Ratings and viewership dropped for Golf Channel’s first ever major golf telecast.
First round coverage of the British Open earned a 0.7 final rating and 900,000 viewers on Golf Channel Thursday, down 30% in ratings and 29% in viewership from last year (1.0, 1.3M) and down 22% in both measures from 2014 (0.7, 1.2M), both of which aired on ESPN.
Thursday’s telecast, which peaked at a 0.9 and 1.2 million, delivered the smallest audience for the opening round of the British Open since at least 2011 (viewership prior to 2012 was not available).
Keep in mind the above figures are for the 8-3:30 PM ET portion of the telecast. The 6-8 AM portion scored 516,000 viewers — down 41% from last year’s comparable early morning portion (876K) — and viewership for the overnight hours was not available.
Despite the lower numbers, Thursday’s telecast helped Golf Channel rank as the day’s top rated cable sports network.
(Thu. numbers from NBC Sports)
