As was the case on the court, this year’s Warriors could not quite match last year’s record-pace. In other news, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball slipped despite featuring a pair of storied franchises, and Fox Sports 1 posted mixed results for an MLB doubleheader Saturday.
Warriors Ratings Down From Last Year’s Record, But 2nd-Best
- Golden State Warriors games averaged an 8.79 rating on NBC Sports Bay Area (nee Comcast SportsNet) during the NBA regular season, down 10% from last year, when the team’s run to 73 wins averaged a record 9.76, but up 134% from 2014-15 (3.77). The Warriors averaged the highest local rating in the league, ahead of the second-place Cavaliers (7.38).
ESPN Posts Declines For Back-to-Back Cardinals Games
- Cardinals-Yankees had a 1.1 final rating and 1.8 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball over the weekend, flat in ratings and down 5% in viewership from Giants-Dodgers last year (1.1, 1.9M) and up a tick and 11% respectively from Reds-Cardinals in 2015 (1.0, 1.6M). Last night, Pirates-Cardinals had 661,000 on Monday Night Baseball — down 49% from Cubs-Cardinals last year (1.3M) and down 28% from Yankees-Tigers in ’15 (922K). Rounding out the recent action, last Tuesday’s Cardinals-Nationals game had 572,000; there was no comparable window last year.
MLB Doubleheader Mixed on FS1
- Fox Sports 1 scored a 0.3 final rating and 427,000 viewers for Padres-Braves Saturday night, flat in ratings and up 5% in viewership from Braves-Marlins last year (0.3, 405K) but down a tick and 20% respectively from Yankees-Rays in 2015 (0.4, 531K). Tigers-Indians had 272,000 earlier in the day (-21%).
(Wknd. numbers from NBC Sports, ShowBuzz Daily 4.18a, 4.18b, 4.18c)
