• by Wayne Friedman , December 29, 2005

NFL's viewers have been a model of unnerving consistency--among competing networks as well as compared to numbers of a year ago.

Take CBS. Through 25 telecasts, its AFC games have earned a Nielsen Media Research 9.9 household rating/21 share. Fox, with 26 NFC telecasts so far, has achieved virtually the same number--a 10 household rating/21 share. Although historically the NFC conference games have grabbed better ratings, there is now virtual parity. But most surprising is that only a one-tenth rating point separates CBS and Fox.

The same story is found when looking at the key advertising selling demographics. With male viewers 18-49, CBS scores an 8 rating/28 share. Fox earns a mirror-like 8.1/28. Fox is slightly better with the young male numbers--a 7/28 for men 18-34. CBS scores are 6.8/27.

Total viewer numbers have CBS and Fox within 60,000 viewers of each other, or three one-hundredths of a percent point--CBS now averages 15.395 million; Fox is at 15.451 million. CBS is up 6 percent in total viewers from a year ago; Fox is up four one-hundredths of a percentage point.

A year ago at this time, CBS was at a 7.7/27 with male viewers 18-49; Fox grabbed an 8.5/30. That places CBS up 3 percent and Fox down 6 percent. A big part of CBS' improvements comes from its package of AFC games, generally considered as having the better teams this year with the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Overall, these are small changes for media buying and selling executives. They continued to praise the NFL as one of the few TV programs for which you can reasonably predict what you are going to get. More important, it's amazingly consistent in reaching those hard-to-get male viewers.

ABC's "Monday Night Football"--which had its last telecast this past Monday--backs this up. Through 16 games, "MNF" posted an 11 household rating/18 share. For the same time a year ago, it earned a very similar 10.9/18. This year's male viewers 18-49 have dropped slightly to an 8.9/24 from a 9.2/25. That's a drop of 3 percent in ratings. With regard to total viewers, ABC is almost statistically where it was a year ago--16.437 million viewers versus 16.415 million a year ago.

Its sister network ESPN might be the one exception to the rule this year. Through 15 games, it has been averaging 8.733 million viewers, down 6 percent from a year ago. It is down 9 percent with male viewers 18-49 to a 6.64 rating, and also down 9 percent in young male viewers 18-34, to a 5.95 rating.

But all this hasn't dissuaded media buyers. The NFL has been at the top of the list in terms of advertiser price increases for sports, and versus other national TV programming. The NFL games have grabbed anywhere from 6 percent to 9 percent increases in cost per thousand viewer prices (CPMs). It's no wonder, say analysts, that the NFL is the priciest sports programming for TV networks.