Aided by broadcast network exposure, the U.S. women’s national team scored its top audience for a friendly in nearly two years. In other news, the penultimate weekend of college basketball’s regular season was mostly up on CBS, and a Spurs-Pelicans matchup delivered good numbers for ESPN.
Move to Broadcast Lifts USWNT to Two-Year High
- Saturday’s England-United States women’s soccer match, the second match of the SheBelieves Cup, had a 0.5 final rating and 728,000 viewers on the FOX broadcast network — the most-watched women’s soccer friendly since a match against South Korea prior to the 2015 Women’s World Cup (0.6, 998K). It was the top soccer telecast of a weekend that included the start of the MLS season and the usual round of English Premier League matches, though it was also the only one of those events to air on a broadcast network.
College Hoops Mostly Up on CBS Last Weekend
- Notre Dame-Louisville was the weekend’s top college basketball game on CBS with a 1.1 final rating and 1.7 million viewers Saturday, flat in ratings and up 3% in viewership from LSU-Kentucky last year (1.1, 1.6M) but down 35% and 38% respectively from Florida-Kentucky in 2015 (1.7, 2.7M). Five of the net’s six games increased over last year, with Kentucky-Texas A&M up 43% in ratings (to 1.0) and 50% in viewership (to 1.5M), Arizona-Arizona State up 29% (to 0.9) and 38% (to 1.4M), Wichita State-Illinois State up 13% (to 0.9) and 20% (to 1.4M) and Cincinnati-Connecticut up 13% (to 0.9) and 10% (to 1.3M). Purdue-Northwestern was the only exception, declining 23% in both measures to a 1.0 and 1.6 million.
Spurs-Pelicans Does Well on ESPN
- Spurs-Pelicans drew a 1.1 final rating and 1.8 million viewers on ESPN’s NBA Friday last week, up 38% in ratings and 58% in viewership from Hawks-Lakers last year (0.8, 1.1M) and up 22% and 42% respectively from Mavericks-Warriors in 2015 (0.9, 1.3M). Outside of Cavaliers and Warriors games, it was the most-viewed NBA game on cable since Christmas. Earlier, Cavaliers-Hawks fell 26% in ratings (from 1.01 to 0.75) and 21% in viewership (from 1.5M to 1.2M), with the caveat that coverage was blacked out in Cleveland. In other action, Thunder-Mavericks had a 1.0 and 1.6 million on ESPN Sunday, and Pacers-Hornets (0.5, 801K) and Celtics-Clippers (0.7, 992K) failed to crack the million mark on TNT Monday.
(Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.7, Programming Insider 3.7a, 3.7b)
