• by Wayne Friedman , January 13, 2017

NFL’s first playoff week -- four wildcard games -- pulled in slightly lower national TV advertising revenue versus the same weekend a year ago.

NFL games totaled $227.0 million, down 4% from $236.5 million a year ago, according to iSpot.tv.

Much of this followed generally lower ratings for all four games -- with only one showing a slight gain. The New York-Green Bay game on Fox was up 1% from the same playoff game a year ago with 39.3 million viewers, per Nielsen.

CBS’ Miami-Pittsburgh game was down 16% to 29.9 million, while NBC’s Detroit-Seattle contest sank 14% to 26.9 million and ABC/ESPN’s Oakland-Houston game slipped 1% to 25.1 million.

Some of the major regular-season advertisers for the 2016 season also were big spenders in the early round of the 2017 postseason: Verizon, $9.5 million; GEICO, $9.3 million; NFL, $8.0 million; AT&T Wireless, $7.7 million; and Toyota, $7.6 million.

Some 194 brands, with 400 individual spots, had 1,186 airings.

A year ago, there were 217 brands -- 425 individual spots, airing 1,444 times.

A year ago, Verizon spent $10.3 million in the first playoff weekend. Ford Motor was next at $9.3 million, followed by McDonald’s at $7.7 million, Toyota with $6.8 million, and Chevrolet at $5.3 million.