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NFL Season Opener Draws 25 Million Viewers, Outpacing Political Counter-Programming
The National Football League's season opener between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots drew more than 25 million viewers, securing a dominant prime-time start for the league. The viewership figures, sourced from Nielsen data and released by Comcast's NBC Sports, underscore the continued strength of live sports as a major television draw.
Strong Start for NFL Broadcasting
The Kickoff Game, a rematch of Super Bowl LX, averaged its strong viewership across both the traditional NBC broadcast and the Peacock streaming service. According to the network, this marks the fourth consecutive year the season opener has surpassed the 25 million viewer mark.
The game also performed well in key advertising demographics. NBC reported an average of 10 million viewers among adults aged 18 to 49, the largest audience in that coveted demographic for a Kickoff Game since 2021. These figures are closely watched by advertisers and media companies as a barometer for the season's financial prospects.
Viewership in Context
AdThe NFL game's broadcast coincided with a speech by former President Donald Trump at the Republican midterm convention, which was carried live on Fox News. Nielsen data showed the speech attracted approximately 2.5 million viewers.
While Trump claimed the convention's "overall numbers beat the NFL," no supporting figures or methodology were provided to substantiate the assertion, according to the report. The Nielsen figures indicate the football game's audience was about ten times larger than that of the political speech on the competing network.
Netflix's International Debut
In a separate but significant development for the league's media strategy, the NFL's first regular-season game in Australia also posted strong numbers. The matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, streamed exclusively in the U.S. on Netflix, drew an average of 18.5 million viewers, peaking at 21.3 million. This performance highlights the potential of streaming platforms to expand the NFL's reach to new audiences and distribution partners.
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