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Despite breaking records on network television, the NFL’s debut on the league’s flagship channel was less than stellar.
The league’s heavily promoted debut of the NFL Network - a Thanksgiving day game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos - averaged 4.2 million total viewers and a 2.3 household rating, according to Nielsen. That’s not the lowest rating ever for an NFL regular-season game, Media Life points out, but it’s barely a third of what a typical Monday Night Football game brings to ESPN.
The game was actually the most-watched cable program for the day, the network pointed out. Still, the network will need greater ratings in order to offset the hundreds of millions of dollars in rights fees it turned down to keep the eight Thursday and Saturday games on its own network.
The NFL Network’s distribution is slim, reaching just 41 million households (51 million fewer than ESPN). In order to increase ratings, distribution will have to increase, and that may be a challenge for the fledgling network. While it is available via DirecTV and Dish Network, three of the biggest cable carriers - Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cablevision - have not yet signed deals to carry it. And Cox and Comcast, which do offer the network, have packaged it as part of an expensive digital sports tier with few subscribers.
The NFL Network has filed a suit against the carriers, but those operators are reluctant to pay the $.70 per-subscriber fee that the network wants to charge. That fee would put it well above most basic cable fees, and the operators claim it is too pricey for a niche channel.
The NFL Network claims it isn’t a niche, pointing out that NFL games are the highest-rated sport, and that they deliver a desirable audience for advertisers.
Ratings could rise for tomorrow’s game between Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnatti Bengals, a better matchup than last week’s game. And in two weeks, ratings could rise further when Thursday shows CSI and Grey’s Anatomy beginning showing reruns.
Still, ratings could well rise for tomorrow’s game two between intense rivals the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a better matchup than last week. And the NFL Network could benefit two weeks from now when high-rated Thursday shows like “CSI” and “Grey’s Anatomy” begin slipping into reruns.
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