The Gold Standard of Television Engagement

There are a converted touchdown's worth of reasons whty the National Football League has become the gold standard of television engagement as measured by ratings.

Among the trends it benefits with in common with the other major North American professional sports leagues is the enhanced television viewing experience ushered in by the advent and evolution of HD and large-screen format products. The NFL is also the beneficiary of the proliferation of social media platforms as viral tools to drive traffic to its television platform. Like the other pro leagues, it is benefitting from a larger United States, both in terms of gross population and -- especially -- the number of TV households.

Yet the NFL is TV gold for myriad other reasons as well. It avoids audience burnout by staging a compact, four-month regular season of 16 games with an efficient, five-week playoff tournament leading to the big payoff known as Super Bowl.

It commands its audience with destination TV Sundays, Monday nights and now increasingly Thursdays.

The other sports to some degree market their personalities, but the NFL is truly star-based, with quarterbacks providing TV audiences with a focus of attention that only baseball can rival with its pitchers and hitters doing one-on-one situational combat.

Yet in my view easily the best thing football has going for it is cultural dominance...and it's cultural dominance driven by a television strategy and media platform that is second to none. Multiple stakeholders spanning each of the major networks in one form or another are part of the NFL "family": NBC, FOX, CBS and ESPN (representing, of course, Disney/ABC).

That approach leads to sports news and feature coverage like no other sport, following the cycle of high school football Fridays, college football Saturdays and pro football Sundays. For added measure, it's extended by Thursday night games at the front end of the weekend (cross-promoting what's to come Sunday) and backended by Monday Night Football as the perfect reminder of what fans saw -- or missed -- the previous weekend.

It generates lead-in programming coverage that makes Sunday, more than any other day, Football Day in America.

Finally, it leads to cross-promotion that sees each of the rival networks predisposed to hyping Super Bowl, even in the years when they don't have the rights. It's the best of both worlds as the networks compete by striving to outdo each other on their coverage but cooperate by respectfully cross-promoting, especially during the Super Bowl tournament.

That's why the audiences for Super Bowl grow each year and that's why yet another record will be set today.

It's the latter reasons that really bring light users and casual fans to the table, doubling the base of harder core football fans who tune in for the conference championships to the tune of 55M average audience numbers.  It's casual fans that take it into nine-figure TV audiences and make it the biggest TV show in North America, with each February surpassing the last.