A trade association closely aligned with the local broadcast television industry is responding to headlines touting Amazon’s performance with Thursday Night Football with data that proves broadcast TV networks are still the primary way most Americans watch live sports.
The January 10 postseason match-up between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears drew considerable attention from trade publications after Amazon characterized the game as the most-streamed in the history of the National Football League (NFL), which only began offering regular-season games over streaming within the past decade.
Last week, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) noted that Nielsen figures attributed to the game on Amazon, which was part of the streamer’s pact with the NFL to offer a limited amount of playoff games, included viewership figures for local broadcast stations in the home markets of the two teams playing. A total of three broadcast stations simulcast the game — two in Wisconsin, and one in Illinois.
The NFL requires nationally-televised games that are exclusive to streaming platforms to also be carried on local TV stations in the markets associated with the teams playing in any given event. Games offered by ESPN, Netflix, NFL Network and Prime Video are thus available on over-the-air stations in a handful of cities. NBC, CBS and Fox have the rights to other regular-season and playoff games.
Nielsen data reviewed by The Desk shows the three broadcast networks collectively outperformed streaming platforms this year, though Amazon’s playoff game between the Packers and the Bears outpaced nearly all regular season games when evaluated on an individual basis. Nielsen reports games on CBS and Fox by time slot, rather than by individual games, while Monday Night Football on ABC and ESPN and Sunday Night Football on NBC are counted as individual events.
One exception is holiday-specific games, which are nationally-televised by the broadcast networks. The Thanksgiving Day NFL game on CBS delivered a 17.81 rating and 57.33 million viewers, while a September 14 rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles on Fox earned a 10.5 rating and reached 33.81 million viewers.
“While streaming platforms continue to grow, Nielsen data makes clear that broadcast television remains the most powerful platform for reaching the largest NFL audiences,” TVB said.
The TVB’s attempt to add content should come with some added context of its own: Nielsen’s data this year counts viewership through its Big Data + Panels product, which includes viewership on measured streaming platforms.
The 2025 NFL season was the first in which all four broadcast networks offered live football games on their own direct-to-consumer streaming platforms — games from ABC and ESPN are offered through the ESPN Unlimited plan on the ESPN app, and games from Fox are available on the Fox One service — in addition to cable, satellite and broadcast TV.
Games from CBS are available on Paramount Plus, while NBC offers Sunday Night Football and other sports through Peacock. NFL events from both platforms are measured by Nielsen, though NBC prefers to promote its own first-party data for Peacock, which originate from Adobe Analytics.
Nielsen and the networks don’t publicly report viewership figures that differentiate between broadcast TV and streaming. The Gauge, a monthly report offered by Nielsen, offers the closest thing to a regular snapshot of consumption between traditional TV platforms and streaming apps. With YouTube factored out, Nielsen’s report shows broadcast and cable TV generally have a higher share of TV time compared with all streaming apps combined.
YouTube’s inclusion in the report has been controversial because the platform doesn’t license or produce its own entertainment content and doesn’t offer insight into what people are watching on a regular basis. A new Gauge report will be published on Tuesday.
