College basketball viewership was up 5% for the ’18-19 regular season across what are considered to be the sport’s primary TV partners -- ESPN, CBS, Fox, FS1 and ESPN2. Fueling gains was a big increase for ESPN this season. For 129 games on the flagship net, viewership jumped 15% to 1.2 million viewers per game (1.04 million for 127 games in ’17-18). Duke and freshman phenom Zion Williamson were a major reason for the jump, as games on ESPN featuring the Blue Devils averaged 2.14 million viewers. That is up 30% from ’17-18. Even without those Duke games, ESPN was up 6%. Combining ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, men’s hoops were up 6% this season as well. Meanwhile, Fox/FS1 continued to set new records for the company, and this year marked the fifth straight season of growth. The two networks combined to average 269,000 viewers, a new record and up from previous record of 258,000 viewers in ’17-18. On its own, Fox drew 894,000 viewers for its 28 games, up 3% from 867,000 last season (26 games). FS1 for its games was up 19%. Seeing a decline for the second straight season was CBS, whose 1.54 million viewers for 35 games was down 6% from 1.65 million last season (39 games). But CBS was still the top net for college hoops this season in terms of average viewership.
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MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL REGULAR-SEASON VIEWERSHIP
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NETWORK
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'18-19 (000)
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'17-18 (000)
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'16-17 (000)
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|
CBS
|
1,540
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1,645
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1,688
|
|
ESPN
|
1,199
|
1,042
|
1,200
|
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Fox
|
894
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867
|
750
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ESPN2
|
330
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328
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360
|
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FS1
|
171
|
144
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128
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ESPNU
|
86
|
104
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104
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