Contacts:
Chris Widmaier, National Football League, 212-450-2066, widmaierc@nfl.com
Michael Signora, National Football League, 212-450-2076, signoram@nfl.com
Eric Handler, ESPN Internet Ventures, 212-916-7726, eric.handler@espn.com
NFL.COM TRAFFIC SOARS;
FANS TURN TO SITE FOR ENHANCED GAMEDAY EXPERIENCE
NEW YORK, September 28, 1999 – With NFL fans flocking to games in record numbers and television ratings on the rise, NFL.com, the league’s official Web site, is also enjoying a strong start to the NFL’s 80th season.
The NFL.com audience is up more than 50 percent from the same point in the 1998 season, and through three weeks of 1999:
NFL.com’s strong numbers have carried-over from the preseason directly into September.
In August, the site was the third most popular sports site (behind ESPN.com and CBS Sportsline) with 2,086,000 unique users, as measured by Media Metrix. That means that more than 2 million different people logged on at least once over the course of the month. This is a 139 percent increase over July.
"Fans know NFL.com is a great resource before, during and after the games for the latest information," said JAAN JANES, senior director of programming and marketing for NFL Interactive. "With our GameDay Live features, fans can go online and get up-to-the-minute play by play and stats on their favorite teams and players."
Other popular features this season include same-day video highlight packages produced by NFL Films for every NFL team, weekly coaches chat sessions, and live audio teleconferences with NFL players.
NFL.com is produced by NFL Interactive and ESPN Internet Ventures