Light on ads, the AAF connects with football-hungry fans
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Saturday night’s debut of the Alliance of American Football helped nearly 3 million sports junkies avoid the comedown of gridiron withdrawal. And while the inaugural broadcast largely delivered what the league’s backers promised, tracking the new venture’s ratings progress may present something of a challenge in the weeks ahead.
Launching on the heels of Super Bowl LIII, the AAF’s opening night averaged 2.91 million viewers and a 2.1 overnight rating on CBS. In the 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST window, the AAF premiere out-delivered ABC’s Oklahoma City-Houston NBA game (which also posted a 2.1 in the metered markets) by some 389,000 viewers.
If America’s first look at the AAF was somewhat fracturedthe majority of viewers (78 percent of all markets) were presented with the San Diego-San Antonio game, while the remainder had the option to tune in to Orlando’s blowout of Atlantathe broadcast itself was as advertised. The 35-second play clock kept things hopping like a bunny on Adderall, and the breaks in the action were few and far between. In other words, there weren’t very many in-game opportunities for advertisers to shill their products.
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