The last day of last year delivered the largest Premier League audience of the season.
Last Saturday’s Liverpool/Manchester City English Premier League match had a 0.8 final rating and 1.2 million viewers on NBC, marking the largest EPL audience of the season. The previous high was just under 1.2 million for Manchester United/Hull City in week three. Overall, it was the most-watched EPL match since September 2015, when Manchester United/Liverpool had a slightly larger audience (1.25M to 1.24M).
There were no comparable weekend matches in week nineteen of last season, which consisted of midweek play. Compared to Watford/Manchester City on the comparable date last year, which was part of the week twenty schedule, ratings increased by a third (from 0.6) and viewership 38% (from 897K).
Earlier in the day, NBCSN scored a 0.4 and 586,000 for Manchester United/Middlesbrough and 136,000 viewers for Hull City/Everton. Figures for Chelsea/Stoke City on CNBC were not available. Shifting to New Year’s Day, Arsenal/Crystal Palace had a 0.3 and 481,000 and Watford/Tottenham a 0.2 and 265,000, both on NBCSN.
In midweek action, West Ham/Manchester United was the top draw of week twenty with 508,000 viewers on NBCSN Monday afternoon. There was no comparable window in the same week last season, which consisted of weekend matches. Sunderland/Liverpool had 355,000 earlier in the morning, with Middlesbrough/Leicester City (100K) and Manchester City/Burnley on CNBC (82K) bringing up the rear.
Rounding out the recent play, Tottenham/Chelsea had 394,000 on Wednesday and Bournemouth/Arsenal 319,000 on Tuesday.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 1/4, Sports TV Ratings 1/3, 1/4, 1/5a, 1/5b)
