NFL TV Ratings Down 7.5 Percent

NFL television viewership down 7.5% compared to last season

The overall total viewership for National Football League is down nearly eight percent over the first six weeks of the season compared to the same time period last season.

Across all networks, 15 million people on average are tuning in to NFL games this season, with 16.2 million people watching through Week 6 in 2016, according to Nielsen, a company that measures ratings for television programs.

That overall decline is 7.5%, although Monday Night Football on ESPN is averaging just over 11 million viewers per game, up 6%.

Last year's overall ratings were down 8% compared to the final 2015 numbers, which could be traced to the presidential election cycle and debates that dominated that latter part of 2016.

Football, no matter how steep a decline in viewership, still gets people tuning in as >NBC's Sunday Night Football has been television's top-rated program in the United States in each of the past four years.