- Thursday Night Football has ended for the year, and ended well for NBC (CMCSA -0.5%), with its share of the schedule averaging 17M viewers.
- That's up from the CBS (CBS +0.3%) five-game portion earlier in the season, which averaged 14.7M viewers but competed with a heavily watched U.S. presidential election. NBC's games came after the election was over.
- NBC and CBS split a season of broadcasts that were simulcast on the NFL Network and on Twitter (TWTR +0.6%). For Twitter's part, the average minute audience was 220,000 viewers, significantly smaller than the linear broadcast numbers.
- Football ratings were down 14% Y/Y in the early part of the season, prompting networks to give make-goods to advertisers.
- Despite criticism from various angles, the NFL denied speculation that it would back off from the weeknight: "We are fully committed to Thursday Night Football and any reports to the contrary are unfounded."
- Previously: NBC takes over Thursday football with reportedly higher ad rates (Nov. 17 2016)
- Previously: Sunday night football ratings hit five-year low (Oct. 18 2016)
Original article