ESPN Audience Up For BCS Bowls

ESPN finished with a 15.1 U.S. rating and 26.4 million viewers for Alabama’s 42-14 win over Notre Dame in Monday night’s BCS National Championship, marking the second-best audience in cable TV history. The only larger audience was the ’11 Auburn-Oregon BCS title game, which drew a ...

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Overnight Nielsen Ratings

ESPN earned a 2.7 overnight for the Lakers-Clippers game on Friday night, marking the net's best regular-season NBA game rating since Knicks-Heat earned a 3.2 overnight in February '11. The net also earned a 1.7 overnight for the Bulls-Heat game in the early window Friday night. Meanwhile, ESPN air ...

Tags: Research and Ratings, Nielsen Media Research

NFL TV Partners Continue Strong Numbers

NFL TV partners continued strong viewership for their respective game telecasts during the ’12 season, particularly against other TV competition. NFL games accounted for 31 of the 32 most-viewed TV shows during the fall. For the first time ever, an NFL game was the week’s most-watched TV ...

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ESPN Sees Uptick For Orange Bowl Overnight, Decline For Rose Bowl

ESPN earned a 9.6 overnight Nielsen rating for Stanford’s win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, marking the best overnight for any non-NFL program on cable TV since last year’s BCS National Championship. The 9.6 overnight, however, is down 3% from a 9.9 for the Oregon-Wisconsin matchup la ...

Overnight Ratings: Texas-Oregon State Tops Bowls

ESPN’s overnight rating for Texas’ comeback victory over Oregon State topped all college bowl games over the weekend. The Valero Alamo Bowl from 6:45-10:15pm on Saturday earned a 4.3 overnight, down 4% from the Baylor-Washington matchup last year, which aired on a Thursday night. ESP ...

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ESPN "MNF" Down For Second Straight Year

ESPN averaged an 8.2 U.S. rating and 12.8 million viewers for its “MNF” games this season, marking the second straight season of declines for the primetime cable package. The net’s 17 games were down 2% and 3%, respectively, from last season and down 10% and 12%, respectively, from ...

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Thunder-Heat Overnight Tops Christmas Day

The NBA’s slate of five Christmas Day games was led by ABC’s telecast of Thunder-Heat in the 5:30pm ET window, with the game drawing a 6.0 overnight rating to mark the net’s fourth-highest NBA regular-season rating ever. The NBA last year opened its season on Christmas, and the com ...

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College Football Game Audience Declines In '12

While NBC saw gains on the back of Notre Dame’s undefeated regular season, all other college football broadcasters saw a decline in viewership for their respective packages in ‘12. CBS’ SEC games remained the most-viewed package with 6.2 million viewers for 13 games. That figure, h ...

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NFL, Olympics Top TV List Of Most-Watched Sports

Last season’s NFL Playoffs and the London Games dominated the list of the most-viewed sports telecasts in ’12. A combination of the NFL and Olympics gave NBC 16 of the top 25 spots this year. The top five spots belong to the NFL postseason, with NBC's Giants-Patriots matchup in ...

Tags: Year End

NFL Net Sees Record Audience For Games

NFL Network averaged a 4.0 U.S. rating and 6.4 million viewers for its expanded slate of 13 games this season (excluding over-the-air figures), marking the net’s best audience since it began airing regular-season games in '06. This year marks the fourth straight year NFL Net set a new audience ...

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