The Golden State Warriors attracted another larger-than-normal preseason audience last week. In other news, the NHRA posted another decline opposite the NFL and NASCAR’s most recent Xfinity Series race posted big gains thanks to a network switch.
Warriors Deliver Another Bigger-Than-Usual Preseason Audience
- Last Wednesday’s Warriors/Lakers NBA preseason game had 1.0 million viewers on ESPN, the second-largest preseason audience on any network in the past three years, since Bulls/Thunder in 2013 (1.1M). It trails only Clippers/Warriors on ESPN two weeks earlier (1.2M). Earlier in the night, Knicks/Celtics had 723,000 — down 8% from Wizards/Heat last year (784K) and up 34% from Cavaliers/Grizzlies in 2014 (540K). On Tuesday, Clippers/Kings scored 558,000 (-28%).
Another Low Mark For NHRA Opposite NFL
- Coverage of the NHRA from Dallas had a 0.2 final rating and 291,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 last Sunday, flat in ratings and down 19% in viewership from last year (0.2, 358K) and down a tick and 48%, respectively, from 2014, when the event took place in September (0.3, 560K). Those telecasts were tape delayed on ESPN2. None of the four NHRA races since the start of the NFL season have managed 300,000 viewers; each previous race had at least 400,000.
Move From NBCSN to NBC Boosts Xfinity Series
- The most recent NASCAR Xfinity Series race, from Kansas on October 15, had a 1.0 final rating and 1.4 million viewers on NBC — up 43% in ratings and 48% in viewership from last year on NBCSN (0.7, 971K) and flat and down 6%, respectively, from 2014 on ESPN (1.0, 1.5M).
