Round two of the Olympic women’s golf tournament hit a multi-year viewership high. In other news, ESPN’s Major League Baseball viewership has declined opposite the Olympics, and FS1 and TBS have also posted declines for their MLB coverage.
Olympic Women’s Golf Hits Multi-Year High
- Second round coverage of the Olympic women’s golf tournament earned a 0.2 final rating and 316,000 viewers on Golf Channel Thursday afternoon, marking the most-watched Thursday women’s golf telecast in more than two years — since opening round coverage of the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open on ESPN2 (437K). The full telecast window, which ran nearly nine hours, had 237,000.
ESPN MLB Viewership Down Against Olympics
- Cardinals/Cubs scored a 1.0 final rating and 1.6 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, down 17% in ratings and 16% in viewership from Angels/Royals last year (1.2, 1.9M) and flat and up 9%, respectively, from Nationals/Braves in 2014 (1.0, 1.5M). Royals/Tigers earned 553,000 the following night (-43%) and Red Sox/Orioles 419,000 on Wednesday (-35%). Dating back to Yankees/Red Sox the previous Wednesday night (596K, -22%), viewership has dropped double-digits for all four MLB windows on ESPN that faced the Olympics.
FS1 and TBS Also Post MLB Declines
- Last Saturday’s Pirates/Dodgers Major League Baseball game scored a 0.2 final rating and 245,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, flat in ratings and down 26% in viewership from Cardinals/Orioles in 2014 (0.2, 330K). There was no comparable game last year. The rain delayed Angels/Indians nightcap had just a 0.1 and 166,000, down 67% and 65%, respectively, from Angels/Royals last year (0.3, 477K); there was no comparable window in 2014. Over on TBS, another rain-delayed Angels/Indians matchup had a 0.2 (flat) and 254,000 (-16%) on Sunday afternoon.
(Numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box, ShowBuzz Daily [1], [2], [3], [4])
