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Final Ratings: NCAA Women's Title Game Best In 10 Years; F1 Up On NBCSN

ESPN finished with 4.27 million viewers for UConn’s blowout win over Notre Dame on Tuesday, marking the best viewership for the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game since UConn-Tennessee in ’04 (5.58 million). This year’s title game is up 33% from UConn’s win over Louisville last year and marks the sixth-best title game audience since ESPN began airing the event in ’96. The top audience remains the ’02 UConn-Oklahoma finale with 5.68 million viewers.

NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP VIEWERSHIP TREND
YEAR
MATCHUP
VIEWERS (000)
'14
UConn-Notre Dame
4,270
'13
UConn-Louisville
3,206
'12
Baylor-Notre Dame
4,244
'11
Texas A&M-Notre Dame
3,831
'10
UConn-Stanford
3,531
'09
UConn-Louisville
2,668
'08
Tennessee-Stanford
3,858
'07
Tennessee-Rutgers
2,918
'06
Maryland-Duke
3,587
'05
Baylor-Michigan State
3,235
'04
UConn-Tennessee
5,583
   

BREAKFAST FROM BAHRAIN: NBCSN averaged 594,000 viewers for the Bahrain Grand Prix last Sunday, marking the net’s best F1 audience since it began airing races last year and also marking the best non-U.S. F1 race on cable TV in three years. The telecast from 10:30am-12:53pm ET was the most-viewed cable TV F1 race since Speed drew 627,000 viewers for the Monaco GP in ’11. NBCSN’s previous high for an F1 race was last year’s Abu Dhabi GP on Nov. 3 with 354,000 viewers. Through three races, NBCSN is averaging 364,000 viewers, marking the best average through this point in the season in a decade -- dating back to 382,000 viewers for Speed in ’04. NBCSN also is up 206% compared to the same point last season and up 46% compared to Speed in ’12. Both the ‘13 and ’12 seasons saw the first three races air live at either 1:30am, 2:30am or 3:30am (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

PLAY BALL! FS1 aired its first MLB regular-season games last Saturday, with Giants-Dodgers from 4:00-7:54pm ET leading the way with 421,000 viewers. That audience ranked fourth overall last week among FS1’s telecasts, behind three NASCAR-related programs. Twins-Indians on Saturday from 1:00-4:00pm averaged 380,000 viewers (Austin Karp Assistant Managing Editor)....FS Midwest drew a 12.7 local rating in St. Louis for Reds-Cardinals on Monday, marking the Cards’ best home opener since ’11. The rating also is up 8% from an 11.8 for the team’s home opener against the Reds last year (BIZJOURNALS.com, 4/8)....SportsTime Ohio drew an 8.4 local rating in Cleveland-Akron for Twins-Indians last Sunday, marking the Indians' third-best April game audience on the RSN and fourth-best day game audience on record. The game also was the top-rated show in the market for the day (CRAINSCLEVELAND.com, 4/8)....CSN Houston earned a 0.0 local rating for the Angels-Astros game on Monday, marking the second time the RSN drew that rating for an Astros game. The first time came on September 22, 2013 for a day game opposite a Texans game (CHRON.com, 4/9).

NOTES: Golf Channel drew 670,000 viewers for the final round of the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship last Sunday, marking the best final round for the event since it moved from ESPN/CBS in ’11. The audience also marks the most-watched round of women’s golf since the final round of the Solheim Cup last year drew 780,000 viewers (Golf Channel)....Pro Bull Riding telecasts on CBS from January-March saw a 61% viewership increase compared to the same period last year. The net also saw a 71% gain among males 18-34 and 46% gain among males 35-54 (PBR)....ESPN drew 1.07 million viewers for the U.S.-Mexico men's soccer friendly on April 2, while Univision drew 3.9 million viewers for the same match (THE DAILY).

The charts below list final ratings from recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS (000)
NBA: Lakers-Clippers
4/6
ABC
3:41-6:15pm
2.0
3,981
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Duck Commander 500 (Texas)*
4/6
Fox
3:00-5:30pm
2.4
3,800
NBA: Knicks-Heat
4/6
ABC
12:56-3:41pm
2.0
3,019
PGA Tour: Shell Houston Open: Final Round
4/6
NBC
3:00-6:00pm
1.9
2,745
PGA Tour: Shell Houston Open: Third Round
4/5
NBC
3:00-6:00pm
1.4
1,872
Liga MX: Club America-Cruz Azul
4/5
Univision
6:55-9:00pm
0.9
1,540
"NBA Countdown"
4/6
ABC
12:30-12:56pm
0.8
1,073
NHL: Blues-Blackhawks
4/6
NBC
12:00-3:00pm
0.7
1,030
"ESPN Sports Saturday"
4/5
ABC
4:00-6:00pm
0.7
1,008
PBR: Dewalt Guaranteed Tough Invitational
4/5
CBS
3:00-5:00pm
0.6
897
College basketball coaching special: "Planning For Success"
4/5
CBS
2:30-3:00pm
0.6
824
"The Real Fans of NCAA March Madness"
4/5
CBS
2:00-2:30pm
0.6
819
College Basketball All-Star Game
4/5
CBS
12:00-2:00pm
0.6
809
EPL: Chelsea-Stoke City
4/5
NBC
12:30-2:30pm
0.5
694
"Moments of NCAA March Madness"
4/6
CBS
5:00-6:00pm
0.4
692
"EPL Goal Zone"
4/5
NBC
2:30-3:00pm
0.3
438
High School Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships
4/6
CBS
4:00-5:00pm
0.3
428
TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS (000)
NCAA Tournament: Final Four: Kentucky-Wisconsin
4/5
TBS
9:00-11:37pm
5.7
10,386
NCAA Tournament: Final Four: UConn-Florida
4/5
TBS
5:56-8:33pm
4.1
7,099
NCAA Tournament: Final Four: Kentucky-Wisconsin (Kentucky teamcast)
4/5
TNT
9:00-11:37pm
2.5
4,300
NCAA Tournament: Final Four: UConn-Florida (Florida teamcast)
4/5
TNT
6:00-8:33pm
2.2
3,704
"Inside March Madness"
4/5
TBS
11:37pm-12:32am
1.9
3,196
NCAA Women's Tournament: Final Four: UConn-Stanford
4/6
ESPN
8:57-10:56pm
1.5
2,312
NBA: Spurs-Thunder
4/3
TNT
8:15-10:48pm
1.3
1,944
NCAA Women's Tournament: Final Four: Notre Dame-Maryland
4/6
ESPN
6:30-8:32pm
1.2
1,806
NBA: Thunder-Rockets
4/4
ESPN
9:49pm-12:16am
1.2
1,746
MLB: Giants-Dodgers
4/6
ESPN2
8:00-11:03pm
1.0
1,574
 

NOTES: * = Race was rained out and run on Monday. Rating is for rainout coverage on the net.

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