After the NFL Kickoff Game got the season off to a strong start, NBC has had three consecutive weeks of soft numbers for Sunday Night Football.
The Week 3 Steelers/Panthers Sunday Night Football game drew a 12.3 overnight rating on NBC, down 9% from Bears/Steelers last year (13.5) and down 14% from Patriots/Ravens in 2012 (14.3). As Sports Business Dailynoted, the 12.3 is the lowest for the Week 3 SNF game since Colts/Cardinals in 2009 (11.8).
Overnights have declined for two of the three Sunday night games on NBC this season, with the third — last week’s Bears/49ers game — up only slightly.
Steelers/Panthers ranked a distant second among Sunday’s NFL games, trailing the national window on CBS by 27% (16.9 to 12.3), reports Sports Media Watch.