NFL TV Ratings Rebound Is a Rare Bright Spot for Major Networks

(Bloomberg) -- After three years of falling TV viewership, the National Football League is on the mend.

The audience for broadcasts through the first four weeks of the season has climbed 4% from a year ago to 16.3 million people per game, the most since 2016. Viewing has increased across the schedule, from Thursdays on Fox to Sundays on CBS, Fox and NBC.

The uptick is good news for TV networks that lean on the NFL to make up for the shrinking audiences for everything else. Prime-time viewing of the big four U.S. TV networks fell about 6% last year as more consumers embraced on-demand options like Netflix. The trend for sitcoms and dramas has been negative for years, and the numbers are far worse without sports.

TV networks are optimistic their football audiences will keep growing because of the strength of teams with large fan bases, such as the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots.

“I look out at the rest of our schedule, and I feel great about our tentpole games,” said Mike Mulvihill, the head of strategy at Fox Sports. The NFL accounts for 19 of the 20 most-watched programs so far this TV season, according to the league.

Pro football once looked invulnerable to changing viewer habits, especially the shift to on-demand. But the league lost fans over the last couple years, prompting a round of finger-pointing.

TV networks said the NFL sold too many games to too many networks, diluting their value. The league said politics played a role, as interest in the election distracted people who otherwise would have been watching football. And both sides said the quality of play and the on-field star power weren’t the same.

Scoring is up so far this year, as are the number of close games. Teams have made the second-most offensive touchdowns in NFL history at this point in the season, while 28 games have been decided by six or fewer points -- also second most. A new class of star quarterbacks, led by Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, doesn’t hurt. Nor does the expansion of legalized sports betting.

There are some warning signs. The 2020 presidential campaign is heating up, meaning viewers could be pulled away again, and the overall number of people paying for cable TV continues to decline.

The league has a plan for that: Viewers in bars, restaurants and airports will count toward ratings next year. But, for now, networks are just happy to see ratings going in the right direction.

“Will it ever get back to 2015 levels?” Mulvihill said. “I don’t know.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum

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