ESPN earned a 3.6 U.S. rating and 5.5 million viewers last Sunday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Brickyard 400, the net’s first telecast of the ’13 season and first since NASCAR announced ESPN’s package of races would be going to NBC beginning in ’15. The audience was up from record-low levels last season, when ESPN earned a 3.3 rating and 5.1 million viewers. Indianapolis led all markets with a 13.7 local rating, followed by Greensboro (10.1) and Greenville-Spartanburg (9.4).
| NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES BRICKYARD 400 AUDIENCE TREND ON ESPN |
| YEAR | RATING | VIEWERS (000) |
| '13 | 3.6 | 5,460 |
| '12 | 3.3 | 5,055 |
| '11 | 4.0 | 6,377 |
| '10 | 3.6 | 5,709 |
| '09 | 4.1 | 6,487 |
| '08 | 4.3 | 6,668 |
| '07 | 4.2 | 6,574 |
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GOLD, JERRY: Fox earned a 1.4 final rating and 2.4 million viewers last Sunday afternoon for the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, which saw the U.S. defeat Panama 1-0. That audience is tied as Fox’ highest-rated soccer audience ever with the ’11 UEFA Champions League Final (FC Barcelona-Manchester United). K.C. led all markets with a 3.2 local rating, followed by San Diego with a 3.1 rating. Meanwhile, Univision averaged 2.3 million viewers for the U.S.-Panama match. Earlier in the week, UniMas averaged 3.3 million viewers for the Panama-Mexico semifinal and 1.6 million viewers for the U.S.-Honduras semifinal.
NINE LIVES: ESPN averaged 377,000 viewers for the premieres of the first four “Nine for IX” documentaries. The top audience remains the first premiere, which was “Venus Vs” on July 2 with 460,000 viewers. Since the start of “30 for 30” in October ‘09, the four “Nine for IX” films would rank as four of the five least-viewed documentary premieres on ESPN.
| "NINE FOR IX" PREMIERES ON ESPN |
| DATE | FILM | RATING | VIEWERS (000) |
| 7/2 | "Venus Vs." | 0.4 | 460 |
| 7/9 | "Pat XO" | 0.2 | 311 |
| 7/16 | "No Limits" | 0.3 | 335 |
| 7/23 | "Let Them Wear Towels" | 0.3 | 400 |
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AROUND THE HORN: KCAL-CBS earned a 7.0 rating and 603,000 viewers in the L.A. market for Yankees-Dodgers on Tuesday night, marking the highest local rating for a regular-season Dodgers game on any broadcast or cable network since a Dodgers-Angels game on June 25, 1998 (7.4 rating)….Sun Sports for the seven Rays games against the Red Sox and Yankees from July 22-29 had seven of the Rays’ 10 highest-rated games of the season. The seven telecasts on the RSN averaged a 7.6 local rating in Tampa-St. Petersburg. By comparison, the Rays averaged a 6.0 local rating in July....MLB Network averaged 205,000 viewers for trade deadline coverage on Wednesday from 11:00am-5:00pm ET, up 55% from last year.
The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST | DATE | NET | TIME (ET) | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) |
| CONCACAF Gold Cup Semifinal: Panama-Mexico | 7/24 | UniMas | 9:36pm-12:06am | 1.6 | 3,308 |
| PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Final Round | 7/28 | CBS | 3:00-6:00pm | 1.6 | n/a |
| CONCACAF Gold Cup Final: U.S.-Panama | 7/28 | Fox | 3:30-6:05pm | 1.4 | 2,400 |
| "UFC on Fox 8" | 7/27 | Fox | 8:00-10:17pm | 1.5 | 2,384 |
| MLB: (regional) | 7/27 | Fox | 3:00-6:00pm | 1.4 | n/a |
| PGA Tour: RBC Canadian Open: Third Round | 7/27 | CBS | 3:00-6:00pm | 1.0 | n/a |
| CONCACAF Gold Cup Semifinal: U.S.-Honduras | 7/24 | UniMas | 6:38-9:02pm | 0.8 | 1,600 |
| World Series of Beach Volleyball | 7/28 | NBC | 4:30-6:00pm | 0.7 | 1,081 |
| World Series of Beach Volleyball | 7/27 | NBC | 4:00-5:00pm | 0.6 | 884 |
| X Games | 7/28 | ABC | 5:00-6:00pm | 0.5 | 836 |
| World Swimming Championships | 7/28 | NBC | 2:30-4:30pm | 0.5 | 800 |
| WNBA All-Star Game | 7/27 | ABC | 3:30-6:00pm | 0.6 | 791 |
| "Octane Academy" | 7/27 | NBC | 5:00-6:00pm | 0.4 | 599 |
| AMA Motocross | 7/27 | NBC | 3:00-4:00pm | 0.4 | 566 |
| Tour de France recap | 7/28 | NBC | 12:30-2:30pm | 0.3 | 528 |
| Lucas Oil Off Road Racing | 7/27 | CBS | 2:00-3:00pm | 0.3 | n/a |
| "Road to the PGA Championship" | 7/28 | CBS | 2:00-3:00pm | 0.3 | n/a |
| TELECAST | DATE | NET | TIME (ET) | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) |
| NASCAR Sprint Cup: Brickyard 400 (Indianapolis) | 7/28 | ESPN | 1:00-4:22pm | 3.6 | 5,460 |
| MLB: Cardinals-Braves | 7/28 | ESPN | 8:00-11:08pm | 1.5 | 2,377 |
| NASCAR Nationwide Series: Indianapolis | 7/27 | ESPN | 4:30-7:00pm | 1.4 | 1,913 |
| "NASCAR Countdown" | 7/28 | ESPN | 12:00-1:00pm | 1.4 | 1,890 |
| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Eldora | 7/24 | Speed | 9:31-11:40pm | 0.9 | 1,409 |
| "NASCAR Countdown" | 7/27 | ESPN | 4:00-4:30pm | 0.9 | 1,251 |
| NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying | 7/27 | ESPN | 2:00-4:00pm | 0.8 | 1,156 |
| "NASCAR Pre-Race" | 7/24 | Speed | 9:00-9:31pm | 0.6 | 1,031 |
| MLB: Yankees-Rangers | 7/22 | ESPN | 7:00-9:58pm | 0.7 | 935 |
| UFC prelims | 7/27 | FX | 5:00-8:00pm | 0.6 | 904 |
