UConn women’s basketball's 107-game winning streak has "generated strong viewership on SNY, which carried 17 of 29 regular-season contests, averaging a 0.4 local rating in N.Y. -- "by far a new high" in that market -- and a 6.0 local rating in Hartford-New Haven, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. The bigger numbers for UConn came "without benefit of some of the season’s most high-profile matchups," which went to ESPN. SNY also airs "The Geno Auriemma Show" and "other UConn-related programming and reports." SNY President Steve Raab said, “From an economic standpoint, it’s meaningful. But there’s something separate from the economics, which is that it’s just a great partnership.” He added, “It’s really great to be partners with a program that has unprecedented success. I mean, you really feel like you are helping to document history and tell the story. There also is this added component that there is an unprecedented level of trust between us and UConn and us and Geno, and I give him a lot of credit for that" (NEWSDAY.com, 3/6).
BEHIND THE SCENES: In Hartford, Paul Doyle noted the debut episode of HBO’s "UConn: The March To Madness" aired last Wednesday and will run each Wednesday for as long as UConn women's hoops is "alive in the NCAA Tournament.” The "coming episodes are 30 minutes each and will pick up with the team" in the AAC Tournament. UConn G Kia Nurse said of the show, “They did a really good job. They were around all the time. Sometimes we were like, 'they filmed this for a long time and we only saw two minutes?'” (HARTFORD COURANT, 3/6). The hour-long premiere last Wednesday on HBO averaged 110,000 viewers in the 10:00pm ET window (THE DAILY).
