One of the Premier League’s top rivalries delivered for NBC last weekend.
Last Sunday’s Manchester City/Manchester United English Premier League match drew a 0.8 final rating and 1.2 million viewers on NBC, marking the ninth-largest audience ever for a live EPL match on U.S. television. NBC’s comparable match in week 31 of last season, Chelsea/Stoke City on a Saturday afternoon, had 851,000.
NBC has now aired four of the ten most-watched live Premier League telecasts this season alone, with Manchester United/Liverpool in September ranking sixth (1.25M), West Ham/Manchester City in January eighth (1.16M) and Everton/Arsenal in October tenth (1.15M).
On cable, Everton/Arsenal topped the charts with 438,000 on NBCSN last Saturday morning — down 13% from Arsenal/Liverpool last year (504K) but up 6% from Chelsea/Arsenal in 2014 (412K).
Crystal Palace/Leicester City drew 425,000 later in the morning, down a third from Manchester United/Aston Villa last year (637K) but up 4% from Cardiff City/Liverpool in ’14 (408K). USA Network’s concurrent Chelsea/West Ham match had 240,000, bringing the combined total in the window to 665,000.
Finally, Swansea City/Aston Villa scored 266,000 in the Saturday afternoon window — down 69% from Chelsea/Stoke City on the NBC broadcast network last year (851K) and down 42% from West Ham/Manchester United on NBCSN in ’14 (457K).
Rounding out the week 31 slate, Newcastle/Sunderland drew 378,000 on NBCSN last Sunday morning, up 25% from Burnley/Tottenham last year (303K) and up 24% from Tottenham/Southampton in ’14 (304K).
(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily, ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2])
