The NFL American football league suffered an eight per cent year-on-year drop in US television viewership during its 2016 regular season, according to data obtained by ESPN.com.
The average audience for a regular season game in the 2016 campaign was 16.5 million, a drop of 1.4 million on 17.9 million in the previous season.
The data said that prime-time games were worst hit, with total viewers for Monday Night Football on US sports broadcaster ESPN down 12 per cent and Sunday Night Football on the NBC network falling 10 per cent. ESPN showed 17 games, while NBC broadcast 19 matches, including two Thursday games.
The Fox and CBS networks, each of which broadcast 27 daytime games during the 2016 campaign, recorded six per cent and seven per cent declines in total viewership, respectively.
ESPN added that the data comparison did not include Thursday Night Football games, stating that other factors complicated the figures, including the NFL’s new streaming deal with social media platform Twitter.
League officials have also consistently pointed to the impact of last year’s US presidential election, a subject returned to by Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s executive vice-president of media.
“Presidential elections have always had an impact on our ratings, so we were prepared for a dip this season,” Rolapp told the USA Today newspaper. “We’re pleased at how our viewership rebounded after the election and are looking forward to what should be a very competitive and exciting postseason.”