-By John Consoli, Mediaweek

NEW YORK The National Football League is off to a solid start on television this season, with all four networks up in viewers through the first four weeks versus last year.

Especially impressive are Sunday afternoon national game broadcasts, averaging a 13.7 household rating for CBS and 13.0 for Fox. If those telecasts fell into prime time, the games would respectively rank first and third among all network prime-time entertainment programming (ABC's Dancing With the Stars is in second place, with a 13.4.).

The networks air games on Sunday and Monday, while the NFL Network runs eight games across Thursday and Saturday. The league's system also assures parity; almost every TV market has a team that in any year could be a contender.

Through the first four weeks of the season, ESPN's Monday Night Football has shown the biggest ratings bump, averaging 13 million viewers per telecast, up 20 percent versus last season. NBC's Sunday Night Football is averaging 17.8 million viewers, up 4 percent. For all its Sunday games, national and regional, CBS is averaging 15.8 million viewers, up 3 percent, while Fox is averaging 15.2 million for all games, up 1 percent.

For Sunday national games, CBS is averaging 22.2 million viewers, up 20 percent. Fox is averaging 21.1 million, up 6 percent.

Meanwhile, the games continue to attract the more-elusive-than-ever male audience, particularly younger men. Fox's most recent national game, in which the Cowboys lost to the Washington Redskins, drew a 9.2 rating among men 18-34, 10.8 among men 18-49 and 11.9 among men 25-54.