. 17) and The Golden Girls (No. 23 to No. 20) make week-over-week gains in our ranking.
• Other week-over-week newcomers to our top 25 include Ridiculousness (No. 21), Family Feud (No. 22), Tucker Carlson Tonight (No. 23), Love It or List It (No. 24) and The Voice (No. 31).

CBS is No. 1 on our list of most-watched networks for the second consecutive week, thanks in large part to football. College football and the NFL combined for over 19% of watch-time on CBS, with the Alabama vs. Texas A&M thriller catching a larger share of minutes watched than the network’s NFL games.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Oct. 3-9:

• ION's slate of syndicated procedurals helped fuel a week-over-week jump from No. 11 to No. 7.
• ESPN2 vaults up to No. 14 (from No. 31 the previous week), as college football and MLB Playoff games pushed the network's watch-time up week-over-week.
• Additional week-over-week newcomers in our top 25 include History (from No. 27 to No. 24) and Bravo (from No. 28 to No. 25).
• Hallmark hops from No. 13 to No. 10 by minutes watched, as the network leaned into a combination of syndicated sitcoms and fall-focused seasonal movies.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL delivered the highest share of TV ad impressions once again, with 12.51% from Oct. 3-9. That's down from 14.45% the previous week as the MLB Playoffs helped baseball grab a larger share of the weekend's live sports audience (and impressions).

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Speaking of MLB action, the weekend's wildcard round was a big part of why baseball nearly doubled its share of ad impressions week-over-week, from 0.89% to 1.84%.
• Bachelor in Paradise's two-night format on ABC helped fuel a week-over-week jump in TV ad impressions – from 0.44% to 0.94%.
• Univision's Los Ricos También Lloran reboot increased its ad impressions week-over-week – from 0.38% to 0.72%.
• The View is one of several news- and talk-focused programs to grow its week-over-week impressions – by 30%.

CBS is No. 1 in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking for a third straight week. The network delivered 16.1% of TV ad impressions from Oct. 3-9, which is down from 18.1% the previous week.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• Hallmark and Food Network are new week-over-week arrivals in our ranking, as both have been leaning into Halloween and fall-centric programs.
• Bravo TV ad impressions increased by 39% week-over-week, thanks to its typical slate of reality programming (including the season premiere of Real Housewives of Potomac).
• The top three Spanish-language networks (Telemundo, Univision, UniMás) all rise in our week-over-week, led by Univision, which moves from No. 10 to No. 8.
• Despite maintaining its No. 5 ranking week-over-week, Fox grew its share of TV ad impressions from 5.5% to 8.1% (with more than half of impressions coming from Sunday afternoon's NFL doubleheader).

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL stayed atop our watch-time ranking for the fourth consecutive week. Week Four NFL action accounted for 6.97% of minutes watched from Sept. 26-Oct. 2, which is up from 6.49% the previous week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• With Hurricane Ian bearing down on the southeast U.S., audiences tuned into The Weather Channel coverage on shows including America’s Morning Headquarters (No. 15 by watch-time), Weather Underground (No. 18), Live Coverage: Tracking Ian (No. 20) and Storm Center (No. 21).
• Additional week-over-week newcomers to our ranking include CBS Mornings (climbing from No. 27 to No. 13 by minutes watched) and NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (up from No. 33 to No. 25).
• Fox News programs Fox & Friends (from No. 22 to No. 12) and America Reports (from No. 25 to No. 14) also made sizable week-over-week jumps by watch-time.
• Western drama Gunsmoke returns to our top 10, jumping from No. 17 to No. 10 week-over-week.

CBS hops from No. 4 to No. 1 week-over-week in our list of most-watched networks, thanks in large part to football. The NFL and college football accounted for over 31% of watch-time on the network, helping fuel a climb to 8.94% of minutes watched – up from 7.33% the previous week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Sept. 26-Oct. 2:

• Hurricane Ian concerns created a surge in The Weather Channel viewership, as the network flies from No. 46 to No. 7 week-over-week.
• NFL interest is not just limited to the games themselves, as NFL Network hurdles up to No. 18 by watch-time on the week (from No. 34 the previous week).
• A Star Wars movie marathon helped power TNT’s rise from No. 30 to No. 25 week-over-week.
• CNN and Fox News both increased week-over-week watch-time, coinciding with more news interest overall.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL sits at No. 1 once again in our ranking, as live games delivered 14.4% of TV ad impressions. That’s up from 13.7% the previous week, as the league had just one Monday night game (vs. two overlapping contests the week before).

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Hurricane tracking means The Weather Channel programming pops up throughout our ranking – led by America’s Morning Headquarters at No. 8, then Storm Center (No. 9), Live Coverage: Tracking Ian (No. 15) and Weather Underground (No. 19).
• Overall, news- and talk-related programming account for 16 (nearly two-thirds) of the shows in our ranking, compared to 13 the previous week.
• Aside from the weather-related programs, CBS Mornings is one of the biggest week-over-week risers in our ranking, moving from No. 28 to No. 14.
• The Voice is the lone reality TV show in our ranking this week, staying at No. 6 in the early weeks of the new season.

CBS benefits from the Sunday NFL doubleheader (which it typically alternates with Fox) to stay at No. 1 in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking. The network had nearly 18.1% of TV ad impressions from Sept. 26-Oct. 2, up from 13.8% the previous week.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• The Weather Channel’s share of TV ad impressions climbed by nearly 4x week-over-week, from 1.00% to 3.73%.
• Cable sports networks continued to cash in on football and baseball action, led by ESPN (No. 6), then Fox Sports 1 (No. 12), MLB Network (No. 13), NFL Network (No. 15), ESPN2 (No. 16), SEC Network (No. 19) and Big Ten Network (No. 23).
• Speaking of, both the SEC Network and Big Ten Network are new week-over-week arrivals in our ranking, thanks in part to airing games with top teams – with Georgia appearing on the SEC Network and Ohio State landing on the Big Ten Network.
• NBC’s share of impressions climbed from 12.7% to 13.4% week-over-week, with news programs accounting for nearly a third of that total.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Sept. 19-25, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Week three of the NFL season kept the league’s games atop our watch-time ranking for another week. From Sept. 19-25, the NFL accounted for 6.49% of minutes watched (down slightly from 6.78% the previous week).

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The NFL is not the only live sporting event in the top 10 of our ranking, as college football (No. 2), golf’s President’s Cup (No. 4) and Major League Baseball (No. 6) also make appearances.
• Beyond the President’s Cup, other week-over-week newcomers to our ranking include separate special TV events around Queen Elizabeth II's funeral (No. 12 and No. 13, respectively) and The Voice's season premiere (No. 15).
• Chicago Fire’s own season premiere also helped fuel a leap from No. 41 to No. 7 by minutes watched week-over-week.
• Chicago P.D. makes its own week-over-week jump too, as season 10’s debut pushed the show from No. 19 to No. 14 by watch-time.

NBC moves into the No. 1 spot in our list of most-watched networks, as the NFL and President’s Cup accounted for over a quarter of its watch-time. The network tallied 8.11% of watch-time, up from 7.37% the previous week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Sept. 19-25:

• ABC benefited from both the NFL and college football, which pushed minutes watched from 6.39% to 7.41% week-over-week.
• MSNBC progresses from No. 11 to No. 8 week-over-week, in part due to coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral (fourth by watch-time on the network).
• ESPN2’s college football coverage accounted for nearly 26% of minutes watched on the network, which climbs from No. 31 to No. 22 week-over-week.
• Discovery Channel is also a week-over-week addition to our ranking, rising from No. 27 to No. 25, due in part to programs like Expedition Unknown and Deadliest Catch.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

The NFL takes the No. 1 spot in our ranking for the third week in a row, as live games delivered nearly 13.7% of TV ad impressions. That’s down from the previous week, when it accounted for 15.7% (though overlapping Monday Night Football contests ultimately cut into TV ad impressions for both, while also removing a Sunday game from the slate).

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Reality shows account for three spots in our ranking, led by The Voice (No. 6), then Big Brother (No. 14) and The Bachelorette (No. 15).
• The 2022 President’s Cup golf event delivered 1.63% of TV ad impressions, despite it being a one-sided affair in favor of the winning U.S. team.
• News- and talk-related programs sit in 13 of the 25 spots in our ranking, led by Good Morning America at No. 5.
• With the pennant race in full swing, MLB games leap from No. 19 to No. 8 by share of TV ad impressions week-over-week.

CBS retains its lead in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking, even as its share drops from 15.84% to 13.79% week-over-week. Between pro and college games over the weekend, football accounted for over 23% of CBS TV ad impressions from Sept. 19-25.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• Fox News jumps from No. 9 to No. 5 week-over-week, as both TV ad impressions and ad airings more than doubled on the network.
• Hurricane news has meant more ad impressions for The Weather Channel, which roars into our ranking at No. 15 (after not appearing at all the previous week).
• President’s Cup action lifts Golf Channel from No. 26 to No. 17 by TV ad impressions week-over-week.
• Fox’s share of ad impressions rose from 6.98% to 9.83% week-over-week, with nearly 65% of those delivered on Sunday.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Sept. 12-18, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Week two action guided the NFL to the top spot in our watch-time ranking for Sept. 12-18. Even with the Thursday night game streaming on Amazon Prime instead of broadcast or cable, the league’s games still accounted for 6.78% of minutes watched (down just slightly from 7.16% in week one).

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Another busy Saturday guided college football to the No. 2 spot in our ranking again, with 4.45% of watch-time (down from 5.06% the previous week).
• Season 55 of CBS’s 60 Minutes premieres at No. 20 by minutes watched, as the show offered interviews with both U.S. President Joe Biden and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
• The two-night season finale of America’s Got Talent fueled a week-over-week jump from No. 28 to No. 10 by watch-time.
• Among other week-over-week newcomers to our ranking: America’s Newsroom (from No. 27 to No. 14), Chicago P.D. (No. 34 to No. 19), America Reports (No. 36 to No. 22), Tucker Carlson Tonight (No. 32 to No. 24) and The First 48 (No. 39 to No. 25).

CBS takes the No. 1 spot in our list of most-watched networks, thanks to the NFL and 60 Minutes, among other programs. The network scored 8.35% of watch-time, up from 6.90% the previous week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Sept. 12-18:

• Airing a Monday Night Football simulcast, ABC increased watch-time week-over-week from 5.85% to 6.39% while hopping to No. 3 in our ranking.
• TLC moves from No. 20 to No. 16 week-over-week, thanks in large part to variations of the 90 Day Fiancé franchise.
• Three networks are week-over-week additions to our top 25, with INSP climbing from No. 27 to 23, while TNT leaps from No. 28 to No. 24 and Bravo migrates from No. 26 to No. 25.
• Three networks are week-over-week additions to our top 25, with INSP climbing from No. 27 to 23, while TNT leaps from No. 28 to No. 24 and Bravo migrates from No. 26 to No. 25.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL was No. 1 in our ranking for the second straight week, as live games accounted for more than 15.7% of TV ad impressions. That’s down from the previous week, when it accounted for 16.69% (though that’s to be expected with Thursday Night Football moving from NBC – where it aired in Week One – to Amazon Prime Video).

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Despite airing directly against Monday Night Football on both ABC and ESPN, the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards still delivered 0.75% of TV ad impressions on the week (No. 20 overall).
• America’s Got Talent rises from No. 13 to No. 6 by TV ad impressions week-over-week thanks to its two-part finale.
• MSNBC’s Deadline: White House is new to our ranking week-over-week, climbing from No. 35 to No. 25 by share of TV ad impressions.
• Another MSNBC show, Morning Joe, also jumps in the week-over-week rankings, from No. 23 to No. 17.

CBS’s share of TV ad impressions increased from 12.32% to 15.84% week-over-week to take the No. 1 spot in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking. Nearly 40% of CBS impressions from Sept. 12-18 were attributable to NFL action.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• ABC ad impressions increased from 11.79% to 13.12% week-over-week, as the network leaned on both the NFL and college football, which together accounted for almost 30% of impressions for the network.
• Football also buoyed cable sports networks, including ESPN (No. 5), ESPN2 (No. 12), Fox Sports 1 (No. 13), SEC Network (No. 21) and NFL Network (No. 24).
• Coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death was part of a week-over-week TV ad impressions increase for some cable news networks, as CNN grew from 4.68% of impressions to 4.80%, while MSNBC jumped from 4.78% to 5.67%.
• Speaking of cable news, HLN arrives in our ranking at No. 25 by TV ad impressions, up from No. 30 the previous week.

With the new season about to kick off, commercials in National Football League games are selling out earlier than ever, with spots in the Super Bowl already nearly gone at prices topping a record $7 million.

Network sales execs this year’s haul from NFL games -- TV’s highest rated programming -- should top the $4.43 billion generated during the 2021-22 season.

Also: New Nielsen Study for NFL Finds 208 Million Watched Super Bowl LVI

As viewers shift to streaming, sports remain one of the few places on traditional TV where advertisers can reach large audiences. So instead of waiting till after upfront entertainment deals are done, sponsors began snapping up NFL inventory ahead of the network presentations in May, Mark Evans, executive VP of ad sales for Fox Sports, told Broadcasting+Cable.

“Coming out of the upfront, we found ourselves over 90% sold for the full year,” Evans said. “We typically come out of the upfront market about 80% to 85% sold.”

Demand was particularly strong for special games on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Evans declined to talk about price increases, but a source familiar with the situation said Fox was getting increases ranging from high single digits to low single digits on a cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) basis.

Fox, which also has the FIFA World Cup and baseball's World Series coming up, is looking at a big football postseason as the first network in 40 years to carry two Wild Card playoff games, two NFC Divisional Playoff Games, the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.

Sponsors are enthusiastically buying up spots in Super Bowl LVII. Usually, most Super Bowl sales take place after the start of the season, in September and October. This year, Super Bowl deals were done in concert with upfront deals. “That was very different for us,” Evans said. “We’re months ahead of where we typically are.”

Immediately after the upfront, Fox had 90% of its Super Bowl inventory sold, he said. Now its up to about 95% with just a handful of units still available. The good news for prospective advertisers is that Fox still has spots available in both the first half and the second half of the game, giving sponsors more flexibility. 

Again, Evan’s declined to discuss price, but sources said 30-second commercials were going for more than $7 million, up from the $6.5 million NBC received for its highest-priced  commercials in the February 2022 Super Bowl. 

Also: Fox Super Bowl Ads Getting Record Prices: Lachlan Murdoch

"We feel excellent about what we’ve sold, the pricing structure and how we’ve managed our inventory,” Evans said, adding he has warned potential advertisers that the price of Super Bowl ads will only rise. As far as the remaining spots go, “we’re open for business and we’ll transact for a deal that makes sense.”

For the Super Bowl, Verizon will be Fox’s halftime sponsor. (Pepsi has pulled out as sponsor of the NFL’s halftime musical performance. No replacement has been announced.) 

Sellout levels are also high for Fox’s Super Bowl pre-game programming. Some of the half hours have presenting sponsors and a vast majority of those are already gone, with just two half-hours still available.

All in, Super Sunday is expected to generate upwards of $500 million for Fox.

Sean Hanrahan, senior VP, Disney Advertising Sports Brand Solutions, says Monday Night Football spots on ESPN are also well sold at this point. 

”Sell-throughs are tremendous, with double-digit price increases,” Hanrahan said. “We’re happy to have the Manning-cast back again. That was a big hit for us last year,” he added, referring to the simulcast on ESPN2 featuring Peyton Manning, his brother Eli Manning and special guests.

On Monday Night Football, Target is the new sponsor of the half-time highlights that lead into the start of the third quarter. Progressive returns as the pre-kickoff programming sponsor. Subway is back as the sponsor for the Countdown show leading into MNF and Snickers is back for Sunday night’s NFL Countdown.

Evans said Fox’s regular season sales were bolstered by adding 28 new advertisers who hadn’t bought the NFL on Fox last year. Those advertisers generated more than $100 million of new business for the NFL on Fox. 

The bulk of Fox’s NFL sales remain in familiar categories, such as insurance, technology and autos. But there were also some categories registering double-digit increases, up as much as 30%. Those include travel and entertainment, with theatrical films and streaming services spending big, and the dining category also up strongly.

Given the run on NFL inventory, Evans said he’s seeing more clients looking to strike multi-year deals. ■

The National Football League said it launched NFL Plus, its video streaming service that will provide live out-of-market preseason games and live local and primetime games on mobile devices including phones and tablets.

The NFL continues to negotiate to find a buyer for its Sunday Ticket out-market TV package.

NFL Plus will feature live streaming video of out-of-market preseason games, live local and primetime regular season and postseason games. It will also have live local and national audio for every game, NFL Network shows on demand and content from the NFL Films archive. 

NFL Plus is available in the NFL App for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The league is also offering NFL Plus Premium for $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year, which also offers full and condensed game replays and the All 22 Coaches Film. 

Verizon Wireless had offered a mobile streaming service last season. NFL Game Pass, the league’s earlier direct-to-consumer offering, will no longer be offered in the U.S. 

“Today marks an important day in the history of the National Football League with the launch of NFL Plus,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The passionate and dedicated football fans are the lifeblood of the NFL, and being able to reach and interact with them across multiple platforms is incredibly important to us. We look forward to continuing to grow NFL Plus and deepening our relationship with fans across all ages and demographics, providing them access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games.” ■

The National Football League plans to launch its own streaming service in July, according to a report from the NFL owner meeting by Sports Business Journal.

NFL Plus will feature live games on mobile phones and tablets and is expected cost about $5 monthly. The games would be the same game fans can see on TV in their local markets.

Also: Amazon Prime Video and NFL Set Full 'Thursday Night Football' Schedule

The service would replace the games that were available via Yahoo and other mobile carriers. Those deals have expired.

NFL Plus would have other content, possibly including radio, podcasts and team-created content, SBJ said. Having its own direct-to-consumer streaming service would give the league more data on its fans.

The service is separate from Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market service that has been with DirecTV for years, but is now most likely heading to either Amazon or Apple.

Amazon and Apple are also in talks to acquire a stake in NFL Media, which includes the NFL Network. 

NFL Plus could be folded into NFL Media, the report said.  ■

Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady has agreed to join Fox Sports as its lead NFL analyst after his playing career concludes.

The announcement was made by Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch in what he called "real time" during Fox’s earnings call with analysts Tuesday morning.

Brady would replace Troy Aikman, who left Fox along with Joe Buck to broadcast ESPN’s Monday Night Football games. Aikman and Buck worked as a team on Fox Sports for 20 years.

Also: Tom Brady Series ‘Man in the Arena’ on ESPN Plus

“We are pleased to announce that immediately following his playing career, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady will be joining Fox Sports as our lead analyst,” Murdoch said.

Brady, 44, briefly signaled he would retire after last season but decided to rejoin the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The New York Post, owned by another Murdoch company, reported that Brady's deal will pay him $375 million over 10 years. Aikman is getting $18 million a year ESPN and Buck is getting $15.5 million.

“Tom will call our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt and serve as a client ambassador for us,” Murdoch said. “We are delighted that Tom has committed to joining the Fox team and we wish him all the best in this upcoming season.“

Murdoch also noted that Fox reached an agreement with the NFL to air an incremental game on Christmas Day. Last year’s Christmas game generated 28 million viewers, he said. ■

The National Football League is considering launching its own streaming service.

According to Front Office Sports, Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, said a streaming service is “under consideration.” He said the league is also talking to media and streaming companies about those rights.

Talk about s streaming service follows last year’s agreements to sell broadcast rights to NFL games for more than $100 billion over 11 years. The NFL is also in the process of selling rights to its Sunday Ticket product and possibly selling in interest in NFL Media including the NFL Network.

Rolapp said that the potential streaming service would including games, radio, podcast and team content. If a service were launched it would happen well before the start of the 2022 season.

Also: Tradition-Bound Baseball is Streaming Into the Future

NFL games are currently streamed by Verizon through the Yahoo Sports app.

More sports are starting to be streamed and big tech companies are making bigger investments in sports.

Amazon this year starts an 11 year deal giving it exclusive national rights to Thursday Night Football and Apple recently announced a deal with Major League Baseball to stream two games each week on Friday nights.■

Apple, the most valuable company in the world, is reportedly looking to make a huge deal with the National Football League, owner of the most powerful programming in television.

The NFL is looking for a home for NFL Sunday Ticket, its subscription service offering out-of-market games. 

It is also looking to sell 49% of NFL Media, which owns the NFL Networks, NFL RedZone and NFL.com.

Apple wants to swallow them both in one bite, according to Front Office Sports.

The Hail Mary of a deal would be a touchdown for Apple’s streaming service Apple TV Plus, which despite a handful of award-winning shows including Ted Lasso, is an also ran in the direct-to-consumer market.

More significantly, Apple could use the NFL to keep its iPhone and other gadgets one play ahead of its competitors.

Apple’s main challenger for the NFL Properties is reportedly Amazon, another big, rich tech company.

Amazon is already in business with the NFL, having acquired exclusive rights to the league’s Thursday Night Football packages. Amazon began promoting Thursday Night Football during the Super Bowl.

Also: DirecTV Mulls 'Co-Exclusive' Arrangement for NFL Sunday Ticket

Sunday Ticket has been with DirecTV for years, but DirecTV was spun off from AT&T and probably doesn’t have the financial firepower to compete with Apple or Amazon. Plus with cord cutting, the NFL has said that it was streaming to be a big part of how Sunday Ticket gets distributed. ■

The National Football League and Nielsen said that a new study they collaborated on estimates that more than 208 million people watched Super Bowl LVI, a number 25% higher than the 167 million unique viewers who watched at least one minute of the  game based on Nielsen’s previous report.

The new study was designed to better understand how many people watched the big game in group settings, Nielsen and the NFL said.

The new number would indicate that two-thirds of the entire population of the U.S. watched the game on February 13.

Also: Analysis: Super Bowl Could Kick Off Media Measurement Multiverse Mess

A custom survey of 6,600 households, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel, examined the size of viewing groups at any location and to what extent those groups are larger than that which is measured today.

Super Bowl Watched by 150 Million People Across Platforms: iSpot.TV

“While it’s no secret that the Super Bowl is the biggest event across the media landscape on a yearly basis, the exact number of people watching the game has been challenging to pinpoint given the fact that people tend to gather in groups to watch the game,“ NFL chief data and analytics officer Paul Ballew said. “We’re grateful for the work put into this custom survey by Nielsen, the results of which we feel provide the most accurate picture to date of the total viewership for this unique event.”

Nielsen normally measures out-of-home in locations such as bars and restaurants across about 65% of the United States and its co-viewing measurement covers groups of up to 16 people in households across the entire country. This viewing is included in Nielsen’s national ratings numbers.

“We recognize that the Super Bowl is a truly unique watching experience. While we are confident in our measurement which is the gold standard for the industry, we are always looking for ways to more strongly collaborate with our clients to better understand who may be watching, and how they may be watching,” said Jon Stainer, Nielsen sports managing director for the Americas. “We have worked closely with the NFL for years and performed other similar studies to better understand who may be tuning in to the largest TV event every year.” ■

Regular season National Football League viewership rose 10% during the 2021 regular season from a year ago to average 17.1 million viewers, including both traditional TV and digital audiences.

With the season growing to 17 games per team, there were 370 billion total minutes consumed, up 18% and second only to the 2015 season. 

NFL games were the top 16 programs on TV, 48 of the top 50 and 91 of the top 100.

Also: NFL Game Ad Revenue Up 14% This Season: MediaRadar

The most-watched game took place on Thanksgiving Day when 40.8 million tuned in to CBS to see the Las Vegas Raiders beat the Dallas Cowboys. 

“Featuring incredible play on the field and close contests, the 2021 regular season proved to be one of the most exciting and exhilarating of all time,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive VP and chief operating officer, NFL Media. “This year’s schedule, highlighted by an enhanced regular season featuring 17 games, gave our broadcast partners the ability to provide fans with more football and incredible matchups than ever. We look forward to a strong finish with the upcoming postseason and Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.”

In March, the league signed new long-term rights deals with its television partners that will pay about $100 billion over the next 11 years. ■

The National Football League announced that it was moving three games because of COVID issues with players and coaches, with two games being played in primetime on Tuesday.

The Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams game and the Washington Football Team-Philadelphia Eagles contest, both originally scheduled for Sunday will be played Tuesday at 7 p.m. Fox will broadcast both games regionally.

According to Fox research guru Michael Mulvihill, 70% of the country will see Washington-Philadelphia with the other 30% getting Seattle vs the Rams. 

Mulvihill tweeted that he thinks this is the first time there has been regionalized NFL games in primetime. NFL games are routinely regionalized on Sundays.

The NFL said Friday it was moving three of this weekend’s games as COVID and other health concerns affect player rosters.

The NFL also moved the Las Vegas Raiders game against the Cleveland Browns from Saturday to Monday evening at 5 p.m. It will be televised on the NFL Network before the Minnesota Vikings play the Chicago Bears on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

"We have made these schedule changes based on medical advice and after discussion with the NFLPA as we are seeing a new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league," the NFL said in a statement. "We continue to make decisions in consultation with medical experts to ensure the health and safety of the NFL community." ■

ESPN said it will close out its coverage of the National Football League’s regular season with the premiere of Monday Night Football: Doubleheader Saturday on Jan. 8.

The games will be simulcast on ABC and streamed on ESPN Plus.

The new doubleheader was one of the results of the new rights deal The Walt Disney Co. signed with the NFL in March. It will be part of the league’s Week 18 — a longer season in which each team plays 17 games, up from 16 previously.

Also: Double Double Headers Part of NFL Plan To Boost Viewership

The teams to play in the doubleheader will be announced after Week 17 is played, but ESPN said both matchups will have playoff implications.

ESPN will also be televising a playoff game during the league’s Super Wild Card weekend. That game will have a mega-cast format, including a Maningcast featuring Peyton and Eli Manning,

Announcers Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick, Lisa Salters and John Parry will call one game. That group will be concluding their second regular season on Monday Night Football. They will also call ESPN’s Super Wild Card game. 

ESPN’s top college football announcing team, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, will call the other game. The pair previously worked an NFL game last September when the Steelers played the Giants. Laura Rutledge, host of NFL LIve, will be the on-field reporter for that game.

ABC and ESPN Plus will also be simulcasting ESPN’s MNF game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears on Dec. 20. ■

The National Football League is scoring big numbers for its TV partners this season, with ad revenue up 14% so far, according to an analysis by MediaRadar.

MediaRadar said preseason games generated $41.9 million in TV ad revenue. A year ago, preseason games were all canceled due to the pandemic.

Also Read: NFL Network Called A ‘Must Have’ by Cable Subscribers: Beta Survey

So far regular season games on six networks — ABC, CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC and NFL Network — have generated $1.1 billion, up 10% from $1 billion a year ago.

With the preseason revenue added in, the networks are up 14% from a year ago.

Also Read: Disney Gets Monday Night NFL Wild Card Game for ESPN, ABC

“Broadcasters are seeing a meaningful increase in revenue compared to last year,” said Todd Krizelman, CEO and cofounder, MediaRadar. “As the months continue, it’s likely that we’ll see even more year-over-year growth.” 

MediaRadar said the 28 nationally televised regular season games generated an average of $39.3 million. 

The top advertisers on NFL games so far this season are Geico, Progressive, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.

Before the season started network sales executives were upbeat about how NFL sales and sports sales in general were doing. 

Also Read: NBC Sells Super Bowl Spot for $6.5 Million

Fox, which has the Super Bowl that will be played in 2023 — after next season — had already begun selling spots in that game.

Through week six of the season, the NFL says its games are averaging 16.6 million TV and digital viewers per game, up 11% from 2020. NFL games are the top 33 games on TV since the start of the season.

The biggest game of the season to date occurred when Tom Brady returned to New England with the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to play the Patriots. That Week 4 game, airing on NBC, drew 26.7 million viewers.

The Walt Disney Co. and the National Football League reached a five-year deal that will put a new Monday night wild card playoff game on ESPN and ABC, starting at the end of this year’s regular season.

The Disney networks plan to use the game as part of a megacast that will include a simulcast on ESPN and ABC, with Peyton and Eli Manning hosting their popular alternative telecast on ESPN2 and ESPN Plus.

ESPN Deportes will have a Spanish-language telecast and other productions are in the works, Disney said. One possibility is a kids-oriented telecast.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Also Read: Apple Declared the (Latest) Favorite in the ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ Sweepstakes

The deal follows the NFL reaching new long-term agreements worth $100 billion for Disney, Fox, Comcast NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS and Amazon Prime Video to telecast professional football over the next decade.

Still to be decided is the future home of the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market game package now with DirecTV.

Also Read: Super Bowl Headed to ABC in New NFL Deal, Reports Say

The new Monday Night Wild Card playoff game will be the capper on what the league is calling Super Wild Card Weekend.

Super Wild Card Weekend will have two games on Saturday, three on Sunday and one on Monday night.

For this season, CBS and NBC will each broadcast two wild card games, while Fox and ESPN/ABC will have one.

ESPN‘s Monday Night Football viewership is averaging 14 million viewers through the first five weeks of the NFL season, up 20% from both the 2020 and 2019 seasons through five weeks.

The National Football League on Friday said that this season’s wild card playoff weekend will conclude with a Monday night game on Jan. 17.

The broadcaster for that Monday night game has yet to be determined, the NFL said.

The league has been making efforts to create better matchups and better games for its TV partners, which this year signed new long-term deals worth more than $100 million. During the regular season, Monday Night Football on ESPN is one of the highest-rated shows on TV.

Also Read: Apple Declared the (Latest) Favorite in the ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ Sweepstakes

Last season, the NFL altered its playoff format letting a third wild card team in each conference compete for a chance to play in the Super Bowl. The addition created what the league is calling “Super Wild Card Weekend.“

Super Wild Card Weekend will have two games on Saturday, three on Sunday and one on Monday night.

For this season, CBS and NBC will each broadcast two wild card games, while Fox and ESPN/ABC will have one.

The first Sunday of this new National Football League season will feature something fans will get used to, double double headers.

Both Fox and CBS will be airing games at both 1 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m, a move that may not help either network’s individual ratings but will, the NFL expects, result in more people watching its games.

Also Read: NBC Sells Super Bowl Spot for $6.5 Million

The double-double headers are a feature of the new $100 billion long-term rights agreements the NFL reached with its television partners in May. The deals don’t go into effect until the 2023 season, but some aspects are going into effect as soon as this season, said Mike North, VP, broadcast planning & scheduling at the NFL.

The past few seasons, the NFL has ended the season with double double headers. That will continue. And the opening week double-double headers are also expected to continue through the length of the new contracts, North said.

“That will be the new normal moving forward,” North said. “The challenge for us is to try to balance that 4:25 window between CBS and Fox so they both have good games, national television, primetime-level games.”

Also Read: Peyton and Eli Manning Head to ESPN for Alternate 'Monday Night Football' Telecasts

Sunday’s late games will feature the Green Bay Packers playing the New Orleans Saints on Fox and the Cleveland Browns taking on the Kansas City Chiefs on CBS.

“Our hope is that we attract more people to the television on Sunday afternoon in that 4:25 window. While each game on their own probably doesn’t get close to what a CBS or Fox doubleheader game standing alone would have done in year’s past, those two 4:25 window combine should really set some historical levels for us,” North said.

Last year NFL regular season ratings were down 7%.

“We all know 2020 was an unusual year with pandemic factors,” said Adriane Berman, director of media analytics at the NFL. On top of that, the presidential election drew an abnormally high number of viewers to cable news and COVID pushed other sports to play during football season.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that this season some of those macro factors that impacted us will not be there,” Berman said.

Despite the lower ratings, ad revenue from the regular season were up 2.7% to $2.77 billion, according to Standard Media Index. The television networks that air NFL games are also bullish, reporting strong upfront sales and record price increases for commercials. 

There are a few other changes in the way the league decides how games appear on television this season. 

Later in the season, decisions about changing the game that appears on NBC’s Sunday Night Football will be made one week before the game instead of two weeks prior. “We can wait until the last possible minute and make the right choice for our viewers,” North said.

And the last weekend of the season, NFL games will have games on Saturday night before double double headers on Sunday. The league will try to choreograph the matchup so that suspense about which teams will make the playoffs will be sustained until Sunday night, North said.

This year the NFL has expanded its schedule to a 17 game season over 18 weeks and added a Wild Card playoff game. The league is confident that will also enhance viewership.

“We’re pretty bullish on what the extra week of the season is going to bring, not just in terms of ratings for that one extra week, but I think it will really help us overall,” said Berman.

Adding an extra week of games also helped the NFL’s scheduling team because those extra, mostly interesting matchups between teams from different conferences, are “free agents,” North said.

Sunday NFL games in which the AFC team plays in an NFC stadium belong to CBS, while games in which an NFC team plays at an AFC team belong to Fox. Some of those games get moved either to primetime or to the other network in order to balance the schedule.

The new Week 18 games aren’t part of that arrangement, so schedules are freer to put them where viewers can find them. “They were almost like blank Scrabble tiles as you’re moving them around the board,” North said.

They’re also expected to be among the highest rated games of the year, Berman said.

Under the new contract those rules change and all of the games will be free agents, North said.  

“That additional flexibility will surely help the scheduling team as we look to maximize ratings, not just for our traditional media partners, but also some of the additional digital outlets,” he said.

With the advertising market for TV sports running hot, Fox is looking to sell commercials in the 2023 Super Bowl to advertisers now, 18 months before the game kicks off.

The 2021 National Football League season kicks off Thursday, and Fox and the other networks are reporting a surge in demand that has driven sales volume up significantly and hiking pricing by low-double digits — increases not seen for about a decade. 

ViacomCBS also reported strong demand for NFL ads on its CBS Sports broadcasts.

College football and postseason Major League Baseball are also running well ahead of forecast for Fox Sports.

Fox is taking advantage of what it expects to be a strong season by having its Tubi streaming service sponsor the post-game show, The OT. 

Comcast's NBCUniversal said in July that it had already sold 85% of its Super Bowl commercial inventory for the game at the end of this season to be played in February 2022, and Fox Sports executive VP Seth Winter, a former NBC sales exec, told B+C that he figures that NBC’s game now is just about sold out. He hears that NBC got about $5.5 million for each 30-second spot, with the most recent sales going for more than $6 million.

Winter said that Fox will strike while the iron is hot and while advertisers are concerned about getting shut out of the big game and worried that prices could continue to soar.

“There’s so much demand, we’re going to be in the market very early with it and also for the World Cup. We’re knee deep in conversations about the World Cup, which is basically maybe 14 months away,” he said. “There are a lot of good conversations around these big tentpole events. There’s so few of them and there’s just so much interest that it’s never too early to start having conversations and we’ve already written a few [World Cup] spots.”

Next year’s World Cup will be played in the fall, when demand is stronger, instead of the summer because of the heat in the deserts of Qatar, which will make the soccer tournament more popular in the U.S.

Last season, the upfront market — and sports sales — got pushed to Labor Day because marketers were unsure about their budgets and the networks’ ability to deliver programming. This year, the ad market rebounded and the upfront market closed stronger and earlier than it has in years. Sports has been riding a similar tide.

“Having seen the NFL execute almost perfectly under the most extraordinary, adverse conditions, people have a lot of confidence that the NFL under better conditions could certainly pull off another season flawlessly,” Winter said. 

That led to a ton of early interest in buying NFL ad inventory, he said, with some scatter dollars contributing to this season’s upfront volume. 

Sports continues to promise large audiences even as streaming siphons off ratings points from entertainment programming. 

“Advertisers continue to migrate their investments from other forms of media where there are fewer impressions into sports where there continues to be a pretty healthy reservoir of impressions,” Winter said.

With fans back in the stands, Fox is forecasting that viewing levels for the 2021 season will bounce back to the pre-COVID 2019 level, he said.

New categories are driving some of the sales, most notably the growing legal gambling category. “I haven’t seen a category come on the scene in such a robust fashion in my 15 years working in network sports,” Winter said. He added that the NFL’s rules limiting how many gambling spots can run in games will be good long-term for business—and be a benefit to viewers. Gambling ads are also showing up in the talk shows on FS1 and FS2.

Another new category is cryptocurrencies, with Crypto.com sponsoring NFL games and Fox’s Saturday afternoon college football show, and FDX, which is a Major League Baseball sponsor and will have a significant presence in the postseason.

This will be Fox’s last season broadcasting Thursday Night Football. That package moves exclusively to Amazon Prime Video next season. Winter said that some advertisers were shifting their spending from Thursdays to Sundays in order to lock in their base for the 2022 season, since Amazon’s ad sales strategy isn’t yet clear.

Last season, the NFL regular season generated $2.77 billion in ad sales, up 2.7% from the prior season, according to Standard Media Index. Fox had the largest share of that revenue, with 41%. 

Between the NFL on Thursdays and Sundays, college football and baseball’s postseason, Winter estimates that Fox has about 50% of the gross ratings points available in sports in the fall.

For baseball, Winter said, Fox could achieve its revenue forecasts even before the first pitch of the postseason.

“It’s sports. We’re very fortunate to be in the marketplace with the properties we have in our portfolio,” he said.

CBS is seeing a surge in advertiser demand for commercials in its NFL games as the league gets set to kick off a new season with increased interest in legal sports betting.

The network has a double-digit revenue gain on the scoreboard compared to last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic delayed advertising commitments to NFL games and to TV overall.

“It’s definitely a different landscape than it was a year ago,” said Jo Ann Ross, president and chief advertising revenue officer for ViacomCBS Domestic Advertising Sales. “People moved a lot earlier than they did last year, because there is pent-up demand.”

That pent-up demand drove TV’s overall upfront advertising market. A year ago, deals for the 2020-21 TV season didn’t close until around Labor Day because advertisers were uncertain about the economy. This year’s upfront moved quickly, with deals happening around Memorial Day.

Price increases in this year's upfront were the highest in years, with broadcast primetime up 19% to 22% on a cost-per-thousand viewers basis. Prices for NFL spots didn’t rise quite as much, but hikes were still in the teens. 

During last year’s regular season, CBS rang up ad sales of $609 million, according to Standard Media Index. Advertisers paid an average of about $377,420 for a 30-second spot during CBS’s regular season NFL telecasts. CBS tacked on another $400.7 million in revenue for its Super Bowl broadcast.

John Bogusz, executive VP for sports sales & marketing at CBS Sports said that the key ad categories responsible for the increased spending are led by the insurance companies, followed by telecom, the FAANG technology companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and sports books.

“The gaming category being introduce this year really acted as a catalyst for the marketplace,” said Tony Taranto, senior VP sports sales, for CBS Sports. “It’s probably the most significant new category in a generation.”

Unlike the fantasy football category, which spent hundreds of million before flaming out, Taranto expects gaming to stay big for many years to come. And because NFL rules allow it to only sell a limited number of commercials to league recognized sports books, the category’s ad dollars are spilling over into other dayparts.

NFL advertisers will benefit from games streaming to cord-cutters via Paramount Plus. And another game will be simulcast this season on Nickelodeon. Only a handful of advertisers with products inappropriate for young viewers won’t appear on both the CBS and Nick telecasts, Bogusz said.

NFL Thursday Night Football will be moving exclusively to streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting with the 2022 season, a year earlier than originally planned, the league announced.

The 2021 season will be the last year of Thursday Night Football on Fox. It has been the second-most watched in prime time.

The NFL had announced new rights deals with its media partners worth $100 billion two months ago. Fox will continue its Sunday afternoon game package, including America’s Game of the Week, the most watched show on television for the past 12 seasons.

Giving Amazon the Thursday Night Football package exclusively is a big jump for streaming.

Thursday night games will still be available in the competing teams’ home markets via over-the -air television.

The Super Bowl generated $400.7 million in ad revenue for ViacomCBS, down 6.4% from the previous year, according to new figures from Standard Media Index.

The report comes as the NFL is expected to expand its regular season to 17 games from 16 games, increasing the opportunities for broadcasters to sell commercials.

During the pandemic challenged 2020 season, ad revenues rose 3% to $2.8 billion, a smaller gain than previously reported. The other NFL playoff games generated $614 million in ad revenue, up 2%.

At a time when traditional TV ratings are eroding, the NFL remains a powerhouse. Last week the NFL signed new long-term agreement with television networks and Amazon worth more than $100 billion.

Standard Media Index said that ViacomCBS sold 85 commercial units during the Super Bowl, down from 86 sold by Fox the prior year.

ViacomCBS got an average of $4.733 million per 30-second commercial,down 5% from from $4.988 million.

ViacomCBS had no comment on the report. When ViacomCBS announced that it had sold-out its Super Bowl inventory, industry sources indicated that 30-second spots had been selling for about $5.5 million, with streaming adding a couple hundred thousand more to the tab.

Because of the pandemic, there were fewer spots from, consumer packaged goods brands, automakers and tech companies. Ads for entertainment and media brands were up 12%,

Viewership for the Super Bowl was down 9% to 96.4 million, according to Nielsen.

The National Football League’s new television rights deals will put more games on streaming platforms, a development that could have impacts on advertising and affiliate revenue for its partners.

The biggest change in the new set of deals was Amazon getting exclusive national rights to the Thursday Night Football franchise.

Also Read: Streaming Takes Center Ice in NHL-Disney Rights Deal

Analyst Peter Supino of Sanford C. Bernstein said that Amazon’s willingness to pay a reported $1 billion a year for NFL rights “is a historic step which should sack any remaining hopes that broadcasters would always be the best buyer of banner sports rights.”

Supino notes that having NFL games will also boost Amazon’s video advertising business.

Amazon has been steadily gaining yards versus Google and Facebook by offering product-search ads and was growing in in the connected-TV space with its IMDb TV streaming service.

Also Read: Live Sports Events Are Moving to Streaming

“Exclusive sports right now creates a compelling multi-pronged offer for advertisers,” Supino said. 

Amazon could pick up between $200 million and $500 million in ad revenue from its NFL games. 

Citing figures from Standard Media Index, Supino said Thursday Night Football 30-second spots sold last season for between $300,000 and $500,000. If Amazon sold between 40 and 50 spots per game, that would generate $200 million to $400 million. 

Also including branded ads on the Amazon home page could bring revenue up to $500 million, Supino notes, and Amazon would also likely expect to see a rise in Amazon Prime membership, reduce churn and cross-sell services across its suite of ad products.

Kutgun Maral of RBC Capital Markets noted that by putting games on additional platforms, the NFL was embracing alternative broadcasts like ESPN’s Megacasts and the playoff game ViacomCBS put on Nickelodeon designed to appeal to younger viewers. That could increase viewer engagement, he said.

However the increase in streaming “will accelerate headwinds across pay TV subscriber trends, negotiating leverage with MVPDs and advertising trends,” Maral said.

Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson Research noted that while all of the broadcasters have expanded streaming rights, it looks like Comcast NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS are in the biggest rush to make games available on streaming outlets Peacock and Paramount Plus, respectively.

“The divergence of strategies will be interesting to see over the near-term when ViacomCBS and NBCU networks (and their non-owned and operated affiliates) come up for MVPD renewals. Why buy the cow when the milk is nearly free,” Nathanson said.

Nathanson said that other than the NFL, which saw huge gains in rights fees in signing new 11-year contracts, the biggest winner in the new deals might have been Disney. 

“The company ended up improving its package with more games (that comes with significant incremental advertising revenue) as well as higher quality through its flex schedule optionality,” Nathanson said. 

“We forecast ESPN to pay an average of $800 million more per year in return for the new rights to two Super Bowls, a new divisional playoff game, flex scheduling, exclusive ABC Monday Night Football and Saturday games for a total of 23 games (vs. 17 currently). This ended up $300 million more than we had expected but also includes the all-important ability to stream all games on ESPN Plus."

The National Football League cashed in on having the most powerful programming on television, signing new rights deals that will pay it billions of dollars over the next 11 seasons.

The deals mostly keep games where they’ve been the last few years. The biggest changes include The Walt Disney Co. adding two Super Bowls on ABC to its ESPN Monday Night Football deal and Amazon becoming the primary carrier of Thursday Night Football, with Fox dropping out of the package. The league obtained fee increases and will rake in more than $100 billion from the new deals, various outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported.

Sunday Night Football, TV's most-watched show, stays with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and Fox and ViacomCBS’s CBS keep their Sunday games.

"We're proud to grow our partnerships with the most innovative media companies in the market," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "Along with our recently completed labor agreement with the NFLPA, these distribution agreements bring an unprecedented era of stability to the League and will permit us to continue to grow and improve our game."

Also Read: Super Bowls to Head to ABC In New Deals

Streaming is a big part of the package. In addition to Amazon streaming Thursday games, ESPN will be able to put its games on ESPN Plus, including one exclusive game per season. Viacom CBS will have games on Paramount Plus, NBCU will have playoff games on Peacock and Fox will be able to stream the games it has rights to and has plans for NFL programming on Tubi. 

For Amazon the number of regular-season games included in the Thursday Night Football package is increasing from 11 to 15, with all games airing on Prime Video as part of a Prime membership. Each game will also be broadcast in the participating teams’ home marketplaces.

“NFL games are the most watched live programming in the United States, and this unprecedented Thursday Night Football package gives tens of millions of new and existing Prime members exclusive access to must-watch live football on Prime Video,” said Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “NFL fans from across the country will enjoy a premium viewing experience with Thursday Night Football, as well as access to a broad selection of content including award-winning Amazon Originals available on Prime Video.”

Prime Video will deliver new pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows.

“Thursday Night Football will be our first-ever digital package and we are thrilled to exclusively partner with Amazon to bring our games to more fans on more platforms,” said Goodell. “NFL football drives passionate viewers and Amazon will enable us to continue to grow our fanbase in innovative and compelling ways.” 

Also Read: Will Amazon Go Deep For NFL Football?

ESPN will get 35% more games as part of its deal, which runs 10 seasons starting in 2023. There will be more weeknight games when Monday Night Football features doubleheaders (separate games on ESPN and ABC). ESPN will also get some Saturday games. ESPN gets a better schedule and the chance to flex games to switch out of games with poor matchups.

The ESPN deal also gives the channel rights to highlights for its studio shows. 

“When ESPN and the NFL work best together, the results are transformational for sports fans and the industry. Some of the most remarkable collaborative examples have occurred in the past 12 months and have demonstrated the extraordinary range of The Walt Disney Company that is fundamental to this agreement,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN and Sports Content at The Walt Disney Co. “There are so many exciting new components, including Super Bowls and added playoff games, new end-of-season games with playoff implications, exclusive streaming games on ESPN Plus, scheduling flexibility and enhancements, and much more. It’s a wide-ranging agreement unlike any we’ve reached with the NFL, and we couldn’t be more energized about what the future holds.”

CBS Sports will be the home of Sunday AFC games through 2033, with all regular season games broadcast on the CBS Television Network and streamed live on Paramount Plus. Games will appear on both Paramount Plus’s $9.99 premium tier and its $4.99 ad-supported tier launching in June.

The CBS Television Network and Paramount Plus will present a full slate of playoff games each season, featuring the AFC Championship game, one divisional game and one wild card game. A second wild card playoff game will be added to the CBS Sports lineup during the 2024, 2029 and 2033 seasons.

“The NFL has been a cornerstone of CBS Sports programming for more than 60 years. We are extremely pleased to extend our long-standing partnership with the NFL for the next decade,” said Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. “The NFL is the most valuable content in all of media, and we are excited that the deal allows for more Sunday afternoon games than ever before and we retain the NFL’s most-watched time slot. This wide-ranging deal includes significantly expanded rights, and we look forward to continued growth and to maximizing the enormous value of the NFL across all of our CBS Sports platforms.”

Fox's 11-year package extends its coverage of the National Football Conference on Sundays through 2033. The rights include direct to consumer opportunities, including opportunities to put NFL programming on Tubi.

“Today we extend our 27-year partnership with the NFL and solidify the foundation of our marquee sports portfolio beyond the end of the decade. In addition to maintaining our leading Sunday afternoon NFC package, we are pleased to broaden our deal to include new digital rights that provide us with the flexibility to deliver NFL on Fox to customers in expanded and innovative ways,” said Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch. “This long-term agreement ensures that we will continue to deliver the best in football coverage to our viewers while also strengthening and providing optionality to our business.”

Fox will create an NFL experience on Tubi consisting of premier VOD as well as condensed games throughout the NFL season. Also Fox Bet will receive authorized sportsbook operator status if, and when, the NFL approves sportsbook operators for its officially licensed intellectual property.

NBC Sports continues to air Sunday Night Football under its new 11-year extension. It will continue to have flexible scheduling, starting with week 5 of the schedule. NBC  will remain home of the NFL Kickoff Game.

NBC’s Peacock will stream wild card and divisional playoff games each season.

“We are excited to expand upon our relationship with the NFL, which is the most powerful content in sports and entertainment,” said Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports Group.  “Sunday Night Football has been television’s most-watched primetime show for a decade, and we look forward to continuing our best-in-class presentation of SNF, Super Bowls, and playoff games for many years to come, while also broadening our audience with Peacock becoming the live streaming home for all NBC NFL games.”

NBC Sports said the long-term agreement can be terminated on a one-time basis by the NFL after seven years.

“While media giants ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox spike the ball in the end zone, ACA Connects members are troubled because they know these deals will leave millions of consumers with the financial equivalent of a torn ACL," said ACA President Matt Polka of the new deal. "Broadcast networks and TV station owners like Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and Apollo Global Management will continue to leverage the broken retransmission consent rules to demand excessive fees from smaller cable operators, driving up the cost to watch what broadcasters like to call ‘free TV.’ In order to make up for their massive NFL obligations, broadcasters will hike their prices even higher — and, ironically, use blackouts of NFL games themselves in order to do so."

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said that, despite press reports, there is no imminent announcement of a new deal with the National Football League.

There have been numerous reports that the main points of new deals between the broadcasters and the league have been set, with most franchises staying in place at considerably higher prices. 

The main change would be Fox giving up Thursday Night FootbalI, leaving that with Amazon and the NFL network, which simulcast most of the Thursday night games last season.

“It feels like we’re still apart on a number of issues, so there’s no imminent announcement,” Murdoch said, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Telecommunications, Media and Technology conference on Thursday.

With Thursday night games and the Sunday afternoon NFC package, Fox had more NFL programming than any other network.

Also Read: A Look at NFL Social Video Trends Ahead of the Super Bowl

Murdoch said that the Thursday package was good for promoting the new Fox following the sale of most of 21st Century Fox to The Walt Disney Co. The Thursday night games provide a promotional platform for Fox and for shows like 911 and The Masked Singer.

“But it was also something we knew would give us some options going forward,” he said. “Whether we have Thursday and Sunday, whether we just kept Thursday, or the most likely scenario is just keep Sunday.”

The NFL is seeking deals that may last as long as 10 year, much longer than in the past.

Murdoch indicated that Fox is comfortable with the longer deals. “Historically [the rights fees] have gone up in each renewal and not down, and so I think a longer-term deal makes sense,” he said.

The Super Bowl might be returning to ABC as part of a new deal between the National Football League and The Walt Disney Co., according to a published report.

Sports Business Journal reported that Disney is close to a deal with the NFL that would increase rights fees by 30% to about $2.6 billion. That agreement would include the renewal of Monday Night Football on Disney’s ESPN, plus returning Disney’s ABC to the Super Bowl rotation, which it left in 2006. 

ESPN also would get rights to use video clips in its studio shows.

The NFL called the report "incorrect." ESPN declined to comment.

The Super Bowl annually is the most-watched broadcast of the year with commercial prices exceeding $5.5 million for 30 seconds. During the regular season, ad revenue for NFL game broadcasts rose 5% to $2.68 billion, according to Standard Media Index.

The NFL Is in the process of negotiating a new round of rights deals. Most of its current broadcast deals end with the 2022 season.

The current broadcast partners for Sunday games are expected to remain the same, although their rights feels are expected to increase sharply. Disney already paid much more than Comcast’s NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS’s CBS Sports and Fox Sports for their game packages.

Having CBS’s NFL games is a big selling point for the premium version of ViacomCBS’s new streaming service Paramount Plus.

The big change in the game packages is that Fox is not expected to retain Thursday night football, which will be carried by the NFL Network and Amazon, which have been simulcasting the game, according to the report.

Regular season advertising revenue was up 5% to $2.68 billion, according to Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending. The gain came despite a recession and a pandemic that forced some games to be delayed and rescheduled.

Also Read: ViacomCBS Says Super Bowl Ads Are ‘Virtually Sold Out’

The strong gains should bolster the NFL’s leverage as it negotiates new television rights deals.

SMI has not yet tabulated playoff advertising revenue.

The gains were not uniform among the networks that broadcast pro football. 

Also Read: Nickelodeon Suits Up For Super Bowl Pre-Game Show

CBS, which will air the Super Bowl and has sold out its ad inventory at prices that exceeded $5.5 million per 30-second spot, generated 15.2% more revenue with its Sunday afternoon games, with $^09 million coming in.

Fox, which had both Sunday afternoon games and Thursday Night Football, showed an 8.8% increase in ad revenue to $1.1 billion.

Also Read: Budweiser Sits Out Super Bowl For COVID Vaccination Effort

NBC, which airs Sunday Night Football, was down 9.9% to 660 million and ESPN, which has the Monday Night Football franchise was down 0.4% to $227 million.

The NFL Network was up 18.2% to $61 million, according to SMI.

ABC generated $22.8 million. It didn’t air any NFL games last year.

Advertisers who bought their NFL commercials in last year’s delayed upfront market, paid an average of $435,065 per 30-second spot. That compared to $429,095 a year ago.

Also Read: Super Bowl to Stream on Multiple ViacomCBS Platforms

Advertisers who waited to buy later in the scatter market paid $444,065 for regular season NFL spots, a 1.9% premium over upfront. Last year, prices for NFL commercials dropped 1.5% in the scatter market, according to SMI.

NBC got the highest prices for its NFL commercials, with an average price of $634,245 in the upfront. The price barley changed in scatter.

Also Read: Roku Expects Users to Stream Super Bowl

ESPN and sister network ABC, CBS and The NFL Network got higher prices for their spots in scatter. Fox saw prices edge down by 1.6%, per SMI.

Last season’s playoffs generated more than $150 million in revenue in the Wild Card round, more than $200 million for the division round and almost $250 million for the conference championships. Super Bowl LIV in-game commercials brought in $425.6 million, according to SMI.

Two National Football League championship games and Conor McGregor’s return to the UFC mixed martials arts octagon highlight this weekend’s TV sports events.

This Sunday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game on Fox and the Buffalo Bills will meet the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship contest on NBC. The winners will meet in Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7.

On Saturday, former UFC champion McGregor will meet Dustin Poirier in the UFC 257 pay-per-view event on ESPN+. The match, a rematch of a 2014 bout in which McGregor defeated Poirier, marks McGregor’s first appearance in the octagon since defeating Donald Cerrone last January in UFC 246. ESPN will offer coverage of the UFC 257 preliminary fights leading up to the PPV event. 

Read also: ESPN+'s McGregor-Cowboy Event Kicks Off Year for PPV Combat Sports Category

NBC on Sunday takes to the ice to televise the Detroit Red Wings-Chicago Blackhawks NHL game, while CBS will televise the Professional Bull Riding’s Pendleton Whisky Invitational championship.

NBC and the Golf Channel will air weekend coverage of the first Ladies PGA Tour event of the year from Florida. Golf Channel will air coverage of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions Friday through Sunday, while NBC will offer Saturday and Sunday afternoon coverage of the LPGA event. 

Read also: NBCU Plans to Shut Down NBCSN Cable Sports Net

The return of the National Hockey League and the continuation of the National Football League playoffs highlight a busy three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in TV sports.

The National Hockey League will drop the puck on the first weekend of its truncated 2020-21 season with NBC offering a national Sunday telecast of the Washington Capitals-Pittsburgh Penguins game. The NHL Network will telecast six NHL games from Friday to Sunday, while NBCSN will offer four live league games on Monday. 

The NHL debuted its shortened 56-game season on Wednesday, three months after the league completed its COVID-19-shortened 2019-20 season within bubble environments in Toronto and Edmonton. While this season will not be played in a bubble, the league has altered its divisions -- including creating a division featuring all seven of the league’s Canadian franchises -- in an effort to mitigate the challenges of the pandemic.

The NFL will continue its march towards the Super Bowl with four Divisional playoff games. On Saturday the Los Angeles Rams will face the top-seeded Green Bay Packers in an afternoon NFC Divisional Playoff game on Fox, while the Baltimore Ravens will meet the Buffalo Bills in an AFC Divisional Playoff matchup airing on NBC. Sunday’s games include the AFC’s top-seed and defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs against the Cleveland Browns on CBS, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-New Orleans Saints NFC Divisional Playoff game on Fox.

TNT will showcase three live NBA games as part of the league’s annual Martin Luther King holiday celebration. The Phoenix Suns will play the Memphis Grizzlies in a late afternoon game, followed by the primetime Milwaukee Bucks-Brooklyn Nets game and the Golden State Warriors-Los Angeles Lakers late-night telecast.

NBC and NBCSN will offer live coverage of the 2021 U.S. Figure Skating Championships for both the men’s and women’s divisions Friday through Sunday. On Friday NBCSN will provide live afternoon coverage while NBC offers live primetime coverage. NBC on Saturday afternoon picks up live coverage while NBCSN carries primetime coverage. NBC will offer live Sunday afternoon coverage of the championships. 

On Saturday ABC will air its first-ever live UFC mixed martial arts telecast, highlighted by the Max Holloway-Calvin Kattar featherweight fight. 

The National Football League’s six post-season games kick off this weekend’s lineup of live sports programming. 

The expanded first round of the NFL Playoffs will feature three games each on Saturday and Sunday. CBS will air the Jan. 9 Indianapolis Colts-Buffalo Bills game, followed by the Fox’s Los Angeles Rams-Seattle Seahawks telecast and NBC's Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Washington Team broadcast. 

On Jan. 10, CBS will team with kids-targeted network Nickelodeon and streaming service Prime Video to deliver the Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints game; ESPN and ABC will air the Baltimore Ravens-Tennessee Titans matchup, and NBC will telecast the primetime Cleveland Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers game. 

Read Also: Amazon to Stream NFL Playoff Game

Several games featuring top 10-ranked college basketball teams will hit the airwaves on Saturday including second-ranked Baylor against TCU (ESPN), fourth-ranked Texas taking on 14th-ranked West Virginia (ESPN) and seventh-ranked Creighton hosting St. John’s (FS1). On Sunday The Big Ten Network will telecast live coverage of fifth-ranked Iowa hosting 16th-ranked Minnesota.

Also, the Golf Channel will offer full coverage of the PGA 2021 Tournament of Champions, from first and second round coverage Jan. 8 through final round coverage on Jan. 10.