A rare Duke-North Carolina ACC Tournament matchup delivered an unsurprisingly huge increase on ESPN.
Duke-UNC scored a 1.8 final rating and 3.0 million viewers in Friday’s ACC Tournament semifinals on ESPN, up 114% in viewership from UNC-Notre Dame last year, ratings for which were unavailable (1.4M), and up 38% and 45% respectively from Virginia-UNC in 2015 (1.3, 2.1M). It was the most-watched ACC Tournament game since the 2015 final between UNC and Notre Dame (3.5M).
Viewership increased 43% over the rivals’ previous ACC Tournament meeting, the 2011 final (2.0M).
The Blue Devils’ win delivered the fifth-largest college basketball audience of the season, with their matchups against North Carolina making up three of the top five. UNC has now played in four of the top five games this season, with their December matchup against Kentucky ranking second. Keep in mind those rankings will almost certainly change once the weekend’s results come in.
Figures do not include the 109,000 who streamed coverage on WatchESPN, the largest college basketball audience ever on the streaming platform. Nor do they include simulcast coverage on the ACC Network.
In the night’s second ACC semifinal, Notre Dame-Florida State had a 1.1 and 1.8 million — up 57% in ratings and 68% in viewership from Virginia-Miami last year (0.7, 1.1M) though down 35% and 32% respectively from Notre Dame-Duke in 2015 (1.7, 2.6M). Entering Saturday’s final, figures for which were delayed due to issues at Nielsen, all ten games of the ACC Tournament posted a double-digit increase in viewership.
Rounding out Friday’s action, Arizona-UCLA had 1.6 million in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals — nearly seven times higher than last year’s Utah-Cal matchup on Fox Sports 1 (244K) and up 13% from Oregon-Utah in 2015 (1.4M).
| TOP CBB GAMES, 2016-17 SEASON Through March 10 Ranked by viewership |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Game | Net | Rtg. | Vwrs. |
| 1 | Duke-UNC March 4 |
ESPN | 2.4 | 4.06M |
| 2 | Kentucky-UNC December 17 |
CBS | 2.2 | 3.62M |
| 3 | Kentucky-Kansas January 28 |
ESPN | 2.0 | 3.35M |
| 4 | UNC-Duke February 9 |
ESPN | 1.8 | 3.08M |
| 5 | Duke-UNC March 10 |
ESPN | 1.8 | 2.98M |
| 6 | Wisconsin-Purdue January 8 |
CBS | 1.9 | 2.97M |
| 7 | Kentucky-Louisville December 21 |
ESPN | 1.7 | 2.72M |
| 8 | Mich. St.-Ohio St. January 15 |
CBS | 1.5 | 2.363M |
| 9 | Kansas-Duke November 15 |
ESPN | 1.5 | 2.361M |
| 10 | Florida-Kentucky February 25 |
CBS | 1.5 | 2.31M |
(Fri. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.13, with additional info from Programming Insider 3.13, ESPN)
