The NFL will open its 100th season Thursday. Many football fans will be watching the broadcasts of the games aired by media partners CBS, Fox, ESPN, and NBC. Their NFL TV rights will expire in 2022.
After two years of declines, NFL TV ratings improved last season. It averaged 15.8 million viewers each game. However, it was still down from the average viewership of 18.8 million in 2015. The best sports betting software provider estimates that 2015 was the peak. Since then, many households disconnected their cable TVs and switched to streaming providers.
Although NFL ratings peaked, football games still manage to get more viewers than any other shows on live TV. In fact, 64 of the top 100 live broadcasts in 2018 were NFL games. It is these numbers that the league will bring up during NFL TV rights negotiations with the networks.
Value of NFL TV Rights
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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told sportsbook pay per head news sites that NFL’s viewership number is the best thing the league can present to networks and streaming companies. Although TV viewership dropped in recent years, NFL games still attract a large audience.
In fact, TV ratings are still strong. Experts expect numbers to increase as the online sportsbook market grows in the future. With the legalization of sports betting in different states, more people will tune in to the games.
Betting is an important part of the league for a long time. Legal sports betting will help improve TV ratings. Wagering will increase the TV’s value. As a result, NFL TV rights will be more expensive than before.
Most surveys agree that people will watch more football games when they bet on them. They have a financial attachment to the game and want to see its outcome as they happen.