Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Media

Audience Analysis: Winter Classic Hits Another Low; Most NFL Pregame Shows Decline

The Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic drew record-low viewership for the third straight year on New Year’s Day. The Rangers’ OT win over the Sabres averaged 2.4 million viewers, down from 2.6 million viewers last year for Blackhawks-Blues, which aired on Jan. 2 to avoid NFL games. Two years ago, Canadiens-Bruins averaged 2.8 million viewers on New Year’s Day. From ’08-15, no Winter Classic drew under 3 million viewers (no game in ’13 due to lockout). When streaming is included for Rangers-Sabres, NBC drew 2.5 million viewers. Despite being a new low, the Winter Classic viewership was double the average viewers for last season’s NHL on NBC telecasts and the 12th-best NHL regular-season audience on record. Buffalo drew a 12.2 local rating, while N.Y. drew a 3.2 rating.

NHL WINTER CLASSIC AUDIENCE TREND ON NBC
YEAR
MATCHUP
VENUE
VIEWERS (000)
'18
Rangers-Sabres
Citi Field
2,429
'17
Blackhawks-Blues
Busch Stadium
2,557
'16
Canadiens-Bruins
Gillette Stadium
2,775
'15
Blackhawks-Capitals
Nationals Park
3,472
'14
Maple Leafs-Red Wings
Michigan Stadium
4,404

THE EARLY SHOWS: NFL game viewership was down in ’17, and so were most of the pregame shows for network partners. “Fox NFL Sunday” averaged 4.7 million viewers this season, down 3% from ’16, while CBS averaged 3.2 million viewers for “The NFL Today,” down 12%. For the 11:00am-12:00pm ET window on Sundays, “Fox NFL Kickoff” averaged 1.3 million viewers this season, down 2%. On ESPN, “Sunday NFL Countdown” averaged 1.2 million viewers after a big talent shakeup, down 12% from last season, while “Monday Night Countdown” averaged 1.2 million viewers, down 19%. NBC averaged 7.4 million viewers for “Football Night in America” for the 7:30-8:15pm window, but that was down from 8.2 million viewers in ’16. One bright spot for pregame shows was “NFL GameDay Morning” on NFL Network. While still well below 1 million viewers, the 9:00am-1:00pm show had its best season yet.

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

TELECAST
DATE
NET
TIME (ET)
RAT.
VIEWERS
(000)
NFL national window:
Panthers-Falcons (72%)*
12/31
Fox
4:25-7:47pm
11.4
20,775
NFL national window:
Bengals-Ravens (31%)*
12/31
CBS
4:25-8;02pm
8.7
15,602
NFL: (regional)
12/31
Fox
1:03-4:18pm
7.9
13,589
"MNF": Raiders-Eagles
12/25
ESPN
8:15-11:40pm
5.9
11,773
Capital One Orange Bowl:
Wisconsin-Miami
12/30
ESPN
8:11-11:28pm
6.3
11,727
NFL: (regional)
12/31
CBS
1:03-4:40pm
6.6
11,209
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl:
Penn State-Washington
12/30
ESPN
4:11-7:42pm
5.7
10,167
Goodyear Cotton Bowl: Ohio State-USC
12/29
ESPN
8:39pm-12:03am
5.3
9,544
Citrus Bowl: LSU-Notre Dame
1/1
ABC
1:00-4:30pm
n/a
8,713
"Fox NFL Sunday"
12/31
Fox
12:00-1:03pm
3.4
5,330
Franklin American Mortgage Music City
Bowl: Northwestern-Kentucky
12/29
ESPN
5:14-8:23pm
2.8
4,626
TaxSlayer Bowl:
Mississippi State-Louisville
12/30
ESPN
12:00-3:50pm
2.7
4,424
Valero Alamo Bowl: TCU-Stanford
12/28
ESPN
9:00pm-12:32am
2.5
4,368
Camping World Bowl:
Oklahoma State-Virginia Tech
12/28
ESPN
5:15-8:58pm
2.6
4,358
New Era Pinstripe Bowl:
Iowa-Boston College
12/27
ESPN
5:15-8:31pm
2.3
4,008
"The NFL Today"
12/31
CBS
12:00-1:03pm
2.2
3,496
Academy Sports + Outdoors
Texas Bowl: Texas-Missouri
12/27
ESPN
9:00pm-12:26am
2.1
3,455
AutoZone Liberty Bowl:
Memphis-Iowa State
12/30
ABC
12:31-4:01pm
2.2
3,438
Hyundai Sun Bowl:
NC State-Arizona State
12/29
CBS
3:00-6:00pm
1.5
n/a
NHL Winter Classic: Rangers-Sabres
1/1
NBC
1:00-4:30pm
1.4
2,429
College basketball: Louisville-Kentucky
12/29
CBS
1:00-3:00pm
1.3
n/a
College basketball: Villanova-Butler
12/30
CBS
4:20-6:30pm
1.2
1,884
College basketball: Florida State-Duke
12/30
CBS
2:10-4:20pm
1.1
1,710
"Fox NFL Kickoff"
12/31
Fox
11:00am-12:00pm
1.0
1,490
College basketball: Wichita State-UConn
12/30
CBS
12:00-2:00pm
0.7
994
U.S. Olympic Trials: Ski Jumping
12/31
NBC
1:00-2:40pm
0.7
983
EPL: Manchester United-Southampton
12/30
NBC
12:30-2:30pm
0.6
932
"Scouting Camp:
The Next Olympic Hopeful"
12/31
NBC
2:40-3:30pm
0.5
757
"World of X Games"
12/31
ABC
2:00-2:30pm
0.4
665
"World of X Games"
12/31
ABC
2:30-3:00pm
0.4
530


NOTE
: * = Both CBS and Fox air Week 17 national windows, and this year both were at 4:30pm ET instead of one at 1:00pm.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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/2018/01/05/Media/Audience.aspx

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

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/01/05/Media/Audience.aspx

CLOSE