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SEASON PREMIERE OF THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL DRAWS AN AUDIENCE OF 15.7 MILLION VIEWERS ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS - CBS, NFL NETWORK, TWITTER, NFL DIGITAL AND CBS INTERACTIVE

THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL AUDIENCE DOMINATES IN PRIMETIME

The 2016 season kickoff of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on Thursday, Sept. 15 featuring the New York Jets at the Buffalo Bills was seen on an average minute audience basis by 15.7 million viewers across all platforms, including CBS Television Network, NFL Network, Twitter, NFL Digital, and CBS Interactive.

Presented by Bud Light, the 2016 season kickoff of Thursday Night Football was produced by CBS Sports. CBS sells and airs all national commercials for CBS Thursday Night Football games across every platform, creating incremental value and distribution for CBS clients and sponsors.

Last night’s game was seen by an average of 15.4 million television viewers on CBS and NFL Network, and earned an average national household rating/share of 9.5/18, according to Nielsen Live + Same Day ​National ratings.  Last night’s television rating was +20% from the average household rating (7.9 HH) for the 16 games of the 2015 Thursday Night Football schedule on CBS and NFL Network (and over-the-air stations).  Television viewership of the Jets-Bills game peaked at 16.4 million viewers with a HH rating/share of 10.1/18 from 9:00-9:30 PM, ET.  The 2015 Thursday Night Football premiere on CBS and NFL Network, which featured Denver and Kansas City, earned a 12.9/24, which is the highest-rated Thursday Night Football game ever.

Primetime on CBS and NFL Network last night easily beat the combined viewership of NBC, ABC and FOX (14.3 million vs. 8.1 million; +77%). CBS/NFL Network’s viewership of 14.3 million in primetime was +550% better than FOX (2.2m), +393% better than NBC (2.9m) and +377% better than ABC (3.0m).

In total, CBS and NFL Network’s coverage of Jets-Bills was watched in all-or-part by 48.1 million viewers on television, with a minimum of one minute viewed.

The average digital audience for Thursday Night Football’s season opener across Twitter, NFL Mobile from Verizon, Watch NFL Network, NFL Game Pass (International) and authenticated users on CBS Digital platforms users was 314,000 with each viewer spending an average of 25 minutes watching the Jets defeat the Bills. In total, all digital properties showing Thursday Night Football reached 2.4 million viewers.

In total, Twitter reached 2.3 million combined worldwide viewers for the NFL Thursday Night Kickoff pregame show and the Jets/Bills game for a minimum of three seconds with that video being 100% in view.  For the Thursday Night Football game alone, Twitter reached 2.1 million viewers. The average audience watching Thursday Night Football on Twitter properties was 243,000 with each viewer watching an average of 22 minutes of game action.

For a complete listing of all the ways to watch Thursday Night Football, please visit NFL.com/TNF.

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CBS Sports:                Dan Sabreen                202/321-4195              dsabreen@cbs.com                            

NFL Network:            Andrew Howard         310/845-4579              andrew.howard@nfl.com

Twitter:                       Brian Poliakoff           415/999-8214              bpoliakoff@twitter.com