Eight was more than enough.
NFL Network registered record ratings and viewership marks during its eighth season of primetime pro pigskin game coverage. The service’s 13-game, Thursday Night Football schedule averaged a 5.0 U.S. household rating and 8 million viewers, including contributions from the over-the-air stations that aired the games in the participating teams’ home markets. That marked respective gains of 9% and 10% from the 2012 season, as NFL Network notched a fifth consecutive season of record audiences.
Capped by the week three match between the Kansas City Chiefs and Andy Reid’s old club, the Philadelphia Eagles, each week of the 2013 Thursday Night Football schedule stood as the day’s most-watched program on cable television.
The Sept. 19 telecast, in which the Chiefs topped the Eagles 26-16, scored a 7.0 household rating and 11.1 million viewers, making it as the highest-rated Thursday Night Football telecast in NFL Network history, ahead of the 6.9 mark for the New England Patriots-New York Jets on Sept. 12.
