• by Wayne Friedman , November 14, 2023

A significant improvement to the NFL ratings picture comes as Walt Disney adding ABC Television Network to its lineup in simulcasting -- along with ESPN and ESPN2 -- the entire “Monday Night Football” season of games, partly to replace the absence of regular ABC prime-time programming due to the writers' and actors' strikes. 

The average viewing of “MNF” games is 20.1 million viewers -- among all NFL regular-season TV network series. 

A year ago, "MNF" averaged 14.1 million viewers, mostly attributable to ESPN/ESPN2 airings -- a 43% gain.

Adding to this overall improvement has been Amazon Prime Video's "Thursday Night Football" -- which is now at 12.2 million viewers, up 26% from 9.7 million viewers a year ago.

Other major TV network series have been maintaining near viewing levels of 2022 -- Fox Television Network's main late-afternoon Sunday game is at 19.0 million (vs. 20.6 million viewers a year ago), while CBS' Sunday game is at 18.8 million (18.9 million in 2022) and NBC's “Sunday Night Football” 17.9 million (18.8 million a year ago).

Tracking similar overall viewing results, through the first eight weeks of the NFL season iSpot.tv estimates live, linear NFL TV impressions are up 12% versus a year ago.

Through ten weeks estimated national TV advertising spend for NFL is at $2.2 billion -- up 9% from $2.01 billion (2022), according to EDO Ad EnGage.