• by Wayne Friedman , 6 hours ago

After some NFL viewership declines in the earlier two weeks of the season -- which began on Sept. 9 -- the NFL recovered through Week Four.

The average regular-season game is up 4% to a Nielsen-measured 20.2 million viewers season-to-date, from Sept. 9 through Oct. 7.

The strongest-performing franchise is NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” at 23.2 million viewers, with CBS' Sunday games at 20.5 million and ABC/ESPN’s “Monday Night Football" at 19.3 million. Fox's Sunday afternoon games are averaging 17.9 million viewers, with Prime Video at 17.4 million.

CBS viewership is up 7%, while Prime Video has gained 9% and NBC is down 2%. Fox is lower versus the same period a year ago (23.2 million).

Biggest game of the year so far: Kansas City Chiefs versus Las Vegas Raiders, 28.4 million in Week Four on CBS.

Through the first four weeks of the NFL season, national TV advertising is estimated to be up 7% to $1.6 billion, driven by commercial airings of 21,572, according to iSpot estimates.

In the year-ago period, total NFL national TV revenue through Week Four was $1.5 billion, coming from 18,015 airings.

The top advertising brands in estimated revenue on NFL games this year so far include YouTube TV (from 248 airings), followed by Amazon Prime Video (162), Geico (195), Progressive Insurance (169), Allstate (140), Verizon (185), Toyota (65), State Farm (94) and Burger King (147).

The so-called "attention" index is also higher -- now at 140 versus 123 a year ago, per iSpot, which defines its "attention" from evaluating viewers' retention and interruption rate -- disengagement from viewing the messaging.