The Premier League season opened with huge declines on Saturday and record highs on Sunday.
The Week 1 Arsenal/Liverpool English Premier League match earned a 0.5 final rating and 745,000 viewers on NBCSN Sunday morning, up a tick in ratings and 22% in viewership from Liverpool/Stoke City last year (0.4, 610K) and up 67% and 45%, respectively, from Newcastle/Manchester City in 2014 (0.3, 514K).
Liverpool’s win delivered the largest audience on record for an opening weekend EPL match on cable.
Earlier in the morning, Bournemouth/Manchester United scored a 0.3 and 489,000 — flat in ratings and 21% in viewership from West Ham/Arsenal last year (0.3, 405K) and up a tick and 10%, respectively, from Liverpool/Southampton in 2014 (0.2, 445K).
The numbers were not nearly as strong on Saturday, as all three EPL match windows aired on CNBC due to the Olympics. Hull City/Leicester City started the morning off with a 0.1 and 208,000, down 75% in ratings and 67% in viewership from Tottenham/Manchester United last year (0.4, 626K) and down 67% and 50%, respectively, from Manchester United/Swansea in 2014 (0.3, 417K).
Manchester City/Sunderland had a 0.2 and 350,000 in the afternoon, down 71% in ratings and 65% in viewership from Swansea/Chelsea last year (0.7, 1.0M) and down 60% in both measures from Arsenal/Crystal Palace (0.5, 885K), both of which aired on NBC.
Sandwiched between those whopping declines, Everton/Tottenham had a 0.2 and 376,000 in the mid-morning window — down just a tick in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year.
Rounding out the opening week action, Monday’s Chelsea/West Ham match had 314,000 on USA Network — down 24% from Manchester City/West Brom last year (414K) but up 10% from Burnley/Chelsea in 2014 (286K). The match had an Olympic lead-in.
(Wknd. numbers via NBC Sports Group Press Box, ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2])
