The opening game between the Green Bay Packer and the Chicago Bears has brought new viewership boost to the NFL for the NFL 19/20 season.
NFL Viewership Finally Climbing Up
With the NFL season finally back, the entirety of the United States has come back to the stadiums and small screens to watch once again. With NBC Sports’ reporting 22.7 million viewers on all its channels for the starter’s game between the Green Bay Packer and the Chicago Bears, interest in the game seems to be ever so strong.
On September 5, the NFL 2019/2020 season kicked off and with it – the most watched American football game since the Super Bowl in February 2019 was registered. An average 15.3% household rating has been assigned to the game and that marked a 14% jump year-over-year.
More importantly, the Packers game marked the most-streamed regular-season fixture in the history of NBC Sports, analytics company Nielsen reported, revealing renewed interest for America’s favorite pastime.
Based on the official data, NBC managed to draw in as many as 23.9 million viewers, with the average viewership numbers staying at 22.7 million. Additional 627,000 viewers were achieved throughout the NBC Sports’ distribution network.
The outright victory by the Packers was also higher than Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles’ opener game for the 2018/2019 season. This was a refreshing change after the NFL’s openers began with two consecutive years of falling viewership.
Why Is NFL Viewership Back?
While NFL has been known to ebb and flow one significant thing has changed since 2018. With sports betting becoming legal in May, 2018, viewership numbers across all sports have been increasing.
Sports betting has incentivized people not only to place a bet, but to also engage more intimately with the sport – and one of the ways has been directly through watching the games live. According to a study conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by the American Gaming Association (AGA), sports bettors make up 25% of all viewers in the NFL, but they evenly make 47% of all minutes viewed.
In other words, there is a very clear connection between betting and the increase in viewership. However, there is no clear insight into the offshore sports betting market. One suggestion is that the sports betting market that is not in mainland U.S. doesn’t generate significant viewership.
Yet, there has been no exact survey into non-regulated markets. What’s known for know is that billions are leaking into the offshore sports betting industry, which remains as strong as ever, posting solid numbers.
There are notable shifts in practices, however, and for better or for worse, NFL viewership may in fact depend on how enthusiastic fans are and also – their age. The NFL will have to find a way to attract a younger generation of viewers and sports betting may be one of the ways to do this.
