College football’s national championship added 1.3 million in out-of-home viewership. Also: ratings for UConn’s second loss of the season, the Pegasus World Cup horse race, and tennis.
Clemson-Bama adds 1.3 million out-of-home viewers
Last month’s Clemson-Alabama College Football Playoff National Championship had an out-of-home audience of 1.3 million, ESPN announced Tuesday, bringing the total Nielsen-reported viewership to 26.98 million — still down 10% from Alabama-Georgia last year (29.93M).
Viewership topped the previous Clemson-Alabama national championship by 2%. Nielsen began calculating out-of-home viewership in fall 2016, meaning there have only been three title games in which said data has been available.
UConn loss hits WCBB season-high
Thursday’s UConn-Louisville women’s college basketball game scored a 0.45 rating and 683,000 viewers on ESPN, down 6% in ratings but up 2% in viewership from last year (UConn-South Carolina: 0.48, 669K). Compared to a Michigan State-Nebraska men’s game in the same window two years ago, viewership fell 12% from 778,000.
The Cardinals’ upset win delivered the largest women’s college basketball audience of the season, topping the previous high of 670,000 for UConn-Notre Dame in December.
Pegasus World Cup off double-digits
Last weekend’s Pegasus World Cup horse race had a 0.8 rating and 1.12 million viewers on NBC, down 27% in ratings and 25% in viewership from last year (1.1, 1.50M) and down 27% and 29% respectively from 2017 (1.1, 1.58M).
Australian Open up
ESPN averaged 347,000 viewers for coverage of the Australian Open tennis tournament (+27%), with the men’s final scoring 556,000 (-7%) and the women’s final 529,000 (+18%).
[Numbers from ESPN PR 1.29, 1.30; Sports Business Daily 1.30; Programming Insider 2.1]
