NFL averaged 21 million viewers per game for opening week, its highest on record

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The NFL averaged 21.0 million viewers per game during the league's opening week, making it the most-watched Week 1 on record.

The league and Nielsen said Wednesday morning that the per-game average on TV and digital platforms was a 12% increase over last year. Nielsen began electronic measurement of viewing in 1988.

All told, 123 million people saw at least part of one game, its highest total for an opening week since 2019.

“A great start with the viewership. It was great to be back and a lot to be excited about," said Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution.

NBC had the most-watched game, with defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City's 27-20 victory over Baltimore in last Thursday's opener averaging 29.2 million on TV and digital. It was NBC's second-largest regular season game since 2006, when it acquired the “Sunday Night Football” package. The Sunday night game between Detroit and the Los Angeles Rams, which the Lions won 26-20 in overtime, averaged 22.7 million, a 3% jump from last year.

Tom Brady's first game as Fox's top analyst — Dallas' 33-17 win over Cleveland — averaged 23.93 million. The six games that were part of Fox's doubleheader (four early, two late) averaged 18.64 million, making it the network's best start since 2020.

This was the first time since 2020 that Fox solely had the Sunday afternoon doubleheader in Week 1. Both CBS and Fox carried two games apiece on the opening Sunday the past three seasons.

CBS averaged 17.79 million for its six games, its most watched Week 1 singleheader since it reacquired NFL rights in 1998. Most of CBS' affiliates had games in the 1 p.m. EDT window, but New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh got Jim Harbaugh's first game as coach of the Los Angeles Chargers against the Las Vegas Raiders at 4:05 p.m. EDT.

New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Pittsburgh could not air games in CBS' early window because it is a league rule that no game is shown opposite the game of the local team.

Philadelphia's 34-29 victory over Green Bay in the NFL's first Friday night Week 1 game in 54 years averaged 14.0 million on Peacock and NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Milwaukee. It was the second-most watched live event in Peacock's four-year history, behind last season's AFC wild card round game between Kansas City and Miami.

“I think the numbers even exceeded our expectations. Brazil was great and the game was an exciting one,” Schroeder said. “On a new night and window, I think that was a phenomenal start for us.”

“Monday Night Football” on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+ averaged 20.4 million for San Francisco's 32-19 win over the New York Jets despite most DirecTV customers not being able to receive it due to its carriage dispute with Disney (the only way they could watch it is if their ABC affiliate was not owned by Disney, which was not the case for DirecTV customers in New York and San Francisco).

The average was down from the 22.7 million for last year's opener between the Jets and Buffalo.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Fireworks fill the sky over Arrowhead Stadium as the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl XVIII championship banner is unveiled before the start of an NFL football game between the Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely (80) catches a pass with his toe out of bounds as Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton and linebacker Drue Tranquill, left, defend as time time expires in the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. The Chiefs won 27-20.(AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

NFL averaged 21 million viewers per game for opening week, its highest on record

Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones, left, and analyst Tom Brady, center right, talk with others during team warmups before an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

NFL averaged 21 million viewers per game for opening week, its highest on record

Instagram is making teen accounts mandatory for those under 18 as it tries to make the platform safer for children amid a growing backlash against how social media affects young people's lives.

Beginning Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, anyone under under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into teen accounts — which will be private by default — and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days. Teens in the European Union will see their accounts adjusted later this year.

Meta acknowledges that teenagers may lie about their age and says it will require them to verify their ages in more instances, like if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The Menlo Park, California company also said it is building technology that proactively finds teen accounts that pretend to be grownups and automatically places them into the restricted teen accounts.

The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. “Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.

While these settings will be turned on for all teens, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn them off. Kids under 16 will need their parents' permission to do so.

“The three concerns we’re hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don’t want to see or that they’re getting contacted by people they don’t want to be contacted by or that they’re spending too much on the app,” said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. “So teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns.”

The announcement comes as the company faces lawsuits from dozens of U.S. states that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

In the past, Meta's efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have been met with criticism that the changes don't go far enough. For instance, while kids will get a notification when they've spent 60 minutes on the app, they will be able to bypass it and continue scrolling.

That's unless the child's parents turn on “parental supervision” mode, where parents can limit teens' time on Instagram to a specific amount of time, such as 15 minutes.

With the latest changes, Meta is giving parents more options to oversee their kids' accounts. Those under 16 will need a parent or guardian's permission to change their settings to less restrictive ones. They can do this by setting up “parental supervision” on their accounts and connecting them to a parent or guardian.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said last week that parents don't use the parental controls the company has introduced in recent years.

Gleit said she thinks teen accounts will create a “big incentive for parents and teens to set up parental supervision.”

“Parents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen,” she said. “If there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teen’s following, who’s following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online.”

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last year that tech companies put too much on parents when it comes to keeping children safe on social media.

“We’re asking parents to manage a technology that’s rapidly evolving that fundamentally changes how their kids think about themselves, how they build friendships, how they experience the world — and technology, by the way, that prior generations never had to manage,” Murthy said in May 2023.

File - The Instagram logo is seen on a cell phone in Boston, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

FILE - Students use their cellphones as they leave for the day the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts High School in downtown Los Angeles, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)