Getty Courtland Sutton tiptoes the boundary for a Broncos score against the Texans.
Despite the worrisome start to the Denver Broncos‘ season, more Colorado fans tuned in during the first four weeks than they did last year. The 2-3 Broncos have been mainly a source of frustration for dedicated orange and blue supporters, but they haven’t stopped watching every minute of it.
Year-over-year viewership rose 9% to 440,000 homes in the Denver designated market area, up from about 405,000 homes in Weeks 1 through 4 of 2021, according to a market-by-market breakdown released this week by the Sports Business Journal. Nielsen, the company that measures TV viewership, defines a designated market area as “a group of counties and ZIP codes that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed.” According to Media Market Map, the Denver DMA comprises 53 counties in Colorado, 15 in Nebraska and six in Wyoming for a total of 1.63 million homes.
NFL TV Markets With the Biggest Changes
Cincinnati Bengals fans are, understandably, much more invested in their team’s start to the season this year than in 2021. A local increase of 33% was noted by the report, the largest percentage increase in NFL cities. Buffalo and Detroit both increased by 23%. Los Angeles Rams’ fans saw a 19% rise, while the Minneapolis area has 11% more homes watching this year’s Vikings team. Both Philadelphia and New York’s Giants have seen a 10% increase and the Broncos and New York Jets are up 9%.
The Los Angeles Chargers, a team with a lot of hype headed into the 2022 season, have seen a significant drop in LA viewership, down 29%. The departure of Russell Wilson appears to have affected Seattle viewers, down 17%. Houston has decreased 16%, Cleveland is down 15% and Boston-area Patriots fans have seen a 9% drop.
Why Are There More Eyes on This Year’s Broncos Team?
There’s one glaringly easy answer: Russell Wilson’s arrival.
In addition to the quarterback change, a new head coach and a slew of exciting young players had Mile High City fans ready for some football this fall. In addition to the excitement around the team, the Denver television market has likely been helped by a number of prime-time games so far. Denver has played one game in each of the three night game slots — Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football — through five weeks.
Finally, an outside-the-box thought on the Denver sports community as a hole. Are the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche playing a factor? Denver is far from the country’s most depressed sports cities, with a Super Bowl win still in the rearview mirror. But a stretch of five straight losing seasons has been a tough pill to swallow. The Nuggets have been a fun ticket, but are yet to put together a postseason run worthy of setting the region into a frenzy. And the Rockies, well, they’re the Rockies. So is it possible the Avalanche pumped some new life into the community’s athletic excitement level? It certainly didn’t hurt things.
The Broncos have yet another prime time showing in Week 6 as they travel to Los Angeles to battle the AFC West rival Chargers. Week 8 features an early morning stand-alone London game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Late this season there are even more stand-alone viewership chances to catch Denver. A Sunday night home game against the Chiefs and holiday games on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.