From Sports Media Watch, a one-stop page for sports ratings news.
Last weekend’s Wings-Liberty WNBA regular season game averaged 1.3 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-estimated linear audience (0.7 rating, 1.19M viewers) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics — the second-largest audience of the season, behind Wings-Fever on ABC the opening Saturday of play.
On ION, regional action last Friday night featuring Valkyries-Fever averaged 1.09 million. Caitlin Clark and the Fever have played in the two most-watched games on ION this season, with the previous week’s Mystics-Fever game at 950,000.
In last Friday’s nightcap, Sun-Storm averaged 307,000.
Tuesday’s Spurs-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals Game 5 averaged a combined 10.24 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-estimated linear audience (7.96M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.28M), marking the largest audience for a Game 5 in the conference finals since Celtics-Heat on ESPN in 2012 (10.25M) and the most-watched Game 5 of the WCF since Lakers-Kings on NBC in 2002 (14.59M). It was the first conference final Game 5 on broadcast television since that 2002 postseason.
Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.
Oklahoma City’s win more-than-doubled last year’s Timberwolves-Thunder Game 5 on ESPN (4.62M).
Through five games, the Western Conference Finals was averaging a combined 9.74 million viewers, still trending as the most-watched WCF on record through five games, and the highest five-game average for any conference final since Heat-Bulls in 2011 (10.41M).
The NBA conference finals continues to deliver multi-year viewership highs, both for the Thunder-Spurs main event and the Knicks-Cavaliers undercard.
Through four games, the Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals was averaging 9.62 million viewers across a Nielsen-measured linear audience on NBC (3.8 rating, 7.49M viewers) and streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.13M), marking the highest four-game average for a conference final since Heat-Bulls on TNT in 2011 and the highest on record for a Western Conference Finals.
The viewership story for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 depends on the methodology.
Last weekend's NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway averaged a 1.3 rating and 3.06 million viewers on Amazon Prime Video, per the official Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" currency -- up a tick in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year's "Big Data + Panel" figure (1.2, 2.72M). On a "panel-only" basis, which is the methodology NASCAR is now reporting for its races, the 600 had a 1.1 rating and 2.65 million, flat and up 1% respectively from last year (1.1, 2.62M).
Despite an all-time finish, the Indianapolis 500 could not quite match last year's milestone audience.
Last weekend's Indy 500 averaged 6.635 million viewers on FOX, down 6% from last year's 7.09 million, but still the second-largest audience for the race since 2012 (6.85M).
Felix Rosenqvist's historically close win peaked with 8.35 million in the 4 PM ET quarter-hour, down a narrower 1% from last year's peak quarter-hour (8.44M, per initial fast-nationals).
Note that this year's Indy 500 was only sixth since Nielsen began tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates and the second since it began doing so in 100% of markets.
Final round coverage of the PGA TOUR Byron Nelson averaged 3.50 million viewers on CBS, up 20% from last year and the highest average for the event since 2004. (Note that Nielsen methodological changes skew comparisons to all past years, particularly those prior to 2020, when the company began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates.)
Saturday coverage averaged 2.83 million, also the highest since 2004, with the full weekend up 43% to 3.17 million.
CBS golf coverage is averaging 4.08 million viewers this season, up 16% from last year and officially the highest average at this point of a season since 2007.
Last Friday’s Thunder-Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals Game 3 averaged a combined 9.03 million viewers on NBC across a Nielsen-measured linear audience (7.03M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.00M), officially ranking as the most-watched conference final Game 3 since Bulls-Heat on TNT in 2011 (10.89M) and the most-watched Game 3 of the West Finals since Kings-Lakers on NBC in 2002 (10.06M).
Oklahoma City’s win increased 72% from the Timberwolves’ 40-point rout of the Thunder on ABC last year (5.26M).
The Thunder-Spurs series was averaging 9.4 million viewers through three games (7.2M per Nielsen, plus 2.2M per adobe Analytics), the highest on record at this point of a Western Conference Finals. Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.
Last Friday’s Golden Knights-Avalanche NHL Western Conference Final Game 2 averaged 2.1 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for Game 2 of the WCF since Avalanche-Red Wings in 2002. Note that changes in Nielsen methodology skew comparisons to past years, particularly those prior to the company including out-of-home viewing in its estimates in 2020.
The Golden Knights’ win increased 54% from last year’s Oilers-Stars Game 2.
The following night, Canadiens-Hurricanes Game 2 averaged 2.0 million on TNT Sports — up 58% from Panthers-Hurricanes last year. That was not a multi-year high, as Rangers-Panthers Game 2 had 2.1 million on ESPN two years ago, but ranked as the highest for a conference final Game 2 on TNT Sports (dates back to 2021).
The debut of Amazon Prime Video’s new WNBA package — Lynx-Wings and Liberty-Fire on May 14 — averaged 529,000 viewers. Prime aired WNBA games prior to this season, but those were simulcasts of local feeds and were not Nielsen-rated.
Compared to last year’s WNBA average on cable, viewership for the Prime doubleheader increased 26%, outside the range that would be explained by Nielsen methodological changes.
As is commonplace for sporting events on streaming services, the gains were particularly pronounced in the young adult demographics, with viewership up triple-digits in adults 18-34 (+156%), 18-49 (+147%) and 25-54 (+106%). Prime had a median age of 53.4 for its two games, compared to 62.3 for WNBA games on linear television last season.
Last Thursday’s Cavaliers-Knicks NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 averaged 7.1 million viewers on ESPN, officially the highest for a Game 2 of the East Finals since the LeBron James-era Cavaliers faced the Celtics in 2018 (8.42M).
The Knicks’ win increased 7% from Pacers-Knicks on TNT Sports last year (6.65M), within the margin that can be explained by Nielsen methodological changes of the past year.
Last Thursday’s Canadiens-Hurricanes NHL Eastern Conference Final Game 1 averaged 1.7 million viewers on TNT Sports, up a third from Panthers-Hurricanes last year (1.3M).
Though not a multi-year high for the Eastern Conference Final — trailing Panthers-Rangers on ESPN two years ago (2.0M) — it officially ranks as the most-watched conference final opener on TNT since 2022 (Oilers-Avalanche: 1.8M), with the standard caveats regarding Nielsen methodological changes.
Airing in a mid-afternoon window that would usually feature an NBA playoff game, last Sunday’s Texas A&M-Arizona State NCAA college softball regional averaged 569,000 viewers on ABC — the fourth-largest audience for a regional since 2019.
Each of the top four took place last week, with ESPN averaging 683,000 for Texas-Baylor, 665,000 for Wisconsin-Texas and 600,000 for Virginia-Tennessee.
The latest edition of MLB “Sunday Night Baseball” (Padres-Mariners) averaged a combined 2.0 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (1.0, 1.80M) and Adobe Analytics, down from last year’s higher-profile Yankees-Mets “Subway Series” game on ESPN, which at the time was the most-watched Sunday night game since 2018 (2.5M).
Padres-Mariners was originally scheduled to air on Peacock and NBCSN, but was moved up to NBC when the network ended up without an NBA playoff game.
Viewership slipped from the previous NBC edition of “Sunday Night Baseball,” Guardians-Braves last month — which averaged 2.2 million (1.1 rating, 1.95M viewers per Nielsen). As one might expect, neither “Sunday Night Baseball” game has matched NBC’s Opening Day doubleheader of Diamondbacks-Dodgers at 3.2 million (1.5, 2.74M per Nielsen) and Pirates-Mets at 2.3 million (1.2, 2.06M per Nielsen).
NBC will begin a regular run of “Sunday Night Baseball” coverage a week from Sunday, airing the series on all-but-two weekends through August.
“Sunday Night Baseball” was not the top MLB telecast of last week, as FOX averaged a 1.4 and 2.50 million for regional coverage featuring the Subway Series and the same Padres-Mariners matchup — the network’s second-largest audience of the season and a 31% increase from the same weekend last year (1.91M).
Wednesday’s Golden Knights-Avalanche NHL Western Conference Final Game 1 averaged 2.1 million viewers on ESPN, up 45% from Oilers-Stars last year (1.46M) and the most-watched Game 1 of a West Final since 2018, when Golden Knights-Jets aired on NBC in primetime (2.37M per Nielsen/Adobe Analytics).
Regardless of conference, the Golden Knights’ win was the most-watched conference final opener since Rangers-Lightning on ESPN in 2022 (2.36M).
In the network’s first WNBA telecast since 2002, NBC averaged 1.24 million viewers for last Saturday’s Aces-Dream WNBA regular season game across Nielsen (0.7 rating, 1.14M viewers) and Adobe Analytics.
Elsewhere, USA Network averaged 676,000 for Fever-Sparks a week ago Wednesday, preceded by Aces-Sun at 343,000. USA was averaging 518,000 for its first three WNBA games this season.
Last weekend’s Preakness Stakes averaged a combined 5.5 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (2.7 rating, 5.32M viewers) and Adobe Analytics, marking the largest audience for the race since 2021. That is despite the absence of the Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo and the race being relocated from its usual home of Pimilico Park in Baltimore to Laurel, MD.
In a social media announcement this week, NBC credited promotional opportunities during its new NBA and Major League Baseball packages for the gains, though the impact of that obviously cannot be quantified.
The Preakness delivered the third-largest sports audience of last weekend, behind the Cavaliers-Pistons NBA playoff Game 7 on Prime Video (6.53M) and the final round of the PGA Championship on CBS (5.76M).
The Spurs and Thunder delivered a second-straight milestone audience in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.
Wednesday's Spurs-Thunder NBA Western Conference Finals Game 2 averaged a combined 10.10 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (7.77M) and a streaming audience tracked by Adobe Analytics (2.3M), surpassing Heat-Bulls on TNT in 2011 (10.04M) as the most-watched conference final Game 2 in the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present).
Keep in mind that it was only the second conference final Game 2 on broadcast television over that span.
Despite pairing the league's smallest U.S. market against a Canadian team, Canadiens-Sabres delivered the two largest audiences of a strong Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Monday's Canadiens-Sabres second round Stanley Cup playoff Game 7 averaged 2.96 million viewers on ESPN, trailing only Red Wings-Blackhawks Game 7 on NBCSN in 2013 (3.35M) as the most-watched second round game to air on a cable network. Across all networks, it was the most-watched since Islanders-Flyers Game 7 on NBC in 2020, which despite airing over Labor Day weekend in the "bubble" still rode a Kentucky Derby lead-in to an audience of 3.04 million (per Nielsen and Adobe Analytics).
The NASCAR All-Star Race from Dover (Del.) averaged a 1.0 rating and 1.80 million viewers on FS1 Sunday afternoon, per the Nielsen panel-only data that NASCAR will be reporting going forward. Using the “Big Data + Panel” methodology that remains the official Nielsen currency, the race had a 1.0 and 1.68 million.
Regardless of the methodology, viewership fell from last year’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, which aired in primetime (2.0M).
On Saturday, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race from Dover averaged a 0.6 and 1.05 million on a panel-only basis. That was also higher than the “Big Data” figure of 1.03 million. Both metrics increased from last year’s 14th race of the season, Nashville at the end of May (988K).
A highly-anticipated Western Conference Finals seems poised to turbocharge an NBA playoff audience already up double-digits through the first two rounds.
Monday's Spurs-Thunder NBA WCF Game 1 averaged a combined 9.16 million viewers on NBC across Nielsen (6.91M) and a streaming audience measured by Adobe Analytics (2.25M), officially marking the largest audience on record for a Game 1 of the West Finals. The previous high was 9.15 million for the previous Western Conference Finals opener on NBC, Lakers-Kings exactly 24 years earlier in 2002.
Like the Masters last month, the second major of the golf season delivered another multi-year high in both ratings and viewership.
Sunday's final round of the PGA Championship averaged a 3.1 rating and 5.76 million viewers on CBS, up 24% in ratings and 21% in viewership from last year (2.5, 4.76M) and the most-watched final round of the tournament since Phil Mickelson won five years ago (6.58M).
Aaron Rai's win, which peaked with 8.02 million viewers and averaged 7.83 million over the final hour, also tied 2022 as the highest rated final round since Mickelson's win (3.9).
The new Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" era has corresponded with record audiences but no shortage of detractors, and now one of the biggest sports properties is shifting away from the methodology.
NASCAR will no longer report Nielsen "Big Data + Panel" figures for its races, returning to the "panel-only" methodology that had been the currency until September of last year, its Senior Vice President/Broadcasting & Innovation Brian Herbst told Sports Media Watch Tuesday. The news was first reported by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal on Monday.
The final NASCAR Cup Series points race on Fox Sports this season — Watkins Glen last Sunday — averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.93 million viewers, the least-watched race of the season thus far. (Bristol had 1.945 million last month.) Viewership declined 17% from last year’s equivalent Kansas race (2.32M).
The corresponding Xfinity Series race drew 1.01 million on CW; there was no equivalent race last year.
Welcome back to "The Needle," a ratings-focused column on Sports Media Watch that will break down the numbers, attempt to put some context behind the data, and discuss broader trends in measurement and television viewing.
Milestone might be an overstatement, but it is certainly notable that the only Game 7 in the second round of the NBA Playoffs, and the only NBA game of the weekend, will air on Amazon Prime Video Sunday night. Not on NBC or ABC, the two over-the-air broadcast networks that regularly carry games on Sundays.
The new WNBA season opened with another milestone audience, if not quite at the level of last year's.
Last weekend's Wings-Fever WNBA opening weekend game averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.49 million viewers on ABC, down from Sky-Fever last year (2.70M), but still the league's fourth-largest audience -- including the playoffs and All-Star Game -- since 2000.
(Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is mere months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with "Big Data" from smart TVs and set-top boxes.
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