Derby Attracts 17 Million Viewers; Records For Web, TVG

Derby Draws 7.4/18 Final Nielsen Rating

NBC's 5:00-6:45pm ET broadcast of the 130th Kentucky Derby last Saturday earned a 7.4/18 final Nielsen rating, up 16% over last year's 6.4/17. The race drew 17 million viewers, the second-highest Derby audience since '92, marking a 17% increase over last year's 14 million. The race segment from 5:45-6:45pm ET earned a 9.3/22, up 22% from last year's 7.6/20 (NBC). NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer said of the rating, "There was a lingering effect from last year's Funny Cide story. There may not have been a dominant horse coming into this Derby, but the growing core audience was watching" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 5/6).

ON THE WEB: Kentuckyderby.com, the official Web site of the Derby, attracted a record number of unique visitors last Saturday with more than 1.4 million, up 70% over last year's total. Visitors also logged more than 4.2 million page views, nearly double the total from Derby Day '03. From April 29-May 1, the site attracted more than 2.5 million unique visitors (CDI).

DERBY DOLLARS: Horse racing network TVG announced "record betting during this year's [Q1] and Saturday's Kentucky Derby." TVG took wagers of $42.4M in Q1 '04, including $5.1M on the Derby. The handle for the quarter was 68% "higher than during the same period a year ago" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/7).