A move from ESPN2 to ESPN sent the F1 opener soaring. Also: NHL viewership is trending up as the season draws to a close; El Super Clasico topped the soccer charts despite a big decline; the AAF hit a new viewership low.
Strong start to F1 season
The season-opening Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix had a 0.40 rating and 649,000 viewers on ESPN last Saturday, up 271% in viewership from last year on ESPN2 (175K) and up 173% from 2017 on NBCSN (238K). It delivered the largest audience for the race in at least nine years, and the fourth-largest F1 cable audience on record. Last year’s Monaco race on ESPN holds the top spot (809K), followed by the 2012 U.S. Grand Prix on Speed Channel (688K) and last year’s Bahrain race on ESPN2 (683K).
NHL viewership up as season nears end
NHL regular season games have averaged 431,000 viewers across NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports’ digital platforms, up 4% from the same number of games last year (413K). The NBC broadcast network is up 6% to 1.42 million viewers, as previously noted. NBCSN, meanwhile, is up 3% to 312,000.
Last Sunday, Flyers-Penguins scored a 0.40 and 707,000 (+140%) on NBCSN, marking the second-largest cable audience of the season. The Flyers’ win, which had 727,000 with streaming included, trailed only Bruins-Penguins in the same Sunday night window the previous week (0.42, 715K). Pittsburgh has now played in the top four games on cable this season.
In other action, Oilers-Golden Knights had 269,000 late Sunday night, and Capitals-Devils scored 135,000 on NBCSN Tuesday (-38%).
El Súper Clásico down big, but top soccer match of year
Last Saturday’s Chivas-America Liga MX Clausura match scored 1.5 million viewers on Univision, down 40% from last year (2.5M), but the largest soccer audience on any single network this year. The rivals’ Copa MX matchup last Wednesday had 867,000 on Univision Deportes Network, marking the most-watched Copa MX quarterfinal on record.
In other action, last Wednesday’s Barcelona-Olympique Lyonnais UEFA Champions League round of 16 match had 562,000 on UniMas and UDN, the largest audience for the round since 2015.
AAF viewership hits low
NFL Network scored 234,000 viewers for last Sunday’s Birmingham-San Diego Alliance of American Football League game, down 22% from San Antonio-Arizona the previous week (300K). As Sports Business Daily noted, it was the least-watched AAF game on a Nielsen-rated network.
The previous day, Arizona-Orlando had a 0.21 rating and 354,000 viewers — down 13% in both measures from Orlando-Salt Lake two weeks ago (0.24, 409K). NFL Network did not carry a Saturday game last week.
[Numbers from ESPN PR, NBC Sports PR 3.19, Univision PR, Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 3.19]
