The Premier League’s annual Boxing Day line-up was less of a draw than last year, when the date fell on a weekend.
Monday’s Manchester United/Sunderland English Premier League match had 522,000 viewers on NBCSN, down 7% from Liverpool/Leicester City last year (563K) but up 31% from Newcastle/Manchester United in 2014 (399K). Boxing Day was a Saturday last year and a Friday in 2014.
The Red Devils’ win was the top match of the Boxing Day slate, and the only one to decline by less than ten percent.
Airing concurrently on CNBC, Chelsea/Bournemouth had 209,000 — down 42% from Chelsea/Watford on USA Network last year (363).
Rounding out the holiday schedule, Watford/Crystal Palace had 218,000 early in the morning — down 35% from Stoke City/Manchester United last year (335K) but up 14% from West Ham/Chelsea in ’14 (191K). Hull City/Manchester City had 507,000 in the afternoon, down 35% from Newcastle/Everton on the NBC broadcast network last year (782K). There was no comparable window in 2014.
In other week eighteen action, Liverpool/Stoke City had 293,000 on Tuesday and Southampton/Tottenham had 241,000 on Wednesday — down 2% and 9% respectively from the matches on the comparable dates last year, Leicester City/Manchester City (299K) and Sunderland/Liverpool (264K). Those matches were part of the week nineteen schedule.
