A huge kickoff
for NFL season
Fox's game is most-watched first-week contest since 1996
By Diego Vasquez
Sep 18, 2009
Last year advertisers spent more than $2.6 billion on football advertising, and no wonder. It looks like football will once again be drawing humongous crowds, certainly bigger than anything else on television this fall.
The NFL is off to a roaring start.
Fox aired the most-watched week-one game since 1996, and its most-watched first-week game ever, on Sunday with the 4 p.m. NFC East showdown between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins averaging 25.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.
That was up 20 percent over the Dallas Cowboys-Cleveland Browns game that aired in the same timeslot last year.
Fox’s regional coverage at 1 p.m. averaged 14.1 million total viewers, up an astounding 79 percent over last year.
Overall, Fox’s doubleheader averaged 19.5 million viewers, 29 percent better than last year.
The next night, Monday, ESPN scored the most-watched show on cable this year with the 40th season premiere of “Monday Night Football.” The first half of a doubleheader averaged 14 million viewers, who saw the New England Patriots defeat the Buffalo Bills behind Tom Brady, back after a year off for injury.
The second half of the doubleheader, an Oakland Raiders-San Diego Chargers game, averaged 11.9 million starting at 10:15 p.m.
That came one night after the kickoff of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” drew the best audience since 2006, averaging 21.1 million viewers.
Little wonder, then, that CBS is reportedly selling Super Bowl advertising at a brisk rate despite the continued softness of the media economy.
The network has reportedly moved 70 percent of its inventory, a bit less than NBC had sold at this time last year but a solid number considering the recession still has advertisers spooked.
GoDaddy.com said last week that it will return to the game, and Pepsi, Careerbuilder, Coca-Cola and InBev Anheuser Busch have also reportedly bought spots again.
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