The NFL is still the king of live TV. Last year, the king discovered a small dent in his crown.
Regular season viewership numbers from Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com decreased by 2.2% For the 2024 season.
The average number of viewers across all networks was 17.5 million viewers per game. In 2023, the number will be 17.9 million. This is a 7% increase compared to 2022.
Despite the decline, it is still far more than any other sport, series or event can hold on a regular basis.
Regarding various broadcast partners, Amazon recorded an 11% increase in 2024. Fox was down 3%. NBC posted a 1% increase.
ESPN was down 14%, largely because most if not all of the 2023 games were simulcast by ABC. (During the 2024 season, ESPN also increased the number of games shown on its telecasts.)
CBS did not release numbers for the entire season. In other words, his performance over the full season was not something to be proud of.
Next up is Netflix. The two Christmas games averaged 24.2 million. The streaming audience is huge, but if the match had been aired on a three-letter network, that number would certainly have been higher.