The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry hit a Sunday Night Baseball low last weekend. In other news, the Cubs and Nationals gave Fox Sports 1 a lift, and The Players Championship got off to a slower start.
Sox/Yanks Up, But Low, on Sunday Night Baseball
- Red Sox/Yankees posted a 1.2 final rating and 1.9 million viewers on last week’s edition of Sunday Night Baseball, up 20% in ratings and 18% in viewership from Royals/Tigers last year (1.0, 1.6M) but down a tick and 6%, respectively, from Cardinals/Cubs in 2014 (1.3, 2.0M). As noted by Sports Business Daily, it was the rivals’ least-watched Sunday night game since September 2013 (1.8M). In other action, Tigers/Nationals scored 591,000 on Monday (-5%) and Royals/Yankees 662,000 on Wednesday (-1%).
FS1 Sees Boost For Cubs/Nats
- Last Saturday’s Nationals/Cubs Major League Baseball game delivered 663,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, up 44% from Braves/Nationals last year (460K) and the network’s fifth-largest regular season audience. Rangers/Tigers had 524,000 earlier in the day, down 27% from Royals/Tigers last year (715K) but up 78% from Cardinals/Cubs in 2014 (295K).
Players Championship Starts Slow
- First round coverage of the PGA Tour Players Championship scored 717,000 viewers on Golf Channel Thursday afternoon, down 16% from last year (858K) but up 36% from 2014 (527K). It was the second-least watched opening round in at least five years, ahead of only 2014.
(Numbers via Sports Business Daily, ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2], [3], [4])
