The first U.S. match of the World Baseball Classic was not as big a draw as four years ago. In other news, the Big East Tournament delivered its top non-final audience in three years, and Liga MX viewership is trending up on Univision Deportes Network.
Softer Start For U.S. in World Baseball Classic
- The United States’ first game of the World Baseball Classic, a win over Colombia, had a 0.3 final rating and 479,000 viewers on MLB Network Friday night — down a tick in ratings and 29% in viewership from the 2013 U.S. opener against Mexico (0.4, 673K) and down 75% and 74% respectively from the 2009 opener against Canada on ESPN (1.2, 1.9M). The 2013 game aired in a later timeslot and the 2009 game aired on a weekend afternoon. Venezuela-Puerto Rico had a 0.2 and 387,000 immediately afterward, flat and up 47% respectively from Spain-Puerto Rico in 2013, which aired in an earlier window and did not have a U.S. lead-in (0.2, 263K).
Big East Semi Hits Three-Year High
- Villanova-Seton Hall had 363,000 viewers in Friday’s Big East Tournament semifinals on Fox Sports 1, up 3% from Villanova-Providence last year (353K), up 45% from Villanova-Providence in 2015 (250K), and the largest Big East Tournament audience outside of the final since a Creighton-Xavier semifinal in 2014 (366K). That still pales in comparison to what the tournament used to deliver in the days of the “old Big East” on ESPN. The 2013 semifinals had 1.6 and 1.7 million viewers. In other semifinal action Friday, Creighton-Xavier had 244,000 (-22%).
Liga MX Viewership Up on UDN
- The Liga MX Clausura season averaged 398,000 viewers on Univision Deportes Network through late February, up 8% from last year. According to Univision, the two-month-old season is posting a higher average on UDN than the NHL on NBCSN and the NBA on NBA TV, with the caveat that many of those telecasts are blacked out in local markets.
(Numbers from Programming Insider 3.13, Univision via Awful Announcing 3.13)
