The NFL’s television ratings have been a mixed bag early this season, but the league-owned network is getting good news.
For the second week in a row, NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football ratings are up significantly from NFL Network’s games last season: Last night’s Rams-49ers game had 7.4 million viewers, while last week’s Texans-Bengals game had 8.1 million viewers. Last year, the four Thursday night games that were only on NFL Network averaged 6.1 million viewers.
NFL Network is also getting strong ratings for its programming around Thursday Night Football. Last Thursday the five-most shows on cable TV were the Thursday night game, the two NFL Network programs airing after the game and the two NFL Network programs airing before the game.
Two games aren’t enough to draw any sweeping conclusions about Thursday Night Football, but after perhaps the most entertaining Thursday night game ever, the league has to think Thursdays are heading in the right direction.