The opening weekend of the Premier League posted a big increase over last year, when coverage had to compete with the Olympics.
Week 1 of the Premier League season averaged 546,000 viewers across NBC, NBCSN and CNBC, up 32% from last year, when coverage aired opposite the Olympics and aired on NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network (413K). Including the average streaming audience of 46,000, Week 1 averaged 592,000 — up 31% from last year (452K) and the second-best opening weekend average on record.
As one would expect, NBC’s lone match of the weekend topped the charts. Brighton & Hove-Manchester City scored a 0.6 rating and 915,000 viewers Saturday afternoon, up 173% in ratings and 161% in viewership from Manchester City-Sunderland in the same window last year, which aired on CNBC (0.2, 350K). Compared to Swansea-Chelsea on NBC in 2015, ratings fell a tick and viewership from a 0.7 and 1.0 million.
Ranking second for the weekend, Manchester United-West Ham pulled a 0.44 and 680,000 on NBCSN Sunday morning — down 4% In ratings and 9% in viewership from Arsenal-Liverpool last year (0.46, 745K) but up 7% and 11% respectively from Liverpool-Stoke in ’15 (0.41, 610K).
In third place was Saturday’s mid-morning window, which combined for 587,000 viewers across NBCSN and CNBC. In particular, Chelsea-Burnley had a 0.33 (+38%) and 482,000 (+28%) on NBCSN and Everton-Stoke City had 105,000 on CNBC.
Rounding out the Week 1 slate, Newcastle-Tottenham had a 0.27 (-16%) and 408,000 (-17%) early Sunday, Watford-Liverpool had a 0.25 (+79%) and 364,000 (+75%) early Saturday, and Arsenal-Leicester City started things off with 375,000 Friday afternoon.
