Agency News
82 of 100. That’s how many of the TOP 100 most-viewed television broadcasts in the U.S. in 2022 were NFL broadcasts, according to an analysis of Nielsen ratings data. Some 94 of the 100 top-watched programs were sporting events, soundly cementing the preeminence of live sports for television networks and streamers like Amazon Prime.
NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcasts averaged 19.9 million viewers during the 2022 regular season, while CBS and Fox’s afternoon broadcasts brought in 18.5 million and 19.4 million viewers, respectively, with both CBS and Fox attracting about 24 million average viewers for their respective late afternoon national NFL broadcasts, the networks independently announced recently, citing Nielsen Media data.
That’s NBC’s highest NFL viewership since the 2019 broadcast season (prior to the COVID pandemic), CBS’ best performance since 2015 and Fox’s best ratings since 2016, even as linear television viewership dwindled across the board.
Amazon, which began exclusively broadcasting the NFL’s ‘Thursday Night Football‘ primetime telecasts on its Prime streaming service in 2022 , averaged only 9.6 million viewers—down 41% from the 2021 FOX networks broadcast TV games, according to Nielsen data. However, Amazon reported 11.3 million viewers citing their in-house metrics. They also claimed their audience skewed much younger.
ESPN, which airs the NFL’s ‘Monday Night Football’ schedule on cable and satellite TV providers, had far less luck than their broadcast peers. ESPN only averaged 13.4 million viewers on its 2022 telecasts.
“Televised NFL games and premier sports rules broadcast television and has no indication of slowing down,” stated PM Group’s media director Bob Wills.
About The PM Group: The PM Group was launched in 1988 by our CEO & Founder Bob Wills. Now in our 35th year, the agency has continued to grow and is San Antonio’s largest advertising agency under the leadership of President and COO Fran Yanity. The PM Group’s client roster spans numerous industries including home services, automotive, CPG, entertainment and sports marketing, legal, business services, non-profits, real estate and fitness. For two consecutive years now, the agency has set annual revenue records with the addition of six new clients and through the continued success of our existing clients. Additionally, the agency hosts their annual Charity Gala that to date has raised millions of dollars for local San Antonio and South Texas area non-profit organizations. In 2022 alone, the agency donated nearly $2 million dollars to local non-profits. It is our way of giving back to the community that we so humbly serve.
