NBC earned the second-largest Premier League audience of the season last weekend.
Last Saturday’s Chelsea/Tottenham English Premier League match had a 0.6 final rating and 959,000 viewers on the NBC broadcast network, down a tick in ratings but up 4% in viewership from Manchester City/Liverpool last year (0.7, 926K) but up a tick and 20% respectively from Sunderland/Chelsea in 2014 (0.5, 802K).
Chelsea’s win delivered the second-largest Premier League audience of the season, trailing only Manchester United/Hull City in week three (1.2M). It was just the second EPL match to cross the 900,000 threshold through the first 13 weeks, compared to six at the comparable point last year.
On cable, the weekend’s top draw was Manchester United/West Ham on Sunday morning. The Red Devils’ win earned a 0.3 final rating and 548,000 viewers, flat in ratings and up 16% in viewership from Tottenham/West Ham last year (0.3, 472K) and up a tick and 39% respectively from Tottenham/Everton in 2014 (0.2, 394K).
The previous day’s Liverpool/Sunderland match was not far behind at a 0.3 and 536,000 — up a tick in ratings and 43% in viewership from Chelsea/Norwich City last year (0.2, 375K) but flat and down 17% respectively from Manchester United/Hull City in ’14 (0.3, 642K).
In a top heavy week, the other matches were not as strong. Arsenal/Bournemouth had a 0.2 and 287,000 on CNBC Sunday morning, the network’s top draw in a week when it aired four matches — but down 48% in viewership from Southampton/Manchester City in 2014 (0.2, 556K). The network’s other games had 58,000 (Watford/Stoke City), 100,000 (Southampton/Everton) and 105,000 (Leicester City/Middlesbrough), with the latter of the three down 67% from last year on USA.
Rounding out the week thirteen slate, Burnley/Manchester City started things off with 231,000 viewers on NBCSN — down 34% from Watford/Manchester United last year (0.2, 351K) but up 17% from West Brom/Arsenal in ’14 (209K). Ratings fell a tick from both last year and 2014 (0.2 to 0.1).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 11/30, Awful Announcing 12/3)
