NBC finished with a 3.7 rating and 5.5 million viewers for the final round of Tiger Woods' win at the WGC-Cadillac Championship last Sunday, marking the best audience for the Doral event since Woods won in ’06. Third-round coverage on Saturday earned a 2.3 rating and 3.4 million viewers, also the best since ’06. Meanwhile, Golf Channel averaged 1.5 million viewers for the second round on Friday, marking the most-viewed early round for the tournament on record. Friday’s coverage also was up 24% year-over-year. Golf Channel on Thursday averaged 1.0 million viewers, marking the best opening round for a PGA Tour event this year to date. NBC’s PGA Tour coverage is up 3% to date, while Golf Channel is up 9% (NBC Sports).
ICE TIME: MSG Networks (MSG, MSG+) are averaging a 1.8 local rating in N.Y. through 21 NHL Rangers games, up 82% compared to the team’s final average last season. Meanwhile, the Devils are averaging a 0.6 rating on MSG through 24 games, up 67%. Islanders games are averaging a 0.5 local rating, up 124% (MSG)….NESN is averaging a 7.0 local rating in Boston through 21 Bruins games, up 49% from last season’s final average of a 4.7 -- “which happens to stand as the regular-season record for Bruins telecasts on NESN.” The net “began airing Bruins games in 1984.” Nine of the 12 “highest-rated regular-season Bruins games of all time have occurred this season” (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/15).
NOTES: Fox Soccer averaged 460,000 viewers for the Manchester United-Chelsea FA Cup Round Six match last Sunday, marking the fifth-best audience of any kind on the network (Fox Soccer)….Fox Deportes finished the month of February as the No. 1 Spanish cable sports network (Fox Deportes)….Big Ten Network had its best audience ever in February among its eight-market footprint, surpassing the record set in January. Fueling the growth was a 33% jump in audience for Big Ten men’s basketball games for the month (BTN)…. The Heat-T’Wolves game on March 4 saw 3.3 million social interactions, according to data from Trendrr. The figure marked the most-discussed cable program on social media from Feb. 28-March 7. Overall, three of the top five on the list during that time period were NBA games (THE DAILY).
The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| NASCAR Sprint Cup: Las Vegas |
3/10
|
Fox
|
3:15-6:15pm
|
4.7
|
7,500
|
WGC: Cadillac Championship:
Final Round |
3/10
|
NBC
|
3:00-7:00pm
|
3.7
|
5,490
|
| NBA: Bulls-Lakers |
3/10
|
ABC
|
3:45-6:15pm
|
2.7
|
4,064
|
WGC: Cadillac Championship:
Third Round |
3/9
|
NBC
|
2:00-6:00pm
|
2.3
|
3,360
|
| NCAA Basketball: Indiana-Michigan |
3/10
|
CBS
|
4:30-6:15pm
|
2.1
|
n/a
|
| NBA: Celtics-Thunder |
3/10
|
ABC
|
1:00-3:45pm
|
2.0
|
2,902
|
NCAA Basketball:
Notre Dame-Louisville |
3/9
|
CBS
|
4:15-6:15pm
|
1.3
|
n/a
|
| NCAA Basketball: Florida-Kentucky |
3/9
|
CBS
|
12:00-2:15pm
|
1.2
|
n/a
|
NCAA Basketball:
UCLA-Washington |
3/9
|
CBS
|
2:15-4:15pm
|
0.9
|
n/a
|
NCAA Basketball: MVC
Championship: Creighton-Wichita St |
3/10
|
CBS
|
2:15-4:30pm
|
0.8
|
n/a
|
| NCAA Basketball: VCU-Temple |
3/10
|
CBS
|
12:00-2:15pm
|
0.7
|
n/a
|
| NHL: Rangers-Capitals |
3/10
|
NBC
|
12:30-3:00pm
|
0.7
|
959
|
Snowboarding:
Sprint U.S. Grand Prix |
3/9
|
NBC
|
12:30-1:30pm
|
0.4
|
555
|
| "Golf Central Live" |
3/9
|
NBC
|
1:30-2:00pm
|
0.4
|
523
|
| "ESPN Sports Saturday" |
3/9
|
ABC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
0.4
|
n/a
|
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
| NBA: Lakers-Thunder |
3/5
|
TNT
|
9:49pm-12:28am
|
2.2
|
3,339
|
NCAA Basketball:
Duke-North Carolina |
3/9
|
ESPN
|
8:55-10:53pm
|
1.7
|
2,787
|
| NBA: Thunder-Knicks |
3/7
|
TNT
|
8:16-10:52pm
|
1.8
|
2,736
|
NCAA Basketball:
Ohio State-Indiana |
3/5
|
ESPN
|
9:13-11:08pm
|
1.5
|
2,310
|
NASCAR Nationwide Series:
Las Vegas |
3/9
|
ESPN2
|
4:27-7:06pm
|
1.3
|
2,111
|
| NBA: Clippers-Nuggets |
3/7
|
TNT
|
10:52pm-1:20am
|
1.2
|
1,733
|
| NCAA Basketball: Kansas-Baylor |
3/9
|
ESPN
|
6:06-8:10pm
|
1.1
|
1,677
|
| NBA: Rockets-Warriors |
3/8
|
ESPN
|
10:56pm-1:11am
|
1.1
|
1,655
|
| "College GameDay" |
3/9
|
ESPN
|
8:10-8:55pm
|
1.0
|
1,628
|
| NBA: 76ers-Heat |
3/8
|
ESPN
|
8:05-10:46pm
|
1.0
|
1,527
|
