In a down week for the Premier League on cable, the Monday afternoon window delivered the strongest performance.
Monday’s Arsenal/Manchester City English Premier League match had 474,000 viewers on NBCSN, up 21% from Stoke City/Chelsea last year (393K) but down 16% from Arsenal/Chelsea in 2013 (565K). The match scored the largest weekday EPL audience this season, topping the previous mark of 469,000 for Arsenal/Liverpool in August.
Arsenal’s win was the top EPL telecast of the week on cable, the first time this season that a weekday match has topped the charts, and the only match of the week to score an increase in viewership.
In other action, NBCSN drew 397,000 for Chelsea/Sunderland last Saturday afternoon — down 42% from Aston Villa/Manchester United last year (687K) and down 14% from Fulham/Manchester City in 2013 (461K). USA Network drew 322,000 for the concurrent Manchester United/Norwich City match, bringing the combined audience in the window to 719,000.
On Sunday, Watford/Liverpool scored 318,000 on NBCSN — down 19% from Newcastle/Sunderland last year (393K) but up 36% from Southampton/Tottenham in 2013 (234K). Swansea/West Ham had 266,000 later in the morning, down 68% from Liverpool/Arsenal last year (827K) and down 10% from Swansea/Everton in 2013 (295K).
Due to the Christmas holiday, ratings and viewership were not immediately available for last Saturday’s Aston Villa/Newcastle match on the NBC broadcast network.
(Wknd. numbers via Awful Announcing, ShowBuzz Daily)
