NBA viewership is back up after a big increase Wednesday night. Plus: F1 remains off of last year’s record pace; plus more sports ratings from the past week.
NBA viewership back up nine percent
After slipping below last year’s pace a week ago, NBA viewership on ESPN and TNT is back up nine percent to an average of 1.94 million. ESPN on Wednesday averaged 1.85 million for Warriors-Nuggets and 1.65 million for Spurs-Knicks — up 47 and 20 percent respectively from last year’s doubleheader of Grizzlies-Trail Blazers (1.26M) and Celtics-Cavaliers (1.37M).
The above are not apples-to-apples comparisons, as last year’s games aired opposite the World Series — a mirror image of the previous week, when five of six windows declined opposite World Series competition that had yet to begin a year ago.
In other action, Thursday’s Bucks-Pacers game averaged 480,000 viewers on NBA TV, up 149% from Nuggets-Thunder last year (193K). Figures for the Hawks-Magic nightcap from Mexico City were not immediately available.
F1 down from last year’s record pace entering Vegas GP
Entering next weekend’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, Formula 1 is averaging 1.11 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks — down 8% from last year but still the second-highest average on record.
Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix averaged a 0.47 rating and 909,000 viewers on ESPN2, down sharply from last year on ABC (0.7, 1.4M), but up 7% and 9% respectively from the last time it aired on ESPN2 two years ago (0.44, 831K).
Max Verstappen’s win, which peaked with 1.10 million viewers from 12:45-1 PM ET, was the day’s most-watched sports program on the ESPN networks (including ABC) and averaged a larger audience in adults 18-34 (180K) than the NASCAR Cup Series finale from Phoenix on NBC (136K).
Plus: WCBB, NHL, Breeders Cup, sailing
— Thursday’s Iowa-Virginia Tech women’s college basketball game averaged a 0.31 rating and 548,000 viewers on ESPN2, trailing only an Auburn-Baylor men’s game on ESPN Tuesday night (582K) as the most-watched of the days-old season, regardless of gender. In other women’s action, Notre Dame-South Carolina from Paris averaged 370,000 on ESPN Monday afternoon.
— TNT averaged 532,000 for Red Wings-Rangers and 288,000 for Devils-Avalanche in a special Tuesday night NHL regular season doubleheader, up 42 and 65 percent respectively from Oilers-Lightning (374K) and Predators-Kraken (175K) a year ago. On its regular night of coverage Wednesday, the network scored 390,000 for Panthers-Capitals, down 4% from Penguins-Capitals last year (408K).
— Horse racing’s Breeders Cup averaged a 0.51 rating and 834,000 viewers on NBC last Saturday afternoon, down 16% in ratings and viewership from last year (0.6, 988K).
— Airing adjacent to NFL singleheader coverage, SailGP sailing averaged 1.78 million viewers on CBS last Sunday — trailing only a pair of PBR bull riding windows in September as the most-watched singleheader lead-out this season.
(Nielsen estimates from Sports TV Ratings 11.8, 11.9, Programming Insider 11.10, this website 11.7)
