Airing on cable television for the first time, the Wimbledon singles finals were a bit of a mixed bag for ESPN.
The match portion of Sunday’s Roger Federer/Andy Murray Wimbledon Men’s Final — excluding a half-hour rain delay and the final 45 minutes of the telecast window — drew a 2.5 U.S. rating and 3.925 million viewers on ESPN Sunday morning. Ratings and viewership for the match portion of last year’s Nadal/Djokovic final, which ended approximately two hours earlier, were not available.
Ratings and viewership for Sunday’s full 9 AM-3 PM telecast window were not available. Last year’s complete six-hour window drew a 1.8 and 2.652 million viewers.
Federer/Murray ranks as the most-viewed tennis match ever on ESPN or ESPN2.
On Saturday, the match portion of the Serena Williams/Agnieszka Radwanska women’s final drew a 2.0 U.S. rating. Ratings for the match portion of last year’s Kvitov?/Sharapova final, which ended one hour earlier, were not available.
The full five-hour telecast window drew a 1.6 U.S. rating and 2.234 million viewers — even in ratings and down 1% in viewership compared to last year’s match (1.6, 2.249M), and exactly even with S. Williams/Zvonareva on NBC in 2010 (1.6, 2.234M).
The 1.6 is tied as the lowest for the Women’s Final of Wimbledon since at least 1996 (ratings prior to 1997 were not immediately available).
(Saturday/Sunday numbers from ESPN Media Zone)
