The NHL Draft neared a viewership high; BIG3 basketball returned with a steep drop; the World Cup gave MLS a boost; horse racing’s Royal Ascot soared.
NHL Draft Nears High, Awards Show Sinks
Friday’s NHL Draft earned a 0.22 rating and 368,000 viewers on NBCSN, the network’s second-largest audience ever for the event. The high water mark remains 374,000 two years ago. Viewership increased 14% from last year (323K).
Despite generating a fraction of the audience of its NFL (5.5M) and NBA (3.1M) equivalents, the NHL Draft did top the Major League Baseball draft on MLB Network earlier this month (297K).
Last Wednesday, the NHL Awards had just 198,000 viewers — a two-thirds plunge from last year, when it included the Golden Knights’ expansion draft (595K). Compared to two years ago, viewership increased 16% from 171,000.
BIG3 Premiere Down Big From Last Year’s Debut
The season premiere of the BIG3 basketball league had 173,000 viewers on FS1 Friday night, down 56% from last year’s debut, which aired on a Monday night after a full day’s tape delay (398K). By comparison, the first nationally televised WNBA game this season — Sparks-Lynx on a Saturday afternoon — had 297,000 viewers on ESPN2.
MLS Big in Post-World Cup Window
Airing directly after live FIFA World Cup coverage, Sunday’s Atlanta-Portland Major League Soccer match had a 0.7 rating and 1.1 million viewers on FOX — the league’s third-largest regular season audience in a decade. The top two windows were regional splits surrounding FOX NFL coverage, one last September (1.35M) and the other in September 2016 (1.30M).
Royal Ascot Up Huge in Move From NBCSN to NBC
The final day of horse racing’s Royal Ascot delivered a 0.8 rating and 1.1 million viewers on NBC Sunday morning. Viewership soared more than one thousand percent from last year, when the comparable window aired on NBCSN (99K). By comparison, January’s Pegasus World Cup had a 1.1 and 1.5 million, with the caveat that it aired in a later window.
[Numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 6.26]
