Ratings: NFL Kickoff, BTN, Tennis, Premier Boxing

Thursday’s Packers-Bears NFL Kickoff Game averaged a 15.3 overnight rating on NBC, the highest for the season-opener since Panthers-Broncos three years ago (16.5). Overnights increased 14% from Falcons-Eagles last year, which started late due to a weather delay (13.4), and 5% from Chiefs-Patriots in 2017 (14.6).

Overnights also increased 7% over last year’s Week 1 Bears-Packers game on NBC, which aired in the usual Sunday Night Football window (14.3).

The 15.3 exceeds every non-NFL sporting event this year. January’s Clemson-Alabama College Football National Championship had a 14.6.

Milwaukee led all markets for the Packers’ win with a 48.1 rating, followed by Chicago at a 35.3. Minneapolis-St. Paul was the top neutral market at a 23.9, with New Orleans (23.1) and Kansas City (21.9) rounding out the top five.

Big Ten Network is now Nielsen-rated, Sports Business Daily reported Wednesday, with the outlet averaging 1.10 million viewers for Middle Tennessee-Michigan and 588,000 for Penn State-Idaho last Saturday. BTN is the first conference network to become Nielsen rated, with ESPN’s SEC Network and ACC Network still not accounted for.

Through Wednesday, coverage of the US Open tennis tournament has averaged 1.16 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2 — up 21% from last year. The largest audience thus far was 2.24 million for Tuesday’s quarterfinal night session (+33%). The biggest increase thus far was a 183% jump for last Saturday’s night session (1.83M).

The latest edition of Premier Boxing Champions on FOX averaged a 0.7 rating and 1.10 million viewers last Saturday night, down a tick in ratings and 15% in viewership from the previous card last month (0.8, 1.30M), but up a tick and 20% respectively from July (0.6, 923K).