The USA men’s basketball team averaged its largest exhibition audience since 2012. Plus: baseball’s Subway Series delivered for ESPN and TBS; the British Open hit lows; and more.
USA men’s hoops exhibitions up big from previous Olympics
The five-game USA men’s basketball exhibition schedule averaged 979,000 viewers across FOX and FS1, marking the most-watched USA Basketball exhibition slate since the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics, when the games aired on the ESPN networks.
Viewership increased 165% from the exhibition games leading up to the 2021 Olympics, which aired on the now-defunct NBCSN and took place during the delayed NBA Playoffs (369K). Compared to the 2016 exhibition games on NBA TV, viewership increased 204% from 321,000. Compared to last year’s exhibition games on FOX and FS1, which led up to the Basketball World Cup, viewership increased 191% from 337,000.
Last Saturday’s United States-South Sudan game averaged an exhibition-high 1.76 million on FOX, the most-watched USA men’s exhibition game since 2012. Monday’s USA-Germany game drew 1.20 million, ranking as the second most-watched since 2012.
This year marked the second and final time that the USA Basketball exhibitions will air on the Fox Sports networks. As part of the new NBA media rights deals, those USA Basketball exhibitions will air on NBC.
Subway Series boosts ESPN, TBS; Statcast outdoes “KayRod”
Wednesday’s Mets-Yankees Major League Baseball game averaged 1.41 million viewers on ESPN, up 17% from last year’s comparable Braves-Red Sox weeknight game on the network (1.21M). The rivals’ game on TBS the previous night drew 676,000, up 24% from the network’s Subway Series game last year (546K) and a season-high.
Going back to last weekend, regional action featuring Dodgers-Red Sox averaged 2.12 million on FOX — up from 1.93 million on the same weekend last year. The same matchup drew 1.62 million on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (including a “Statcast” simulcast on ESPN2), up from Red Sox-Mets last year, which included a “KayRod” simulcast (1.46M).
The “Statcast” presentation averaged 176,000, accounting for 11% of the audience. That compares to an average of 9% for the “KayRod” games that aired over the prior two years.
British Open hits multi-year lows
Last Sunday’s final round of the British Open averaged 3.19 million viewers on NBC (3.39 million including additional streaming viewership not tracked by Nielsen), marking the tournament’s smallest final round audience since 2015, the last time coverage aired on ESPN. Third round action drew 2.40 million (2.57 million including additional streaming viewership), the lowest since rainout coverage in 2014.
Olympics, F1, Summer League
— Thursday’s United States-Zambia Olympic women’s soccer match averaged 1.5 million viewers on USA Network (including additional streaming viewership not measured by Nielsen), while Wednesday’s United States-France men’s match drew 1.1 million. Figures for the equivalent 2021 matches were not immediately available.
— Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix averaged 1.07 million viewers on ESPN, up 3% from last year. The F1 season is averaging 1.2 million viewers through 13 races, down 1% from the same point of last season, but up 7% from last year’s eventual full-season average.
— NBA Summer League games averaged 221,000 viewers on the ESPN networks — down 29% from last year, when the games featured #1 pick Victor Wembanyama.
