There may be a lot going on with the NFL on television this coming football season – the new NFL+ video subscription service offering access to all regular and post-season games, and Thursday Night Football's move from broadcast to Amazon Prime Video – but there are changes on the radio side as well. AM/FM listeners to Westwood One's national broadcasts of Monday, Thursday and Sunday night games will now also be able to hear them on station audio streams, ending a decade of paywall-only online access.
As a result, radio may benefit from the Thursday night games' move to Amazon. As noted in this week's edition of Westwood One's blog, the results of a MARU/Matchbox study commissioned by Cumulus Media, conducted among 1,000 Americans over age 18 during the past two weeks, showed just half of frequent – and only 30% of occasional – NFL viewers are aware that Thursday Night Football will only be available on Amazon Prime. In addition, according to Nielsen Scarborough data, more than half of NFL Thursday Night Football viewers are not currently Amazon Prime members.
As the blog points out, season-long NFL games via Westwood One's play-by-play reach 56 million listeners. “[That] audience can be utilized to explain how to watch games on Amazon Prime Video and reach those who cannot catch games on TV,” Cumulus Media and Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says.
Additional research presented, from NFL Fan Tracker, shows that adding audio broadcasts of the games to those on TV in advertising media plans increases reach among high income men 18-49 or 25-54 by 14%, men 18-34 by 18% and total NFL fans by 12%. Additionally, according to GfK MRI, NFL AM/FM radio audiences spend 16% more than average and are 32% more likely to have a $75,000+ household income, 27% more likely to be employed full time and 20% more likely to be college graduates compared to the total U.S. profile.
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