The news: Viewership for NFL opening week was down a notable 13% compared with last year’s week one viewership, per Nielsen and Mediapost. Average viewership was still above the overall 2025 regular season average.

Why it matters: The NFL is the biggest source of recurring, mass-reach programming for advertisers. But NFL ad prices continue to climb even as viewership growth slows, raising the risk that advertisers pay more to reach fewer viewers.

• The cost of a regular season NFL ad is an average of $800,000 for national games and $1 million for primetime, per Roku Advertising. That’s hundreds of thousands above the cost for a regular season NBA game.
• Ads for the Super Bowl are even greater at $8 million to $10 million.
• Rising prices come despite live sports viewership flatlining. We forecast that live sports viewership will remain relatively flat in upcoming years, reaching 48.5% of the US population this year and 48.4% in 2030.