Men's NIT Sees Ratings, Viewership Gains On ESPN, ESPN2
By Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor
This year's men's NIT basketball tournament averaged one million viewers for 17 telecasts across ESPN and ESPN2, up 39.6% from 718,000 viewers last year, when the tournament had 21 telecasts across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. Excluding the three telecasts on ESPN Classic last year, the tournament is up 22.5% from 818,000 viewers. This year's tournament had six telecasts on ESPN, averaging a 1.1 cable rating (1.3 million viewers), up from a 1.0 rating (1.1 million viewers) last year for seven telecasts. ESPN2's 11 NIT telecasts this year averaged 839,000 viewers, up from 621,000 last year for the same number of windows. The Penn State-Baylor NIT Championship game on April 2 drew a 1.3 cable rating (1.5 million viewers) on ESPN, up 18.2% and 9.5%, respectively, from a 1.1 cable rating and 1.4 million viewers for the Ohio State-UMass title game last year. The chart below lists game-by-game ratings and viewership for the '09 men's NIT.
|
DATE
|
ROUND
|
GAME
|
NET
|
START
|
CABLE RATING
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
|
3/17
|
First
|
Davidson-South Carolina
|
ESPN2
|
7:00pm
|
0.8
|
896
|
|
3/17
|
First
|
Notre Dame-UAB
|
ESPN2
|
9:20pm
|
0.7
|
879
|
|
3/17
|
First
|
Kentucky-UNLV
|
ESPN
|
9:43pm
|
1.2
|
1,466
|
|
3/17
|
First
|
Saint Mary's-
Washington State
|
ESPN2
|
11:08pm
|
0.4
|
490
|
|
3/18
|
First
|
Miami-Providence
|
ESPN2
|
7:00pm
|
0.6
|
796
|
|
3/18
|
First
|
Baylor-Georgetown
|
ESPN2
|
9:04pm
|
0.9
|
1,165
|
|
3/19
|
Second
|
Notre Dame-New Mexico
|
ESPN2
|
7:00pm
|
0.4
|
464
|
|
3/21
|
Second
|
Baylor-Virginia Tech
|
ESPN
|
11:00am
|
0.9
|
972
|
|
3/23
|
Second
|
Kentucky-Creighton
|
ESPN
|
7:00pm
|
1.2
|
1,514
|
|
3/23
|
Second
|
Saint Mary's-Davidson
|
ESPN2
|
11:43pm
|
0.5
|
621
|
|
3/24
|
Quarterfinals
|
Baylor-Auburn
|
ESPN
|
7:00pm
|
0.8
|
1,033
|
|
3/24
|
Quarterfinals
|
Penn State-Florida
|
ESPN
|
9:12pm
|
1.0
|
1,307
|
|
3/25
|
Quarterfinals
|
Notre Dame-Kentucky
|
ESPN2
|
7:00pm
|
1.0
|
1,390
|
|
3/25
|
Quarterfinals
|
San Diego State-St. Mary's
|
ESPN2
|
9:03pm
|
0.8
|
1,044
|
|
3/31
|
Semifinals
|
Baylor-San Diego State
|
ESPN2
|
7:00pm
|
0.5
|
515
|
|
3/31
|
Semifinals
|
Penn State-Notre Dame
|
ESPN2
|
9:20pm
|
0.8
|
956
|
|
4/2
|
Championship
|
Penn State-Baylor
|
ESPN
|
7:00pm
|
1.3
|
1,506
|
|
