LSU-Alabama, Seahawks-49ers Grab Attention of OOH Viewers

By Paul Lindstrom, Head of Research & Analytics
Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The much-anticipated LSU-Alabama game on CBS lived up to the hype as the game averaged 5,953,170 OOH viewers and peaked at 5:17 PM with an OOH audience of 7,090,200. The game was the most-watched college football game of the season among OOH viewers. See the top ten most-watched games of the season through Week 11: 

 

Game Date Time Network 000s Week #
1 LSU vs. Alabama 11/9/19 3:30 PM CBS 5953 11
2 Miami vs. Florida 8/24/19 7:00 PM ESPN 3696 0
3 LSU vs Texas 9/7/19 7:30 PM ABC 3038 2
4 Notre Dame vs. Georgia 9/21/19 8:00 PM CBS 2949 4
5 Georgia vs. Florida 11/2/19 3:30 PM CBS 2549 10
6 Texas A&M vs. Clemson 9/7/19 3:30 PM ABC 2520 2
7 Oklahoma vs. Texas 10/12/19 12:00 PM FOX 2511 7
8 Florida vs. LSU 10/12/19 8:00 PM ESPN 2431 7
9 Wisconsin vs. Ohio State 10/26/19 12:00 PM FOX 2250 9
10 Auburn vs. Florida 10/5/19 3:30 PM CBS 2142 6

 

In the NFL, two games in particular stood out recently – the Week 11 Monday Night Football matchup on ESPN between the Seahawks and the then-undefeated 49ers and the Thursday Night Football game on FOX/NFL Network between the Browns and Steelers. The Seahawks-49ers game averaged 6,419,210 OOH viewers and peaked at 9:39 PM with 8,107,905 OOH viewers, making it the third most-watched primetime NFL game of the season and most-watched since Week 1. See below for the top ten most-watched primetime NFL games this season among OOH viewers:

 

Rank Games Date Time Network 000s Week #
1 TNF – Packers vs. Bears 9/5 8:15 PM NBC 9,029 1
2 MNF – Texans vs. Saints 9/9 7:00 PM ESPN 6,980 1
3 MNF – Seahawks vs 49ers 11/11 8:15 PM ESPN 6,419 10
4 TNF – Eagles vs. Packers 9/26 8:20 PM FOX/NFLN 5,594 4
5 MNF – Giants vs Cowboys 11/4 8:15 PM ESPN 5,271 9
6 TNF- Giants vs Patriots 10/10 8:20 PM NFLN 4,874 6
7 SNF – Steelers vs Patriots 9/8 8:20 PM NBC 4,783 1
8 SNF – Cowboys vs. Saints 9/29 8:20 PM NBC 4,680 4
9 MNF – Packers vs Lions 10/14 8:15 PM ESPN 4,678 6
10 MNF – Jets vs. Browns 9/16 8:15 PM ESPN 4,642 2

 

The second game that caught the attention of OOH viewers was the Browns-Steelers game which featured the infamous helmet brawl. The game averaged 3,663,230 OOH viewers and peaked at 8:54 PM with 4,823,715 OOH viewers. When the brawl occurred, the amount of OOH viewers had already gone down as the game was nearing its end, but due to the intrigue of OOH viewers, the game went up 842,000 in six minutes from 11:39 PM to 11:45 PM (2,011,620 to 2,853,240). See the graph below to see the game viewing profile:

 

 

Paul Lindstrom, Head of Research & Analytics
Paul Lindstrom
Paul Lindstrom is the Head of Research and Analytics at Tunity, an out-of-home (OOH) data measurement company and consumer application which allows users to hear live audio from muted televisions directly through their mobile devices. In his role, Paul supports the creation of various data products, including Tunity's new analytics product, and helps set strategic vision and direction. Prior to Tunity, Paul spent over four decades at Nielsen, where he was responsible for designing and deploying innovative tools, systems, studies, and measurements for new media outlets. He also directed sales, operations, and strategy for Nielsen Strategic Media Research and Nielsen On Location. Paul is an innovation, research, and strategy executive with a successful track record in pioneering business development, product leadership, and research design. His combination of experience with media and custom research, location, and OOH measurements at Nielsen have allowed him to develop a new metric to capture OOH viewing insights based on Tunity’s traffic, tuning, and attention data.