The Premier League suffered across the board declines in viewership last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Bournemouth-Chelsea English Premier League match had a 0.5 final rating and 663,000 viewers on the NBC broadcast network, down 29% in ratings and 32% in viewership from a higher-profile Liverpool-Tottenham match last year (0.7, 978K) and down a tick and 8% respectively from Burnley-Arsenal in 2015 (0.6, 723K).
It was NBC’s first match to post a decline since the first weekend of December.
Declines were the rule last weekend, with every single match that could be compared to last year posting a decline. In Sunday’s NBCSN doubleheader, Sunderland-Manchester United had a 0.3 (flat) and 420,000 (-2%) and Everton-Leicester City a 0.25 (-32%) and 387,000 (-28%). The previous day, Tottenham-Watford (-21%), Manchester City-Hull City (-35%) and Stoke City-Liverpool (-21%) each fell double-digits.
Rounding out the slate, Crystal Palace-Arsenal had 174,000 on Monday. There was no comparable window last year, but viewership fell 22% from Liverpool-Newcastle in 2015 (222K).
