Menu
Media

Audience Analysis: "Sunday Night Baseball" Rising; U.S. Open Up Over Four Days

ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” is averaging 1.92 million viewers to date, up from 1.71 million viewers last year. The season-opening Cubs-Cardinals matchup is helping lift this year’s numbers, as the 3.62 million viewers for that game was the best “SNB” audience since Yankees-Red Sox drew 4.7 million viewers on April 10, 2011. There have been zero Yankees-Red Sox matchups on “SNB” to date this season, whereas ESPN had the matchup twice already at this point last season. Last year’s schedule at this point also had a 5:00pm ET game factored in, as it was part of a “SNB” doubleheader. That audience for Cardinals-Pirates last year was only 992,000 viewers. Compared to two years ago at this point, “SNB” is down from 1.95 million viewers. “SNB” also is drawing an average minute audience of 38,000 viewers for “SNB” on the WatchESPN streaming platform.

THE HILL PEOPLE: Over four rounds at last week’s U.S. Open (Thursday-Sunday), Fox and FS1 averaged 2.69 million viewers for live coverage from Erin Hills. While the final round was down for Fox, that four-day average is up from 2.43 million viewers last year for coverage from Oakmont, but down from 3.5 million viewers in ’15. However, coverage in ’15 from Chambers Bay had the benefit of primetime coverage (West Coast course). NBC and ESPN in ’14 averaged 2.44 million viewers for coverage from Pinehurst No. 2.

FOUR-DAY VIEWERSHIP AVERAGE FOR U.S. OPEN
YEAR
NETWORKS
COURSE
VIEWERS (000)
'17
Fox/FS1
Erin Hills
2,686
'16
Fox/FS1
Oakmont
2,434
'15
Fox/FS1
Chambers Bay
3,499
'14
NBC/ESPN
Pinehurst No. 2
2,441
'13
NBC/ESPN
Merion
3,930

EL TRI HUGGERS: Telemundo averaged 2.4 million viewers for the Mexico-Portugal FIFA Confederations Cup match from Russia on Sunday at 11:00am ET, down from 3.1 million viewers from the comparable Mexico-Italy match four years ago on UniMas from Brazil, which aired around 3:00pm. Both were the first matches at the tourney for the Mexican national team. FS1 also was down big for Mexico-Portugal compared to ESPN’s Mexico-Italy audience in ’13. Telemundo averaged 1.3 million viewers for its three Confederations Cup matches last weekend, down big from ’13, but up big from the ’09 opening weekend from South Africa.

The chart below lists final audience figures from select recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS
(000)
NBA Finals: Warriors-Cavaliers: Game 5
6/12
ABC
8:59-11:51pm
13.5
24,528
NBA Finals trophy presentation
6/12
ABC
11:51pm-12:23am
9.7
17,507
U.S. Open: Final Round
6/18
Fox
11:00am-8:15pm
3.1
5,075
U.S. Open: Third Round
6/17
Fox
11:00am-7:45pm
2.2
3,316
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series:
FireKeepers Casino 400 (Michigan)
6/18
FS1
3:00-6:30pm
1.9
3,144
MLB: (regional)
6/17
Fox
8:12-11:06pm
1.6
2,518
U.S. Open: Second Round
6/16
Fox
6:00-9:00pm
1.3
1,920
MLB: Red Sox-Astros
6/18
ESPN
8:00pm-12:17am
1.1
1,719
"30 for 30": "Celtics/Lakers" (Part 2)
6/13
ESPN
10:00-11:00pm
n/a
1,533
U.S. Open: First Round
6/15
Fox
6:00-9:00pm
1.0
1,520
"30 for 30": "Celtics/Lakers" (Part 1)
6/13
ESPN
8:00-10:00pm
n/a
1,355
College World Series pool play:
Florida State-LSU
6/17
ESPN
8:00-11:23pm
0.7
1,246
U.S. Open: Second Round
6/16
FS1
11:00am-6:00pm
0.9
1,239
"30 for 30": "Celtics/Lakers" (Part 3)
6/14
ESPN
8:00-10:00pm
n/a
1,171
NASCAR Xfinity Series:
Irish Hills 250 (Michigan)
6/17
FS1
1:30-4:00pm
0.8
1,106
"NASCAR RaceDay"
6/18
FS1
2:00-3:00pm
n/a
1,037
U.S. Open: First Round
6/15
FS1
11:00am-6:00pm
0.7
1,007
Sailing: America's Cup
6/18
NBC
1:00-3:00pm
0.6
848
Sailing: America's Cup
6/17
NBC
1:00-2:30pm
0.6
833
"30 for 30":
"Celtics/Lakers" (Parts 1 & 2)
6/17
ABC
2:00-5:00pm
0.6
784
Track & Field:
IAAF Diamond League (taped)
6/18
NBC
3:00-4:00pm
0.4
537
Lucas Oil Motocross:
High Point National
6/17
NBC
3:30-4:30pm
0.3
476
Red Bull Global Rallycross (taped)
6/18
NBC
4:00-6:00pm
0.3
464

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/06/23/Media/Audience.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/06/23/Media/Audience.aspx

CLOSE