CBS
• The network said its regular-season schedule averaged 18.7 million viewers, a 6% increase over last year’s 17.7 million viewers. The 18.7 million viewers were second highest number of average viewers in 26 years for the regular-season AFC television package.
• The Top 10 markets (in descending order through Week 16) for CBS’s NFL coverage: Kansas City; Buffalo; Indianapolis; Cincinnati; Baltimore; Pittsburgh; Nashville; Denver; Boston; Cleveland.
Pregame: The NFL Today averaged 3.3 million viewers, about 28% lower than FOX NFL Sunday.
FOX
• FOX said its regular-season schedule delivered its most NFL viewers since the network began broadcasting NFL games in 1994. The network’s games averaged 21.2 million viewers, an 8% increase over last year’s viewership (19.7 million) and 5% over 2010 for the most-watched NFL on FOX season ever. FOX said its four most-watched NFL seasons have come over the past four years (2013: 21.2 million; 2010: 20.11 million; 2011: 20.96 million, and 2012:19.7 million).
• The network’s national game of the week—the late-afternoon window—averaged 27.2 million viewers. It was FOX’s most-watched package on record, eclipsing the previous record set in 2009 (26.2 million viewers).
• FOX said it increased its female viewers in 2013, including the demographics of women between 18-34, women 18-49 and women 25-54 (the latter was up 10%). The season average among women 18-49 tied for the highest-rated ever, and women between 25-54 ranked as the network’s best ever.
Pregame: FOX NFL Sunday averaged 4.8 million viewers, up 4% in audience over last year (4.6 million viewers) and 39% higher than CBS’s The NFL Today.
ESPN
• ESPN said its 17 Monday Night Football telecasts averaged 13,679,000 viewers. It was the third-most viewed season in ESPN’s eight years of presenting MNF. The network had six of cable’s 10 biggest audiences for the calendar year among viewers, and ESPN said eight times during its schedule it won the night as the most-watched network among households and total viewers—cable or broadcast—in prime time.
• ESPN’s most-viewed MNF game came on Sept. 9 when 16,524,000 viewers watched the Eagles at Redskins season opener.
• The 10 highest-rated markets for Monday Night Football in 2013: 1. New Orleans; 2. Sacramento; 3. Las Vegas; 4. San Diego; 5. Richmond, Va.; 6. Seattle-Tacoma; 7. Norfolk-Portsmouth, Va.; 8. Washington D.C.; 9. Charlotte; and 10. Baltimore.
• Monday Night Football on ESPN Deportes averaged 45,000 Hispanic households and 68,000 Hispanic viewers for the 17-game schedule in 2013, the most-watched MNF season on record for ESPN Deportes among Hispanic viewers.
• ESPN’s Monday Night Football online streaming generated an average minute audience of 610,000, an increase of 31% compared to 2012.
Pregame: Sunday NFL Countdown averaged 2.2 million viewers (up from last year’s 2.1).
NBC
• Sunday Night Football averaged 21.7 million viewers (up from 21.4 million in 2012) for its 19 NFL regular-season telecasts, the second-best viewership mark in NBC’s eight seasons of broadcasting the NFL’s Sunday primetime package. (The highest ever was 21.8 million, in 2010.)
• The most watched SNF broadcast was the Eagles-Cowboys game on Dec. 29. It drew 27.4 million viewers.
• Sunday Night Football was the No. 1 show in prime time for the fourth consecutive fall television season, and it won every key adult and male demos, including Adults 18-49. The show ranked first among Women 18-49, the first time the NFL primetime package won the fall TV season in that demo. It was also tops among Women 18-34 for the fall primetime for the third year in row, and it tied for No. 2 with The Voice in the Women 25-54 demographic behind only The Big Bang Theory.
• The Top 20 TV markets for Sunday Night Football: 1. New Orleans; 2. Denver; 3. Richmond; 4. Indianapolis; 5. Las Vegas; 6. Sacramento; 7. Albuquerque; 8. Dallas; 9. Baltimore; T-10. Seattle; T-10. Kansas City; T12. Washington D.C.; T12. Norfolk; 14. San Diego;15. Charlotte; 16. Phoenix; T-17. Pittsburgh; T-17. Nashville; T-17. Austin and T-17. Greensboro.
Pregame: Football Night in America averaged 8.0 million viewers in 2013, up 3% from last season.
NFL NETWORK
• The 13-game schedule produced the most-watched season for Thursday Night Football, with an average of 8.0 million viewers. That was up 10% from the 2012 season average.
• The most-viewed game came in Week 3 when an average of 11.1 million viewers watched the Chiefs defeat the Eagles on Sept. 19. The game’s 7.0 rating was the highest-rated Thursday Night Football telecast in NFL Network history.
Pregame: NFL GameDay Morning averaged 478,000 viewers for the 2013 season.