IndyCar finished the ’16 season averaging 1.3 million viewers across NBCSN and ABC, marking the open-wheel racing league’s best figure since ’11. This season was up from 1.2 million viewers last season, and 1.0 million viewers in ’14. This season’s figure excludes the event at Pocono Raceway, which was rained out on a Sunday and ran on a Monday. Included is the Texas Motor Speedway event, which was run in part in June (CNBC) and then finished in August on NBCSN.
RISE & FIRE: WNBA games on ESPN/ESPN2 this season averaged 224,000 viewers, up 11% from 202,000 viewers last season, but still below the 235,000 viewers in ’14 and the 231,000 viewers in ’13 (one game on ABC). This season was boosted by the season-opening Mercury-Lynx matchup, which drew 505,000 viewers. WNBA games on NBA TV drew 52,000 viewers, down from a record 56,000 last year, but even with the figure from ’14. Meanwhile, WNBA.com set a record for traffic this season among average monthly unique visitors. The league’s out-of-market live game streaming product also saw a record 24% increase in subscriptions.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES: NBC on Saturday night drew 4.98 million viewers for Michigan State-Notre Dame, marking the net’s best college football game since Pitt-Notre Dame drew 6.03 million viewers for an afternoon matchup in November ’12. Through two Notre Dame games, NBC is averaging 3.7 million viewers, down from 3.9 million viewers for the first two games last year....ESPN’s “College GameDay” is averaging 1.99 million viewers through three episodes, down slightly (-0.7%) from the same period last season.
NOTES: Fox aired the first MLS regionalized coverage on Sunday around its NFL singleheader, and the 1.3 million viewers marks the best MLS window of any kind on any net in 12 years. Sporting KC-Galaxy and Toronto FC-Red Bulls were the regionalized matchups....ESPN on Tuesday night drew 766,000 viewers for the Canada-U.S. matchup at the World Cup of Hockey.
The chart below lists final audience figures from recent sports telecasts. A figure for NBC’s broadcast of the Paralympic Games last Sunday from 3:00-6:00pm ET was not available at presstime.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
RAT.
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
"Sunday Night Football":
Packers-Vikings |
9/18
|
NBC
|
8:33-11:43pm
|
12.7
|
22,751
|
| NFL: Colts-Broncos (74%) |
9/18
|
CBS
|
4:25-7:44pm
|
12.2
|
21,354
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
9/18
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:05pm
|
11.0
|
19,163
|
"Thursday Night Football":
Jets-Bills |
9/15
|
CBS/NFL Net
|
8:27-11:37pm
|
9.5
|
15,390
|
| NFL: (regional) |
9/18
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:19pm
|
8.5
|
14,419
|
"Monday Night Football":
Steelers-Redskins |
9/12
|
ESPN
|
6:55-10:12pm
|
7.7
|
12,961
|
"Monday Night Football":
Rams-49ers |
9/12
|
ESPN
|
10:12pm-1:28am
|
6.2
|
10,252
|
| "Football Night in America" |
9/18
|
NBC
|
7:30-8:22pm
|
5.4
|
9,187
|
College football:
Alabama-Ole Miss |
9/17
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:45pm
|
5.0
|
8,169
|
College football:
Florida State-Louisville |
9/17
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:44pm
|
4.0
|
6,216
|
College football:
Ohio State-Oklahoma* |
9/17
|
Fox
|
9:02pm-12:35am
|
3.4
|
5,804
|
| "Fox NFL Sunday" |
9/18
|
Fox
|
12:00-1:00pm
|
3.2
|
5,050
|
College football:
Michigan State-Notre Dame |
9/17
|
NBC
|
7:30-11:15pm
|
2.9
|
4,987
|
| College football: Oregon-Nebraska |
9/17
|
ABC
|
3:44-7:24pm
|
2.5
|
4,228
|
| "The NFL Today" |
9/18
|
CBS
|
12:00-1:03pm
|
2.5
|
3,816
|
| College football: USC-Stanford |
9/17
|
ABC
|
8:07-11:27pm
|
1.8
|
2,877
|
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles 400 (Chicagoland) |
9/18
|
NBCSN
|
2:55-5:43pm
|
1.6
|
2,691
|
| College football: Texas-Cal |
9/17
|
ESPN
|
10:55pm-2:37am
|
n/a
|
2,447
|
| College football: Houston-Cincinnati |
9/15
|
ESPN
|
7:25-11:01pm
|
n/a
|
2,159
|
| College football: Texas A&M-Auburn |
9/17
|
ESPN
|
7:05-10:55pm
|
n/a
|
2,088
|
| "College GameDay" |
9/17
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,957
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
9/18
|
ESPN
|
11:00am-1:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,720
|
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Drive for Safety 300 (Chicagoland) |
9/17
|
NBC
|
3:30-6:00pm
|
1.1
|
1,673
|
| "NASCAR Sprint Cup Postrace" |
9/18
|
NBCSN
|
5:43-6:30pm
|
n/a
|
1,482
|
| College football: Baylor-Rice |
9/16
|
ESPN
|
7:55-11:26pm
|
n/a
|
1,454
|
| "Fox NFL Kickoff" |
9/18
|
Fox
|
11:00am-12:00pm
|
0.9
|
1,428
|
| MLB: (regional) |
9/17
|
Fox
|
1:00-4:15pm
|
1.2
|
1,377
|
| MLS: (regional) |
9/18
|
Fox
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
n/a
|
1,298
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Leon |
9/17
|
Univision
|
9:57pm-12:00am
|
0.7
|
1,280
|
| "College Football Today" |
9/17
|
CBS
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.8
|
1,185
|
| "NASCAR Countdown to Green" |
9/17
|
NBC
|
3:00-3:30pm
|
0.7
|
1,008
|
| Liga MX: Tigres UANL-Puebla |
9/17
|
Univision
|
7:55-9:57pm
|
0.5
|
931
|
LPGA: Evian Championship:
Final Round |
9/18
|
NBC
|
12:00-1:30pm
|
0.5
|
644
|
| EPL: Everton-Middlesbrough |
9/17
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
0.5
|
553
|
| Lucas Oil Off Road Racing (taped) |
9/17
|
CBS
|
2:00-3:00pm
|
0.4
|
531
|
| "Premier League Goal Zone" |
9/17
|
NBC
|
2:30-3:00pm
|
0.3
|
439
|
| Red Bull Global Rallycross (taped) |
9/18
|
NBC
|
1:30-3:00pm
|
0.2
|
340
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
NOTE: * = Game delayed by 90 minutes due to storms in Oklahoma.
