Tuesday’s clash between Ohio State and Michigan scored a solid increase on ESPN. In other news, NBC Sports Network earned another near-record audience for NHL coverage, and ESPN hit a near-season low for a low-profile Spurs/T’Wolves game.
- Big Increase For Ohio State/Michigan: ESPN earned 2.4 million viewers for the Ohio State/Michigan men’s college basketball game Wednesday night, up 37% from Purdue/Ohio State last year (1.8M), and up 24% from Tennessee/Kentucky in 2011 (2.0M). (Tue. numbers from TV By the Numbers)
- Bruins/Canadiens Fourth-Most Viewed NHL Game on NBCSN: The Bruins/Canadiens NHL game scored 771,000 viewers on NBC Sports Network Wednesday night, the fourth-largest audience ever for a regular season telecast on the network (previously Versus and OLN). Including Rangers/Bruins on January 23 (956K) and Blackhawks/Wild on January 30 (827K), three of the four most-viewed regular season games on NBCSN have taken place this season alone. NBCSN has averaged 478,000 viewers for NHL coverage through ten telecasts, the network’s highest average ever through this point of the season. (NBC Sports Group)
- Not Much Bounce For Spurs/T’Wolves: Wednesday’s Spurs/Timberwolves NBA regular season game drew 1.1 million viewers on ESPN, the fifth-smallest NBA audience of the season on ESPN/ABC or TNT. There were no comparable games last year or in 2011. (Wed. numbers from The Futon Critic)
