With several of the biggest names in the sport getting knocked out early, television viewership declined by double-digits for Wimbledon on the ESPN family of networks.
ESPN and ESPN2 averaged a 0.6 U.S. rating and 835,000 viewers for Wimbledon, down a tick in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (0.7, 981K), the first year the tournament aired exclusively on the ESPN family of networks. The 2011 tournament, the last to air on ESPN2 and NBC, also averaged a 0.7 U.S. rating.
The declines were particularly pronounced for the singles finals. The match portion of Sunday’s Andy Murray/Novak Djokovic men’s final earned a 2.1 U.S. rating and 3.0 million viewers, down 16% in ratings and 22% in viewership from Roger Federer/Murray last year (2.5, 3.9M).
Despite the decline, the Murray/Djokovic match ranks as the second-most viewed tennis match ever on ESPN. (The full telecast window had a 1.7 and 2.5 million viewers).
Meanwhile, the match portion of Saturday’s Marion Bartoli/Sabine Lisicki final drew a 1.3 and 1.9 million viewers — down 35% in ratings from last year’s Serena Williams/Agnieszka Radwanska match (2.0). Viewership was not available for last year’s match window.
Saturday’s full five-hour telecast window earned a 0.9 and 1.3 million viewers, down 44% and 42%, respectively, from last year (1.6, 2.2M), and the lowest rated Wimbledon telecast to feature a singles final since at least 1996.
UPDATE 7/19: The original ratings and viewership listed for Murray/Djokovic were for the full telecast window, not the match portion. This has been corrected.
(Weekend numbers/tournament average from ESPN)
