The first ever YouTube free stream of a regular season game did well, as expected. It didn’t do as well as I personally had expected.
Via Jennifer Maas of Variety.com, Chiefs-Chargers drew a global audience of 17.3 million viewers on Friday night, from Brazil. In the U.S., the number was 16.2 million.
It’s a strong number. It’s up from the 14.2 million who watched Packers-Eagles on Peacock for the first Friday night of the season.
But Peacock is a paid service. The YouTube broadcast was free.
Also, Nielsen has introduced a new system for more accurately counting out-of-home viewers. That will naturally lead to higher numbers than last year.
The all-time streaming record came last Christmas, with more than 24 million domestically for Ravens-Texans (24.3 million) and Chiefs-Steelers (24.1 million).
Again, Netflix isn’t free. That said, the captive audience on December 25 is conducive to bigger numbers.
Nothing generates a large crowd of simultaneous viewers like live NFL games. It just seems odd that a game involving the high-profile Chiefs didn’t do more than 16.2 million viewers in the U.S. — or more than 1.1. million in all other countries combined.
It will be interesting to see whether the audience size is a function of the game being on YouTube, or whether it’s a sign that Chiefs fatigue is settling in.
On the latter point, there will be plenty of additional evidence. Soon. On Sunday, the Chiefs host the Eagles in the prime late-afternoon window on Fox. The next week, it’s Chiefs-Giants on NBC and Peacock. In Week 4, it’s Ravens-Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox. In Week 5, Chiefs-Jaguars will be televised on Monday night by ABC and ESPN. The next week, it’s back to Sunday Night Football , for a visit from the Lions.
Big Shield combines gambling, pro football, and the mob into a cautionary tale regarding inside information, and the dangers that come from selling it.
Football is back and so are Mike Florio and Chris Simms! Watch PFT Live for the latest news coming out of training camps Monday to Friday at 7 a.m. ET on Peacock and the NBC Sports NOW channel.