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State of the Screens

Streaming Is Way Up For NFL This Season

By October 17, 2018No Comments
NFL viewership is up 1% through four weeks compared to last season primarily driven by the growth in streaming.

YoY growth for NFL game streaming:
1) All streaming — ↑ 65%
2) Mobile — ↑ 147%
3) Connected-TV — ↑ 54%

BTW: The top 15 shows on TV in September were all NFL games!

What is different this year? This is the first time that all primetime games and Sunday afternoon local games can be streamed without either a) a Verizon subscription or b) a pay-TV account.

NFL viewership is still dominated by linear TV viewing compared to other programming types.

% of viewers from streaming:
1) Super Bowl (2018) — 2%
2)
NFL regular season (2018) — 2%
3) Game of Thrones — 27%

326K viewers on average have streamed each NFL game this season and the most-streamed game is Vikings-Rams with an average minute audience of 816K (31% of 2018 Super Bowl streaming).

Quote from Kevin LaForce — VP, Media Strategy @ National Football League:
“There are younger people who have grown up with digital devices. They reach for digital first. This helps connect us with them.”

Flashback #1: The NFL’s Very Profitable Existential Crisis

Flashback #2: NFL faces challenging field as new season kicks off, but it’s still TV’s top attraction

More: With NFL ratings on the rise, Donald Trump is denied a favorite punching bag

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.