• by Wayne Friedman , September 12, 2022

NBCUniversal’s new season premiere of its broadcast-leading TV series “Sunday Night Football” scored 25.1 million in preliminary average minute viewers results from all linear and digital platforms -- its best viewing result in seven years.

NBC says the 25.1 million calculation came from Nielsen-measured preliminary TV and Adobe Analytics digital media data. NBC calls its combined measurement ‘Total Audience Delivery (TAD).

Of the 25.1 million, NBC says 1.65 million average minute viewers came from all digital video platforms -- its premium streamer, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL Digital Properties. NBC says the game -- which featured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beating the Dallas Cowboys 19-3 -- was the most-streamed Sunday Night NFL game on record.

A couple of days before, NBC’s airing of the “NFL Kickoff Game” on Thursday night, when the Buffalo Bills beat the Super Bowl Champions Los Angeles Rams 31-10, earned an NBC-measured TAD result of 21.7 million viewers. Digital media video viewing amounted to 1.74 million.

A year ago, the “SNF” opening game, Chicago Bears-Los Angeles Rams, earned 18.6 million in TAD measurement preliminary results.

NBC says looking at the first two days of its NFL programming (Thursday and Sunday) streaming and digital video viewing is up 34% to an average 1.7 million viewers.

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” has been the number one rated national broadcast show for eleven years. Last year, “SNF” averaged 19.3 million viewers from Nielsen/Adobe Analytics final reporting data, per NBC’s Total Audience Delivery (TAD) measure.>