It may still be 85 degrees and sunny out in many parts of the U.S., but that isn't stopping the general population from getting on with fall already.
Starbucks's (SBUX) -) pumpkin spice latte is back, school is in session, and football is once again on the big screen.
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The return of the NFL has already brought about countless storylines and highlights: Four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers is already out for the season after less than five minutes on the field.
The now-infamous injury was watched by millions of Americans. "Monday Night Football," which aired on ESPN and ABC, fetched 22.6 million viewers, according to the channel.
That 22.6 million is the kind of number that gets executives and advertisers up in the morning. It's the highest rated "Monday Night Football" game since 2006, when ESPN began carrying the game.
The year 2006, for what it's worth, was a far simpler time in terms of sports and TV ratings. Cable was competitively unrivaled. People were still ordering disks by snail mail via Netflix (NFLX) -) and books via Amazon. And Disney (DIS) -), a large incumbent in entertainment for decades, hadn't even begun to entertain the idea of a streaming service.
TV ratings matter but remain shrouded in mystery
ESPN's big viewership night tells only half the story. NFL viewership was up, across all channels and importantly, all platforms.
Here's how week one shook out:
- Opening night: Lions vs. Chiefs: 27.5 million viewers on NBC, Peacock and affiliated platforms.
- Sunday Night: Cowboys vs. Giants: 21.8 million viewers on NBC, Peacock and affiliated platforms.
Note that these ratings seem a little gappy. That's because increasingly many NFL games are moving to streaming platforms.
Amazon (AMZN) -) has an exclusive deal to air "Thursday Night Football" on its Prime Video streaming service. It will carry Eagles vs. Vikings on Thursday, which should draw impressive ratings in its own right. The only problem is that Amazon, like so many other streaming services, shrouds its viewership data in smoke and mystery.
Nielsen, a television rankings firm, had planned to include Amazon's numbers in its total Thursday night game reporting -- until it received considerable blowback from other stations. National Football League officials say they expect viewership to increase this season, so what gives? Why not report the full picture?
This is a part of a larger story. Disagreements and dissatisfaction over ratings have become something of a flashpoint in recent years, brought to a head especially in the past couple months as writers and actors are on strike over pay and other discrepancies.
Netflix, Amazon, Apple (AAPL) -) and other streaming services are mum on the numbers. There are arguments as to why, exactly, they don't like sharing their rankings, but the going theory is that these companies don't want to share their secret sauces.
Entertainment a cutthroat industry
Entertainment has always been a cutthroat industry, but with such fierce competition among not only cable players and now also the streamers, everyone is incredibly reticent to share any sort of data or proprietary information that might give away just how well they're doing. The more popular your show is known to be, the more it stands to be replicated and ripped off.
Writers and actors, of course, aren't fans of this secrecy. If you're a lead actor, and you're privy to the knowledge that you're in the cast of Netflix's most successful drama in three years, then you've got substantial negotiating power.
Transparency in viewership numbers is one of the central pushes from the Writers Guild of America. But streamers don't seem to want to budge.
"There's so many different ways to measure success, so you need to get as much data as possible to be able to organize your thinking about what really defines success," United Talent Agency CEO Jeffrey Zimmer told The Washington Post.
"If one group is staring at a set of figures and they're negotiating with another group who doesn't have any numbers, it makes it a very one-sided conversation."
Streamers do publish a variety of lists. Netflix includes a top-10 list each week. Disney occasionally holds pressers about its smash hits. Nielsen includes a top most watched shows across the biggest streaming platforms, which includes the number of minutes streamed.
But writers and actors argue it's not enough.
"It would be better if we got paid more money when our viewership numbers went up," the "Suits" creator Aaron Korsh told the LA Times. "I do think it is reasonable and achievable to expect residuals to go up, commensurate with increased views."
Many shows on both cable and streaming remain affected by the strikes. "The Handmaid's Tale," "The Terminal List," "The Last of Us," "Virgin River," "Wednesday," and many more shows and films have been delayed or suspended as the strike continues.
