The Connecticut women’s basketball team generated big increases on local television during the regular season. In other news, big name teams lifted ESPN’s Super Tuesday college basketball doubleheader, and ESPN posted double-digit gains for its NBA coverage last Friday.
UConn Women Post Big Increases on Local TV
- Connecticut Huskies women’s college basketball games on SportsNet New York averaged a 6.0 rating in Hartford-New Haven and a 0.42 in New York City this season, up 21% and 83% respectively from last year. In New York, the season included the five highest rated UConn women’s games ever on SNY, topped out at a record 0.77 for this past Saturday’s matchup against Memphis. UConn’s average in the market was the same as the Brooklyn Nets on YES Network during the first half of the NBA season.
Kentucky, Duke, Lift ESPN’s Super Tuesday
- Vanderbilt-Kentucky drew a 1.0 final rating and 1.5 million viewers on ESPN’s Super Tuesday last night, up a tick in ratings and 7% in viewership from Indiana-Iowa last year (0.9, 1.4M) but down 47% in both measures from Kentucky-Georgia in 2015 (1.9, 2.8M). Florida State-Duke scored 1.2 million earlier in the night (+8%). On Big Monday, North Carolina-Virginia had a 0.9 (-5%) and 1.4 million (-7%) and Oklahoma-Kansas a 0.8 (flat) with 1.3 million (+7%).
Double-Digit Bump For ESPN’s NBA Friday
- Spurs-Clippers pulled a 1.0 final rating and 1.5 million viewers on ESPN’s NBA Friday last week, up 51% in ratings and 59% in viewership from Grizzlies/Lakers last year (0.65, 964K) but down a tick and 9% respectively from Thunder/Blazers in 2015 (1.1, 1.7M). Celtics-Raptors had a 0.8 (+14%) and 1.3 million (+18%) earlier in the night. On Monday, Pacers-Rockets had a 0.8 and 1.2 million and Bucks-Cavaliers 1.1 million in the debut of TNT’s Players Only NBA coverage. The latter telecast was blacked out in Cleveland.
(Numbers from uconnhuskies.com 2.28, Programming Insider 3.1, 2.28a; 2.28b)
