Thanks in part to changes to Nielsen’s calculations, NFL viewership numbers keep going up.
The Week 3 game between the Lions and the Ravens generated a total average viewership of 22.8 million viewers, according to ESPN. The ESPN/ABC/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes multicast finished as a “top 4″ audience for Monday Night Football since the game moved from ABC to ESPN in 2006.
The numbers have gotten a boost due to a recent habit, sparked by a writers’ strike in 2023, to televise the games on both ESPN and ABC. With network TV programming gradually experiencing reduced relevance as audiences splinter, the ability to televise the game on both ESPN and ABC is good for Disney — and for the NFL.
Of the total audience, only 3.89 percent (887,000) watched the ManningCast. Which continues to raise the very fair business question of whether the benefits of the alternate broadcast justify the expense.
Here’s the inescapable question: Would the 887,000 who watched ESPN2 have not watched the game at all but for the ManningCast? The vast majority, if not every single one of them, would have watched the game on ESPN or ABC.
