Viewership mostly declined for a pair of NBA doubleheaders on ESPN and TNT. In other news, FOX scored a big increase for its college basketball opener, and ESPN had a modest increase in viewership for the Notre Dame/Connecticut women’s game.
Hawks/Mavs Exception to Soft Week on ESPN, TNT
- Wednesday’s Hawks/Mavericks NBA regular season game drew a 1.0 final rating and 1.4 million viewers on ESPN, up 25% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Heat/Nuggets last year (0.8, 1.1M) but down 9% in both from Mavericks/Warriors in 2013 (1.1, 1.5M). The early Bulls/Celtics game did not fare as well, with ratings down a tick (0.9 to 0.8) and viewership off 10% (1.4M to 1.2M) from Pelicans/Mavericks last year. TNT had a pair of declines on Thursday, with a 0.8 (-47%) and 1.2 million (-49%) for Clippers/Bulls and a 0.8 (-11%) and 1.1 million (-16%) for Knicks/Kings. (via TV Media Insights [1], [2])
Big Jump For FOX CBB Debut
- Last Saturday’s Syracuse/Georgetown men’s college basketball game drew a 0.6 final rating and 869,000 viewers on FOX, up 200% in ratings and 156% in viewership from the network’s first telecast last season, Northwestern/Butler (0.2, 340K). The Hoyas’ win topped concurrent coverage of Temple/Wisconsin on CBS, which had a 0.5 and 677,000. (via Sports Business Daily)
Modest Increase For ND/UConn
- The Notre Dame/Connecticut women’s college basketball game had 680,000 viewers on ESPN last Saturday afternoon, up 10% from the same matchup in an earlier timeslot last year (618K). Final ratings for the game were unavailable, but the low viewership total seems incompatible with the 1.5 overnight ESPN reported earlier in the week. (via Awful Announcing)
