According to a new Westwood One report, network radio audience ratings of NFL games have remained “relatively unchanged from the year before,” but are slightly down. The report diverges from NFL game television ratings which, as multiple media outlets have reported recently, have seen a dip from last year’s season.
Westwood One, which is the exclusive network radio partner for the National Football League, formed the report by looking at the adult 25–54 audience bracket ratings from the first 13 games in each of Nielsen’s Portable People Meter local market surveys where a national broadcast aired. It’s important to note however, that “relatively stable” means ratings are “down on average just 3.5% compared to corresponding broadcasts a year ago,” the report says.
The report also notes that these radio ratings decline could be because of the of the Sept. 26 national NFL broadcast, which ran opposite of the first presidential debate and saw a significant ratings decline when compared to last year. The report says, had the game day not been competing with the debate then the overall ratings would have been slightly higher.
The Westwood One report can be seen here in its entirety.