Audience Analysis: WGC-Match Play Up Big With Little Broadcast TV Competition

NBC finished with 3.22 million viewers for the Sunday telecast of the WGC-Dell Watch Play Championship, up 53% from the event last year, which drew 2.1 million viewers in early May opposite the NBA Playoffs and a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Last Sunday’s golf telecast had little competition on broadcast TV. When the event aired in February in ’14 opposite the Sochi Olympics and the Daytona 500, it drew 2.52 million viewers. Golf Channel also drew 1.11 million viewers for the Sunday morning lead-in this year, marking the net’s best Match Play coverage in that window since ’08.

NOTES: ESPN2 drew 954,000 viewers on Tuesday for the FIFA World Cup qualifier featuring U.S.-Guatemala, marking the best audience for a USMNT semifinal qualifier on record....FS Ohio on Tuesday for the first time ever out-rated TNT’s broadcast of the same NBA game in all three Ohio markets. FS Ohio drew a 9.34 local rating in Cleveland-Akron for Rockets-Cavaliers, more than tripling TNT’s figure in the market (3.08). The RSN also drew a 1.32 local rating in Columbus, beating TNT’s 0.98 rating, while Cincinnati drew a 0.83 local rating, beating TNT’s 0.41 in the market.

The chart below lists final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. Figures for the Oklahoma-Oregon Elite 8 matchup on CBS were unavailable at presstime.