• by Wayne Friedman , October 3, 2022

Adding its first-party viewership data from all its digital platforms -- Prime Video and other services -- to that of Nielsen's results, Amazon says, boosts average viewership to 14.1 million.

Amazon says the first week of its “TNF” game, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Los Angeles Chargers on September 15 averaged 15.3 million viewers. Nielsen measurement for just Prime Video was at 13.0 million.

“TNF” second week (Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns on September 22) was at 13.6 million, per Amazon, for all its platforms. Nielsen’s reading for just Prime Video was 11.0 million.

The most recent Thursday-night game on September 29th -- the Miami Dolphins vs. the Cincinnati Bengals -- was at 13.4 million for all Amazon platforms, and 11.7 million, per Nielsen, for Prime Video.

By way of comparison, the first three games on "TNF" on the NFL-owned cable channel, The NFL Network, in 2021 averaged 7.5 million in the Nielsen measure.

For the entire 2021 season, when including the combined viewership on the Fox Television Network and The NFL Network, "TNF" viewership averaged 14.9 million, according to Nielsen.

Through three games, the local over-the-air broadcasts on teams home market TV stations -- were 1.17 million viewers for the first "TNF" game of the season; the second game, logged 1.18 million; the third game was at 530,860. The three game average is 960,300.

The Amazon Prime Video says this year’s "TNF" is attracting younger viewers with a median age of 46 -- seven years younger than the median age of NFL broadcasts on linear television this season, and eight years younger than the median age for "TNF" in 2021.