NFL Media
2016
Regular
English
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.
* * * * *
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