Amazon, Twitch Score Highest Viewing For Streaming NFL Game -- 4.8M 'Average Minute' Viewers: NFL

by Wayne Friedman , December 29, 2020

Saturday’s NFL regular-season game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals posted 4.8 million "average minute" viewers on Amazon Prime Video and its live video-gaming platform Twitch, according to the league -- the highest ever for a streaming digital NFL game.

The NFL says its figures are based off estimated numbers of viewers per living-room device that streamed the game.

By comparison, the average exclusive game on the NFL Network -- the league's cable TV channel -- comes in at 5.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen measurement data. This comes from three exclusive “Thursday Night Football” games and two exclusive Saturday games.

Amazon's Saturday game also included viewing on mobile apps from the NFL, the 49ers and Cardinals apps, and Verizon Media mobile platforms. When including over-the-air TV stations in local markets -- San Francisco (KNTV) and Phoenix (KSAZ) -- the game earned 5.9 million viewers.

NFL's “average minute” metric comes in reference to Nielsen, a third-party data research company that offers data in terms of average-minute program viewing and average commercial-minute viewing.

The NFL says the average viewing duration for the Amazon streaming game was 82 minutes -- more than the average 67 minutes for an NFL game so far this season. The average audience watching the game for at least 30 seconds on Prime Video or Twitch was an estimated 4.5 million, the NFL says.

Through 15 weeks, NFL games have averaged 15.1 million Nielsen-measured viewers. Fox and the NFL Network have simulcast 10 “Thursday Night Football” games.

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4 comments about "Amazon, Twitch Score Highest Viewing For Streaming NFL Game -- 4.8M 'Average Minute' Viewers: NFL".

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David Scardino from TV & Film Content Development, December 29, 2020 at 10:14 a.m.
Very interesting given the reports of poor picture quality.
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 29, 2020 at 11:02 a.m.

Of course we know that not even Nielsen knows how many people "watch" an average commercial minute of any program---only that the content was on the screen. The real figure---even if we buy the device usage stat---is always way below the "audience" that is reported. As for the non-Nielsen findings, I wouldn't put much credence in them. I'm glad, Wayne, that youi used quotes when discussing these "average minute" audience estimates. Way to go.

Darrin Stephens from McMann & Tate, December 29, 2020 at 12:17 p.m.

I guess the NFL didn't want to say "the figures are based off estimated number of viewers the league pulled out of its ass."

John Grono from GAP Research, December 29, 2020 at 4:12 p.m.

I think I may have deciphered the "average minute" jargon.

"Average" might be meant to describe the 'estimation' methodolgy used rather than the mathematicval meaning, while "Minute" might be the adjecftive relating to size rather than the noun relating to a measure of time. I could be wrong though.