Amazon Prime Video’s second season of “Thursday Night Football” got off to a record start as the most-streamed NFL game in history.
Philadelphia’s 34-28 victory over Minnesota averaged 15.1 million viewers according to Nielsen’s ratings, surpassing the 13 million from last year’s first game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Another metric, using Amazon’s first-party data, puts the average audience at 16.6 million, up from 15.3 million for last year’s opener.
There were times last year when the Nielsen and Amazon data had audience differences of 15-18%. Nielsen had considered some of Amazon’s data in its rating report until TV networks voiced its objections.
Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of NFL Media, said earlier this week one of the league’s major objectives is identifying the most accurate measurement of viewership.
“The fact that streaming platforms enable better data capture we think can augment what Nielsen already does. They can get the most accurate picture of who’s watching our games and our content,” Schroeder said. “That’s our focus and will continue to be our focus. We’ll continue to work with Nielsen and our partners, all our partners to do that.”
