The Five: TNF numbers, NASCAR, LOVB/USA, Spotify/ATP, and UNO Elite

Welcome back to Bucholtz Sports Media! This post is free for everyone thanks to our premium subscribers, who you can join here for $5 a month or $50 a year. We have a bunch of different sports business stories to cover today, so we're going back to The Five format for that.

1. Prime Video Thursday Night Football numbers continue to impress

Thursday Night Football has gone through a lot of evolutions over the years, and most of them drew criticism at the time. The package started as late-season Thursday and Saturday NFL Network broadcasts in 2006, went to a season-long schedule in 2012, then went to some network broadcasts (first with CBS, then CBS and NBC, then Fox) beginning in 2014. Beginning with the 2022 season, it went to Amazon exclusively (Prime Video had previously held the streaming rights since 2017), becoming the first and still most regular streaming-only (apart from broadcast TV in the participating teams' local markets) NFL broadcasts. (There are also games broadcast exclusively on streaming services Netflix, ESPN+, and Peacock, but none of those are an every-week package.)

Around the 2022 move to Prime Video, there was a lot of skepticism about if the time was right for a streaming-only NFL package, and how much reach the league would lose as a result. And the initial numbers were indeed (unsurprisingly) below what they'd been on broadcast TV, but they did show some promise. Now, four seasons in, the numbers keep getting better. Some of that is about measurement changes (indeed, after initial resistance to first-party data from many, the partnership Amazon struck with Nielsen formed the basis of the current Big Data+Panel approach that started with Thursday Night Football and now covers all broadcasts), but a lot of it is just about Prime Video continuing to establish this package as a weekly destination for many NFL fans.

Monday saw Prime Video announce the viewership for Thursday's Atlanta Falcons-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game (an average of 11.81 million viewers, down four percent from last year's comparable Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers clash, which drew 12.29 million), but more importantly, their season-to-date viewership. Through 13 weeks, TNF is averaging 14.9 million viewers, the most ever on Prime. That's up 13 percent from last year's full-season average (13.2 million), 26 percent from 2023 (11.86 million), and 56 percent from the first season in 2022 (9.58 million). It's also up eight percent in the P18-34 demo and 11 percent in P18-49, and cites a median viewer age of 49.1, well below the 55.9 for the NFL on linear networks.

Oh, and Prime Video saw a record 19.34 million viewers for the Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions game last week. That was the highest number ever for a game in this package, and was ahead of the average of 18.6 million viewers for all NFL broadcasts through Week 13. Prime Video also drew 16.33 million viewers for their Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles Black Friday game (not in the TNF package), the most-watched Black Friday broadcast of any kind since 1991.

At this point, the Prime Video season-to-date numbers would be ahead of any previous TNF season. (Last year's 13.2 million was the sixth-most-watched ever.) Granted, there are caveats; the 2014-2021 era had a mix of broadcast TV and NFL Network games, with the ones on NFLN dragging the average down, and out-of-home viewing wasn't counted in the general Nielsen numbers before 2020, and the Big Data+Panel shift helps the last two years. And yes, this package might draw even more viewers if it was fully on broadcast TV. But the NFL is somewhat having its cake and eating it too by getting linear-comparable numbers on a streaming-exclusive package that Amazon is paying a lot for (reportedly about $1 billion per year). The Prime Video TNF audience is quite impressive at this point, and it's one that slots in as better than past TNF viewership and similar to the viewership of other NFL broadcasts. And it's part of the NFL's overall great ratings story this year.

2. NASCAR settlement is good news, but will its late arrival still hurt the sport?

It is a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that being in court is generally a bad thing for sports leagues. That's frequently even more true when it comes to those leagues' members or franchises taking legal action against them. In many cases, the leagues' positions have not found favor with the law in the long run. But even beyond that, the legal process frequently leads to a lot of embarrassing internal information and communications coming to light, and the general size of franchises versus leagues means even an incredibly wealthy owner such as Jerry Jones or Michael Jordan can seem like a popular underdog.

With that in mind, the settlement NASCAR struck Thursday with Jordan's 23XI Racing and Bob Jenkins' Front Row Motorsports should have positive impacts for both the organization and those teams. While the resolution here (specifically, the return of those teams' charters, the granting of permanent charters, and extra revenue and governance involvement for teams) is closer to what the teams initially wanted than what NASCAR did, this is still good for the sanctioning body compared to the possibility of a jury verdict against them that could have brought their whole control of top-tier stock car racing into dispute.

The settlement also ended a trial that was growing increasingly messy for NASCAR, especially with the release of president Steve Phelps' August 2023 texts that Hall of Fame owner Richard Childress was "a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR" and that he "should be taken out back and flogged." But, as Scott Fowler wrote in The Charlotte Observer, "The settlement was the right thing to to do, and the only real wrong part about it was that it didn’t happen months earlier." Indeed, this legal battle (which dates back even beyond the teams' lawsuit filing 14 months ago) could seemingly have been avoided if NASCAR had offered these terms (or, perhaps, even slightly less) in the first place, or played less hardball with their demands to teams. It's a good reminder for leagues that while they have a lot of power relative to individual franchises, avoiding public court battles with those teams can be worth some concessions.

3. USA announces primetime schedule for League One Volleyball

There are lots of interesting things ahead for Versant, the cable networks spinoff from Comcast set to become fully independent in early 2026. Sports looks to be a key priority for the company, and that makes sense, considering the power sports still has on linear TV. It also makes sense considering that prospective Versant CEO Mark Lazarus' past NBCUniversal roles include a lot of time running sports; he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame last year. And many of those sports are set for the USA network.

There have been numerous sports deals struck for USA in its Versant future outside NBC Sports proper (which is remaining with Comcast's NBCUniversal division). Those include an expanded WNBA deal that I wrote about in September, plus a continued United States Golf Association deal (which will include roles for Versant's USA and Golf Channel in addition to NBCU's NBC and Peacock). And they struck a deal in September for LOVB Pro (League One Volleyball) women's volleyball games.

Versant's sports division, now known as USA Sports, has now announced those broadcast details. Those will focus on 8 p.m. ET primetime regular season matches each Wednesday from Jan. 7 to April 1 (excepting Feb. 11 and 18 due to Olympics coverage) before semifinal and championship matches. And that will give USA quite a consistent Wednesday night sports window, as their WNBA deal (beginning in May) will also focus on that window. It's worth tracking how this does, but there's some promise here given the rising interest in women's volleyball and given the consistent window (part of what's helped with Prime's TNF success discussed above).

4. Spotify rolls out ATP Tour feature content

Back in November, Spotify announced a "global content collaboration" with tennis' ATP Tour. Some of that early content is now out, and it's interesting: it includes 11-30 minute videos on ATP stars from Holger Rune through Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, plus one showing 11 TikTok creators going behind the scenes at the 2025 Nitto ATP Finals.

While most people know Spotify for audio, the company cited overall video consumption on their platform being up 80 percent this year in that November announcement. That announcement also noted that sports-specific video consumption on their platform was up 250 percent. It's interesting to see them expanding their sports content with partnerships like this one with the ATP Tour, and it will be worth watching to see what other deals they strike going forward.

5. Joe Thomas to host $10,000 UNO Elite Championship

We love board and card games around here, and those sometimes touch on the sports world. The latest example of that comes from the UNO Elite Championship. UNO Elite is a NFL-licensed version of the 1971-launched UNO (check out those player cards above!), and brand owner Mattel is now running a championship. People can sign up at hobby stores and compete for local championships, and four finalists (and one hobby shop owner) will be randomly selected for a Vegas trip to the championship on Super Bowl weekend, with the championship game (on Super Bowl Sunday) hosted by former NFL lineman (and sometimes broadcaster) Joe Thomas and featuring a $10,000 grand prize. That's a notable way to market this NFL-themed UNO version, and it's cool to see Mattel involving local hobby stores in this.

Thanks for reading! Have any feedback or tips? You can always reach me at andrew@andrewbucholtz.com, or on Bluesky or X.