College basketball delivered for ESPN on Saturday night, but not-so-much during the week. In other news, CBS posted modest gains for its college hoops action last weekend, and the NHL delivered vastly different performances on NBC and NBCSN.
UK/UF Posts Gain Over Last Year
- Last Saturday’s Kentucky/Florida college basketball game drew a 1.2 final rating and 1.9 million viewers on ESPN, up a tick in ratings and 9% in viewership from North Carolina/Notre Dame in an earlier slot last year (1.1, 1.7M) but down 43% and 42% respectively from another Kentucky/Florida game in 2015 (2.1, 3.3M). It was the top college game of the weekend. Shifting to the workweek, Louisville/Virginia had 1.2 million on Big Monday — off 26% from Louisville/Duke last year (1.59M) and 25% from Duke/Florida State in 2015 (1.57M). Also declining were the Kansas/Kansas State nightcap (1.4M, -3%) and both LSU/Kentucky (997K, -16%) and Michigan/Michigan State (990K, -9%) the next night.
Modest Increase For College Hoops on CBS
- CBS scored a 1.0 final rating and 1.5 million viewers for Pittsburgh/Duke last Saturday afternoon, up a tick in ratings and 7% in viewership from Michigan State/Michigan in a later window last year (0.9, 1.4M) but down 17% and 4% respectively from Notre Dame/Duke in 2015 (1.2, 1.6M). Indiana/Wisconsin had a larger audience the following day (1.6M). There was no comparable window last year, but viewership inched up 4% from Michigan/Indiana in 2015 (1.65M to 1.63M).
NHL Weak on NBC, Strong on NBCSN
- Kings/Capitals had a 0.5 final rating and 709,000 viewers on the NHL on NBC last Sunday, off 38% in ratings and 41% in viewership from both Flyers/Capitals last year and Blackhawks/Blues in 2015 (0.8, 1.2M). It was the least-watched NHL game on NBC since the 2014-15 season finale (634K). On a brighter note, Blackhawks/Wild drew 696,000 on the latest NBCSN Wednesday Night Rivalry game, up 55% from Red Wings/Lightning last year (448K), up 56% from Bruins/Rangers in 2015 (447K) and the third-largest cable audience this season. Rounding out the recent action, Kings/Lightning had 144,000 on Tuesday, Blues/Flyers had 115,000 on Monday, and Rangers/Sabres had 269,000 last Thursday (+13%).
