Ratings for Thursday night’s NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets were very high. Over 48 million Americans watched on TV. Two million watch through social media streaming. More people are watching football on Twitter.
This Twitter streaming service is free. Twitter’s audience was smaller than when Yahoo offered this free service last year. An average of 243,000 people watched the game on Twitter at any given time. This could mean at any given quarter, or maybe during the last two minute warning. But CBS and the NFL network got 15.4 million viewers at any given time. Twitter will offer nine more Thursday night NFL games during the 2016 regular season. Twitter got their numbers by using a metric system known as average minute audience. They calculate numbers per viewers per minute. Nielsen ratings are gathered the same way. Twitter has over 300 million users. That may sound like a lot. It is a lot. But over the last year or so, Twitter growth, especially getting new users, have been stagnant.
The NFL is the most popular sporting institution in America. Look at how many watched a regular season Thursday night game. That’s a little less than half than those who watch the Super Bowl annually. I see why Twitter wants to get in on the NFL action. This could be just the thing to boost Twitter numbers. Now, look at how people are watching the game in the 2010s. Yes, obviously people gather around their TV to watch their favorite teams. That’s how most people still watch football, and any sports. But that’s slowly but surely changing. Many people watched the Olympics through social media. Numbers are still small compared to TV, but numbers are growing. That’s the bottom line for Twitter leaders and investors. Will these numbers continue to grow, especially if they continue to offer this service for free? Is Twitter the new, hip way to watch football?