NFL continues its stranglehold on TV in North America

Tom Mayenknecht: Meanwhile, the NHL Winter Classic needs to pick a date and stick to it or risk losing more viewers.

Published Jan 10, 2025  •  3 minute read

Notre Dame offensive lineman Rocco Spindler (50) celebrates at the end of the Orange Bowl College playoff semifinal against Penn State on Jan. 9 in Miami Gardens, Fla. Photo by Rebecca Blackwell /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bulls of the week

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Football is on a rampage on the combined strength of the NFL and U.S. college football.

Leading the bull market are the 14-1 University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 27-24 winners over 13-3 Penn State in the College Football Championship semifinals Thursday night.

A championship showdown against the winner of Ohio State and Texas, which was played Friday night, isn’t all that the Irish won this week. They will receive US$20 million in “prize money” and they’ll get every single penny of that since they’re independents and don’t need to share the bonus revenue with 10 or so teams in a typical conference.

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Despite it being an Olympic year (Paris 2024) and a U.S. presidential election year, the NFL continued its stranglehold on TV in North America.

A soft final two weeks of the season — with just one playoff spot up for grabs in Week 18 — led to a slight drop of two per cent in year-over-year ratings from last year’s monster 2023.

But the biggest bulls of the week were the newest rights-holders, including Netflix, which averaged 24 million for its Christmas Day doubleheader, and Amazon Prime Video, which saw its Thursday Night Football grow by 11 per cent (up to an average of 13.2 million per game).

NBC averaged 21.6 million for Sunday Night Football, with 2.2 million of that on NBC’s digital platforms (Peacock, NBCsports.com and NFL digital).

And how about that strong finish with 28.5 million tuning in for the game of the week (if not the year); Detroit’s win over Minnesota to wrap up the regular season?

The poster child for the bull market: The Detroit Lions, who held the biggest audiences of the season for NBC, ESPN/ABC, CBS and Amazon Prime.

Long-suffering Detroit fans are having the time of their lives …

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Bears of the week

As long as the NHL keeps moving its Discover Winter Classic around the calendar the first week in January, TV ratings are likely to continue to contract.

Less than a week after drawing an average national audience of less than one million viewers south of the border for its Chicago Blackhawks versus St. Louis Blues matchup at Wrigley Field, the NHL announced that next year’s Winter Classic will go Jan. 2 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

That’s an all-time low for the Winter Classic, which has seen its TV audience numbers decline by half over the past eight years.

The problem is that it was held on New Year’s Day last year, New Year’s Eve this year and Jan. 2 next year. The NHL is obviously working around the New Year’s Day college football schedule but, in my view, a consistent date would be best, even if it conflicts with other sports programming in the U.S.

I believe outdoor games — especially the Winter Classic — still have a valuable business development role to play for hockey. The beauty shots alone are a great hook for casual fans.

Yet, it has the most upside as destination TV. Move it around anymore and college football will complete its comeback as the dominant sports property on New Year’s Day in the U.S.

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However, this week’s bear market goes to the Las Vegas Raiders, who fired head coach Antonio Pierce this week.

The coaching carousel for the NFL’s Vegas franchise will have had four head coaches in less than five years, with Jon Gruden resigning in 2021; Josh McDaniels fired after less than two years on the job; and Pierce less than three years.

Those kind of short leashes are the antithesis of what franchises need to attract the best talent to their coaching staffs and front offices.

Tom Mayenknecht is the host of The Sport Market on Sportsnet 650 on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Vancouver-based sport business commentator and principal in Emblematica Brand Builders provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Mayenknecht at: x.com/TheSportMarket.

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