Two of the highest profile teams at the 2012 London Olympics steered NBC Sports Network to record numbers Monday.
NBC Sports Network averaged 956,000 viewers on Monday, marking the most-viewed day in the history of the channel (previously Versus and OLN). The record day was not surprisingly driven by coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics, which earned 1.21 million viewers for the full 4:00 AM ET to 8:00 PM telecast.
The United States/Argentina men’s basketball game earned the largest audience of the day with 3.33 million viewers. For some perspective, only ten NBA games on cable drew a larger audience during the 2011-12 regular season (the playoffs, of course, being a different story).
The game did not draw the largest audience in NBCSN history. That honor still belongs to Game 3 of the 2010 Blackhawks/Flyers Stanley Cup Final (3.600M).
Immediately prior to the basketball game, the United States/Canada women’s soccer semifinal match drew 2.92 million viewers. While that ranks below last year’s United States/France Women’s World Cup semifinal on ESPN (3.354M), only four Women’s World Cup matches on cable have ever drawn a larger audience.
The match, which went into overtime, contributed the single most-viewed half-hour of the Olympics on NBCSN — 3.84 million viewers from 5:00-5:30 PM ET.
(Monday’s numbers from NBC Universal Media Village)
