Recent sports TV ratings news, including Tuesday’s Pistons/Heat game on NBA TV and college football action on ESPN and ESPN2.
- Tuesday’s Pistons/Heat NBA preseason game drew 500,000 viewers on NBA TV. To put that in perspective, MLB Network’s top game of the 2010 season (Stephen Strasburg‘s June 8 ML debut) drew 588,000 viewers, while NFL Network’s live NFL telecasts averaged over five million viewers in 2009. NBA TV, now in 53 million homes, will be a Nielsen rated network this season. (ESPN.com, Turner Sports)
- Opposite high-profile games on ABC and CBS, ESPN drew a 1.3 U.S. rating and 2,271 million viewers for Penn State/Iowa last Saturday night — down 38% in ratings and 36% in viewership from last year (AUB/TEN: 2.1, 3.531 mil) and down 67% and 66%, respectively, from the comparable week in 2008 (ALA/UGA: 3.9, 6.683 mil). (Sports Business Daily)
- ESPN2 drew a 1.2 U.S. rating and 1.934 million viewers for reverse mirror coverage of ABC’s Saturday Night Football last week, featuring either Stanford/Oregon or Washington/USC. Earlier in the day, the network drew a 1.5 U.S. rating and 2.190 million viewers for Miami/Clemson. (Sports Business Daily)
