NBC scored the second-largest Premier League audience of the season last weekend.
The West Ham/Manchester City English Premier League match drew a 0.7 final rating and 1.2 million viewers on NBC, the second-largest EPL audience of the season behind only Manchester United/Liverpool in September (1.25M to 1.16M). Viewership barely edged Arsenal/Everton in October, which previously held the #2 spot (1.16M to 1.15M).
Despite the near-high, viewership actually dropped 11% from Chelsea/Manchester City in the comparable week last season, which took place over Super Bowl weekend (1.3M).
In other EPL action, Arsenal/Chelsea scored 794,000 viewers on NBCSN Sunday morning — up 101% from Southampton/Swansea last year (395K) and the third-largest audience of the season on cable. Only Arsenal/Manchester United in October (866K) and Manchester City/Chelsea in August (818K) put up better numbers.
Everton/Swansea scored 300,000 earlier in the morning, off 9% from last year’s 329,000 for Arsenal/Aston Villa.
Shifting back to Saturday, Manchester United/Southampton drew 531,000 on NBCSN — up 20% from Manchester United/Leicester City last year (443K). USA Network chipped in 283,000 for Crystal Palace/Tottenham in the same window, bringing the combined audience to 814,000.
Norwich City/Liverpool had 370,000 on NBCSN earlier in the morning, up 44% from last year’s Hull City/Newcastle match (257K).
(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily, Awful Announcing)
