Less Than Perfect: Women's Tourney Ratings On ESPN Down From '08

Women's Title Game Tuesday Night On ESPN Earns 2.1 Cable Rating, Down 30% From '08

ESPN earned a 1.2 cable rating (1.5 million viewers) for its 12 telecasts of the NCAA women's basketball tournament this year, down 14.3% from a 1.4 rating for its telecasts last year, but up from a 1.0 average rating in '07. On ESPN2, the net's 15 telecasts averaged a 0.5 cable rating (694,000 viewers), down from a 0.6 rating last year and even with '07. Tuesday night's Connecticut-Louisville Championship game on ESPN earned a 2.1 cable rating and 2.7 million viewers, down 30.0% and 30.8%, respectively, from a 3.0 rating and 3.9 million viewers for Tennessee-Stanford last year (THE DAILY). In Louisville, Jody Demling reported UConn-Louisville drew a 21.9 local rating in Hartford, the "lowest for any of UConn's six title games televised on ESPN." It earned a 19.2 local rating in Louisville, a "record for the most-watched women's basketball game" in the market (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 4/9). Meanwhile, ESPN earned a 19.4 local rating in Oklahoma City for Sunday's Louisville-Oklahoma national semifinal, a record for women's basketball in the market. The previous high was a 19.3 for Oklahoma's 86-71 victory over Duke in an '02 national semifinal (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 4/8).

CBS' MMOD Draws 7.52 Million Viewers For NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney This Year

EYES ON THE PRIZE: CBSSports.com released its final traffic figures for the March Madness On Demand (MMOD) application this year. MMOD drew 7.52 million unique viewers, up 58% from 4.76 million in '08, while 8.6 million total hours of live streaming video and audio were consumed, marking a 75% increase from 4.92 million hours in '08. For the national semifinals and championship game, 515,000 total hours of video and audio were consumed, a 51% increase over '08 figures. Meanwhile, the "Boss Button" was clicked 2.77 million times over the course of the three-week tournament, up from 2.5 million times last year (CBS).