CBS drew a 12.6 overnight rating for its final "Thursday Night Football" telecast this season, which saw the Patriots win 36-7 over the Dolphins. That figure is down 7% from Chargers-Broncos in Week 8 last season. The telecast still delivered CBS a primetime win among all nets. Despite the Week 8 drop, CBS average "TNF" overnight ratings for this season up 7% from '14 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
TWO GOOD TO BE TRUE: Both TNT and ESPN ended up with significant bumps for their season-opening NBA doubleheaders. TNT on Tuesday night averaged 3.0 million viewers for Cavaliers-Bulls and Pelicans-Warriors, up 28% from last year, when the net aired Mavericks-Spurs and Rockets-Lakers. The doubleheader also saw a 202% jump on Turner Sports' TV Everywhere platforms. Meanwhile, ESPN averaged 2.12 million viewers for its doubleheader on Wednesday night, which featured Spurs-Thunder and T'Wolves-Lakers. That figure is up 24% from 1.7 million viewers for a doubleheader featuring Bulls-Knicks and Thunder-Trail Blazers last year (Karp).
LIGHTS! CAMERA! MAC-TION! In Buffalo, Mark Gaughan wrote under the header, "Midweek MAC Games On ESPN Are All About The Money." Miami Univ. coach Chuck Martin said, “The exposure is great, and the revenue is critical to our league. ... The pros far, far outweigh the cons when it comes to the MAC playing mid-week games in November." Gaughan notes the MAC "signed a new 13-year deal with ESPN last year" that is reportedly worth more than $100M. Sources said that the "annual payouts will be about $840,000 per year to each MAC school." That is "roughly eight times more than the MAC’s previous deal with ESPN" (BUFFALONEWS.com, 10/29).
