The Warriors’ record-tying win Sunday hit a season-low nationally and a record-high locally. In other news, ESPN2 scored big gains for a trio of college basketball games, and the ATP World Tour final declined from the last time it was contested.
Warriors/Nuggets Low Nationally, Big Locally
- Sunday’s Warriors/Nuggets NBA regular season game had a 0.6 final rating and 912,000 viewers on ESPN, the smallest audience of the young season on national TV (not including NBA TV). ESPN’s broadcast, which was not announced until Friday night, was blacked out in the home markets. Locally, the Warriors’ win earned a 9.58 rating on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area — the network’s highest Warriors rating ever, including postseason, topping the previous high set days earlier by Raptors/Warriors (8.65). (via TV Media Insights/CSNBA)
Big Gains For College Hoops on ESPN2 Monday
- ESPN2 drew 550,000 viewers for Wake Forest/Indiana in the Maui Invitational Monday afternoon, up 48% from Arizona/Missouri in the same window last year (372K). The LSU/Marquette Legends Classic semifinal had 493,000 viewers immediately afterward, up 50% from Villanova/VCU last year (329K), and Northwestern/North Carolina scored 480,000 after that — up 134% from last year’s Alabama/Iowa State game (205K). Bookending the quintupleheader, St. John’s/Vanderbilt had 203,000 (-21%) and UNLV/UCLA had 248,000 (+2%). (via Sports TV Ratings)
Djokovic/Federer ATP Final Down From ’13
- The Novak Djokovic/Roger Federer ATP World Tour final had 247,000 viewers on ESPN2 Sunday afternoon, down 25% from the 2013 Djokovic/Rafael Nadal final, which took place on a Monday (331K). Last year’s scheduled Djokovic/Federer final was called off after the latter pulled out due to injury; abbreviated coverage had 212,000 viewers. (via ShowBuzz Daily)
