With no World Series Game 7 this year, ESPN’s NBA ratings soared Wednesday night. Also: the F1 Mexican Grand Prix hit a viewership high and Premier League viewership is on the rise.
Wednesday NBA Up Big on ESPN, With Caveat
Wednesday’s Pacers-Knicks NBA regular season game scored a 0.9 rating and 1.37 million viewers on ESPN, up 58% in ratings and 63% in viewership from last year (Rockets-Knicks: 0.6, 839K) and up 65% and 69% respectively from 2016 (Bulls-Celtics: 0.55, 810K).
Later in the night, Spurs-Suns had a 0.7 (+58%) and 1.07 million (+59%). The sizable increases come with a major caveat — both last year and in 2016, the comparable games aired opposite Game 7 of the World Series.
F1 Mexican GP Up Slightly
Last Sunday’s Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix earned a 0.5 rating and 836,000 viewers on ABC, flat in ratings and up 1% in viewership from last year (0.5, 825K) and flat and up 4% respectively from 2016 (0.5, 805K). It was the most-watched edition of the race since it returned to the schedule in 2015.
The race earned a larger audience than the previous week’s United States Grand Prix (805K). Last week’s race faced stronger NASCAR competition.
EPL Viewership Trending Up
Coverage of the English Premier League season has averaged 441,000 on the NBC Sports family of networks, up 7% from the same point last year (414K). That includes a 37 percent jump for the Monday afternoon windows on NBCSN.
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 11.1, ESPN, NBC Sports]
