Viewership for the Paralympics more-than-doubled over four years ago. In other news, the Canada/USA World Cup of Hockey match topped nearly all of last year’s NHL regular season games, and the WNBA posted an increase on ESPN and ESPN2 for its regular season.
Paralympics Viewership Up on NBCSN
- Primetime coverage of the 2016 Rio Paralympics averaged 143,000 viewers on NBCSN, up 175% from London in 2012 (52K), with the caveat that the network carried far fewer hours four years ago. The lone airing on the NBC broadcast network scored a 0.4 final rating and 651,000 viewers last Sunday afternoon, easily the largest audience of the Games. (NBC Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 9/20)
Canada/USA Compares Favorably to NHL Regular Season on NBCSN
- Tuesday’s Canada/United States World Cup of Hockey match earned 766,000 viewers on ESPN, not surprisingly the largest audience of the tournament thus far (9 games on Nielsen-rated networks). To put that in perspective, only four of the 93 regular season NHL games on NBCSN last season posted a larger audience. Team USA’s first match, against Europe, scored 360,000 on ESPN2 Saturday afternoon. (ShowBuzz Daily 9/21)
WNBA Regular Season Sees Audience Growth
- The 2016 WNBA regular season averaged 224,000 viewers across ESPN and ESPN2, up 11% from last year (202K) but down 7% from 2014 (240K). There was no data for Wednesday’s playoff games, as they aired on ESPNEWS, which is no longer Nielsen rated. (WNBA 9/21)
