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NFL faces challenging field as new season kicks off, but it’s still TV’s top attraction

Author

Michael Beach
September 11, 2018

NFL ratings are expected to decline further, but still dominate TV overall.

Share of top 100 TV shows for NFL:
1) 2007–22%
2) 2017–71%

Annual spend for NFL TV rights:
1) NBC — $1B
2) CBS — $1B
3) Fox — $1B
4) ESPN — $2B

Yikes! Every pay-TV subscriber in the U.S. pays $21.50/year to watch Monday Night Football as a part of their monthly bill.

Average NFL viewership (% change):
1) 2016: 16.5M
2) 2017: 15.0M (↓ 10%)

Average NFL ad spot cost (% change):
1) 2016: $468K
2) 2017: $474K (↑ 1%)

The bottom line. It cost 12% more to reach 1 viewer in 2017 compared to 2016.

NFL advertising revenue according to Kantar (% growth):
1) 2010 — $2.2B (↑ 14%)
2) 2011 — $2.3B (↑ 5%)
3) 2012 — $2.7B (↑ 14%)
4) 2013 — $2.9B (↑ 8%)
5) 2014 — $3.5B (↑ 20%)
6) 2015 — $3.8B (↑ 10%)
7) 2016 — $4.2B (↑ 11%)
8) 2017 — $4.6B (↑ 10%)

Top NFL advertisers in 2017 according to Kantar:
1) AT&T — $173M
2) Verizon — $173M
3) Apple — $162M
4) Ford — $162M
5) General Motors — $156M
6) Berkshire Hathaway — $145M
7) Anheuser-Busch — $135M
8) Samsung — $133M
9) Toyota — $125M
10) Southwest — $123M

NFL advertising during 2017 regular season:
1) Ratings: ↓ 8.0%
2) Cost per ad spot: ↑ 1.2%

Why does this matter? The average CPM $ for an NFL game increased 10% YoY.

Public service announcement. The average CPM $ for Facebook increased 20% over the same period!

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