For the sixth time this season, NBC’s Premier League coverage crossed the million viewer threshold.
Last Saturday’s Aston Villa/Leicester City English Premier League match drew 1.0 million viewers on NBC, up 26% from Newcastle/Southampton last year (795K) and up 11% from Liverpool/Aston Villa in 2014 (900K). The match was the sixth of the season to score at least one million viewers, compared to five all of last season.
Overall, 18 live Premier League telecasts have earned at least one million viewers in the U.S., with 15 of those 18 on the NBC family of networks.
As one would expect, the match was the top Premier League telecast of the weekend. Leading the way on cable was Liverpool/Manchester United on Sunday morning, which had 651,000 on NBCSN — up 82% from West Ham/Hull City last year (358K) and up 75% from Swansea/Tottenham in ’14 (373K).
Later in the morning, Stoke City/Arsenal had 545,000 — down 25% from Manchester City/Arsenal last year (728K) and down 47% from Chelsea/Manchester United in ’14 (1.0M). Keep in mind those were particularly strong performers, with the 2014 match still ranking as the second-most watched EPL telecast ever on U.S. cable.
Shifting back to Saturday, USA Network scored 451,000 viewer for Chelsea/Everton — the network’s second-largest audience of the season behind West Brom/Chelsea in week three (505K). NBCSN scored 288,000 for the concurrent Manchester City/Crystal Palace match, off 38% from Queens Park/Manchester United last year (466K) and down 42% from Arsenal/Fulham in ’14 (493K).
Bookending week 22 of the season, Tottenham/Sunderland started Saturday off with 262,000 viewers. There was no comparable match last year, but viewership increased 24% from Sunderland/Southampton in 2014 (212K). Monday’s Swansea/Watford match had 186,000, off 27% from Everton/West Brom last year (256K) and down a third from Everton/West Brom in ’14 (276K).
Wrapping up the recent EPL action, special midweek matches drew 339,000 (Liverpool/Arsenal on January 13) and 173,000 (Newcastle/Manchester United on January 12).
(Recent numbers via Awful Announcing, Sports TV Ratings [1], [2])
