How does the NFL add value? GREAT MATCHUPS

[UPDATED 2/2/22] -- NFL ratings for conference championship games: 49ers-Rams peaked at 55.2 M viewers in the 4th quarter; Bengals-Chiefs peaked at an amazing 60.99 M viewers in OT.

Wow! What another great weekend of NFL Football.?If you are a football fanatic, you've probably been treated to the best two weeks in football history, with OT games featuring shocking outcomes, strategy and execution. Most games the last two weeks came down to?the last play, or nearly the last play.?Congratulations to the organizations of both the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams -- each deserves their place after grueling, exciting playoff games.?If you missed it, shame on you.?That was excellent entertainment!

The networks, and the NFL, are living a dream.?The more people (and more households) that watch an event on television, the more the value the content (games) becomes, and the networks sell the games to sponsors through advertising.??Note to sport marketing students:?Brands can try to reach more potential consumers through football on tv - it is up to the brands to develop their relationship with their consumers as football viewers.??With better matchups leading to higher ratings, the NFL can increase the price to networks of putting its games on tv:?the value of the NFL has increased significantly because of the outstanding, exciting product.??

The NFL has had its ups and downs in recent years with broadcasting viewership but rose this past year after the public (football fans) normalized living with COVID-19. Despite what happens in American society, it loves its football: the NFL consistently brings the highest consistent rankings of any content on television.? So, I was curious to see the tv ratings for the 2022 playoffs.?I went to?Sports Media Watch?to learn about the TV ratings through the first two weeks (this weekend's ratings have yet to be published).

There are?121 million households with televisions?in the US.??A 1.0 rating = 1% of 121 million households.?Viewers are the active number of people watching tv at any given time.?For comparison:?The Bachelor, on ABC, earned a 0.8 rating (3.8 M viewers), for its first show on January 4;?Yellowstone, the top-rated tv series streaming on Paramount and CMT, drew 10.3 M viewers for its season finale in early January; and, for us old folks, the highest-ranked evening news broadcast is on?ABC with David Muir, averaging 8.2 M viewers an evening in the last quarter of 2021.

The numbers are expected to be sky-high after the overtime Bengals-Chiefs upset and the down-to-the-wire Rams-49ers game.??What do you think?? America loves its football, and is willing to pay for it.