Stanley Cup playoff viewership continues to rise above last year. In other news, Cubs-Red Sox was a good draw for ESPN and Fox Sports 1, and the Orioles-Red Sox rivalry did not resonate for ESPN Monday.
Stanley Cup Viewership Still Trending Up
- Tuesday’s Blues-Predators Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 4 earned a 0.6 final rating and 1.0 million viewers on NBCSN, up a tick in ratings and 23% in viewership from Stars-Blues Game 3 last year (0.5, 837K) and up 50% and 89% respectively from Ducks-Flames on USA Network in 2015 (0.4, 545K). Earlier in the night, Senators-Rangers Game 3 also had 1.0 million — up 15% from Lightning-Islanders last year (1.6M) but down 43% from Blackhawks-Wild in ’15 (1.8M). Ratings were not immediately available. Through Tuesday, the postseason has averaged 860,000 viewers across the NBC family of networks (+5%).
Cubs-Red Sox Delivers For ESPN, FS1
- Cubs-Red Sox earned a 1.6 final rating and 2.5 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, up a tick in ratings and 1% in viewership from last year (1.5, 2.4M) and up a tick and 8% respectively from 2015 (1.5, 2.3M), both of which were Yankees-Red Sox matchups. The teams’ Saturday game on Fox Sports 1 had a 0.5 and 738,000 (+164%), the largest regular season audience on FS1 since Yankees-Indians last July (901K).
Despite Acrimony, O’s-Sox Down on ESPN
- Orioles-Red Sox scored 522,000 viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball, down 25% from Cubs-Pirates last year (699K) and down 40% from Cubs-Cardinals in 2015 (867K). It was the least-watched Monday night game on ESPN this season (excludes one game on ESPN2). In other recent action, Angels-Rangers had a 0.3 final rating and 520,000 viewers on FS1 Saturday night; there was no comparable window last year.
(Numbers via Programming Insider 5.3, ShowBuzz Daily 5.2a, 5.2b)
