Not surprisingly, the Red Sox and Bruins attracted large television audiences in Boston last weekend. In other news, Alabama trounced Notre Dame — again — last weekend, and ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” had a steep decline in viewership.
Viewers Tune-in For Red Sox, Bruins, on Emotional Weekend
- On the emotional first weekend after the Boston Marathon bombings, the Red Sox and Bruins attracted large television audiences on NESN. Last Saturday, NESN and NESN+ combined for a 14.0 rating for concurrent Red Sox and Bruins games from 12:30-4:30 PM ET, with Royals/Red Sox on NESN earning a 9.4 and Penguins/Bruins on NESN+ scoring a 4.7. Similar coverage the following day attracted a combined a 14.4 rating on the networks, with Royals/Red Sox drawing a 10.3 and Panthers/Bruins a 4.1. (Multichannel News)
Alabama Beats Notre Dame Again
- Last Saturday’s Alabama spring football game drew a 0.2 U.S. rating and 330,000 viewers on ESPN2, nearly doubling the audience of the Notre Dame spring game on NBC Sports Network earlier in the day (0.1, 191K). Alabama’s game fell short of the Texas A&M spring game on ESPN a week earlier (0.3, 405K) — though that game did not have to face NBA playoff competition. (Weekend numbers from Son of the Bronx [1], [2])
Big Drop For “Sunday Night Baseball”
- ESPN drew a 1.0 U.S. rating and 1.6 million viewers for last week’s Cardinals/Phillies “Sunday Night Baseball” game, down 47% in ratings and 49% in viewership from Yankees/Rangers in 2011 (1.9, 3.0M). Last year’s comparable Yankees/Red Sox game was rained out. (Weekend numbers from Son of the Bronx)
