Ratings Roundup: Local MLB, NBA Preseason, CFB Week 6

Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball games averaged an 8.33 rating on SportsTime Ohio during the regular season, up 28% from last year (6.53), up 112% from 2015 (3.93), and the team’s highest rated season since 2001 (9.9). The Indians averaged the highest rating in baseball and surpassed the NBA’s Cavaliers, who averaged a 7.38 last season.

The Indians’ ALDS opponent also had a successful regular season. The Yankees averaged a 3.57 rating on YES Network, up 57% from last year (2.28), up 29% from 2015 (2.77) and the team’s highest average since 2012. A whopping 40 games this season scored at least a 4.0 rating, compared to 32 in the previous four seasons combined.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cardinals games averaged a 7.2 rating on Fox Sports Midwest — down 12% from last year and the team’s lowest average on the RSN since 1999 (6.4). Despite the low, the Cardinals still ranked third for the season behind Cleveland and the Royals. [Cleveland.com 10.4, YES Network, St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10.6]

Tuesday’s Rockets-Thunder NBA preseason game scored 343,000 viewers on NBA TV, the network’s largest preseason audience since 2011, when the games took place in December due to the owners’ lockout of players. The telecast exceeded NBA TV’s regular season average last year, 312,000 viewers. [Sports Business Daily 10.7]

Thursday’s Louisville-N.C. State college football game had a 1.0 rating and 1.5 million viewers on ESPN, up 126% in ratings and 143% in viewership from Temple-Memphis last year (0.43, 626K) and flat and up 5% respectively from Washington-USC in 2015 (1.0, 1.4M). ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership on television (though not on mobile or desktop devices), while those figures were reported separately in previous years. [Programming Insider 10.7]