The USA men’s basketball team delivered another big increase for NBCSN Wednesday. In other news, the debut of Olympic golf was no match for the majors, and CNBC continues to post big gains for its Olympic coverage.
USA/Aussie Hoops Up Big on NBCSN
- Wednesday’s United States/Australia Olympic men’s basketball game earned 3.4 million viewers on NBCSN, up 48% from the third USA basketball game of the 2012 Olympics, an 83-point rout of Nigeria (2.3M). Team USA’s close win topped all seven of the team’s games on NBCSN four years ago, but was no match for its Olympic opener against China last Saturday (3.8M).
Olympic Golf Well Below Major Level
- First round coverage of the Olympic men’s golf tournament earned 386,000 viewers on Golf Channel Thursday, including 515,000 for the afternoon portion. Though not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, Golf Channel averaged 818,000 over a similar time period for the first round of the British Open last month, and none of the three other majors dipped below 900,000 for opening round coverage. Olympic golf did outdraw the first round of the PGA Tour John Deere Classic, which posted 150,000 later in the day.
CNBC Continues to Post Big Gains For Olympics
- CNBC scored 734,000 viewers for Olympic coverage on Wednesday and 642,000 viewers on Thursday, up 54% and 63%, respectively, from the comparable days of the London Olympics. Outside of NBCSN, CNBC has been the most-watched Olympic cable network for four straight days.
