Ratings Roundup: YES Earns Best Post-Jeter Yankees Game Rating; NBC Puts Up Most-Watched Final Round of The Open Since 2009

Ratings roundup is a rundown of ratings news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, YES posts its highest-rated Yankees telecast since Derek Jeter’s last game at Yankee Stadium; Univision bests Fox in Gold Cup Ratings, but numbers were down from 2015; Fox Sports more than doubles its 2015 audience for the Gold Cup Final; NBC puts up its most-watched final round of The Open in eight years; El Clásico Miami is ESPN’s most-watched soccer match since the UEFA EURO 2016 Final; and NBC’s Tour de France keeps pace with 2016 viewership. 

YES Posts Highest-Rated Yankees Telecast Since Jeter’s Last Game
Last night’s Detroit Tigers-New York Yankees game was the highest-rated and most-viewed program on the YES Network in almost three years. The game telecast did a 5.01 average TV Household rating in the New York DMA and averaged 446,000 Total Viewers. These numbers were the best since YES’ September 25, 2014 Orioles-Yankees telecast, Derek Jeter’s last game at Yankee Stadium. Last night’s telecast peaked during the 9:45-10:00 pm ET quarter-hour, with a 6.51 rating/571,000 Viewers.  It was during this quarter-hour (bottom of the seventh inning) that Clint Frazier tripled and Aaron Judge, the next batter up, walked. 

Last night’s Tigers-Yankees game was the #1 Primetime program in the New York DMA in Household Ratings, Total Viewers, TV Households, Males 18+ and Males 25-54. Yankees primetime games on YES have ranked #1 in the New York DMA 15 of the past 18 game nights in key demos such as Males 18+ and Males 25-54.

YES’ Yankees telecasts during the month of July averaged a 3.67 TV Household rating (an average of 336,000 Viewers), its best July for Yankees games in five years.

NBC Puts Up Most-Watched Final Round of The Open in Eight Years
NBC Sports Group’s coverage of Jordan Spieth’s dramatic victory at The 146th Open concluded Sunday with a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 4.97 million average viewers across NBC and NBC Sports Digital, as well as a 3.2 U.S. household rating (according to Nielsen Fast Nationals). The 4.97 million TAD for The Open at England’s Royal Birkdale Golf Club was +1% vs. 2016 at Scotland’s Royal Troon (4.94 million TAD), with a combination of 4.91 million average TV viewers on NBC (Even vs. 2016) and 59,200 streaming average minute audience (37,592 average minute audience, +60% vs. ‘16) across NBC Sports’ streaming platforms. TAD measures consumption across multiple platforms, combining the Average Minute Audience (AMA) for television and digital. This makes 2017 the most-watched telecast of The Open since the 2009 Final Round at Turnberry on ABC (5.55 million), which ended in a 4-hole playoff with Stewart Cink defeating a 59-year-old Tom Watson.

TV-only viewership on Sunday peaked with 7.33 million average viewers (1:15-1:30 p.m.) as Jordan Spieth clinched the Claret Jug with his winning putt, making him the Champion Golfer of the Year.

Across all four days, The Open totaled 100.8 million live minutes of streaming, a record for an NBC Sports’ golf event, and a remarkable +96% vs. ‘16. Streaming also garnered 917,000 unique devices (+51% vs. ‘16) and an Average Minute Audience of 34,000 (+92% vs. ‘16) across 50 hours of coverage. Sunday’s Final Round garnered 20 million minutes of live streaming (+60% vs. ‘16), 300,000 unique devices (+19% vs. ‘16).

NBC’s Final Round telecast is the only major championship with a final round viewership increase vs. 2016 year-to-date and is the most-watched golf telecast on NBC since Tiger Woods’ win in the final round of the 2015 Players (5.07 million). The 3.2 rating for NBC’s 2017 coverage of daytime finish of The Open is +4% vs. 2017 U.S. Open Final Round’s primetime finish on FOX (3.1 U.S. Household Rating). NBC’s Third Round coverage (3.11 million TAD) is the most-watched Saturday golf telecast on NBC since Saturday of the 2016 Ryder Cup (3.33 million TAD, 9 a.m.-7:17 p.m., Oct 1).

Earlier in the week, with coverage of The Open’s First Round on Thursday, Golf Channel was the #1 cable sports network by 135% and #7 out of all 114 Nielsen rated cable networks from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. On Friday with coverage of The Open’s Second Round, Golf Channel was the #1 cable sports network by 344% and #5 out of all 114 Nielsen-rated cable networks from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The Open was the #1 sports telecast of the day on Friday by 46%. Golf Channel on Friday from The Open posted its most-watched day (567k average viewers) since Ryder Cup Friday in September 2016 and the network’s fourth most-watched day ever.

Univision Bests Fox in Gold Cup Ratings, But Numbers Down From 2015
The CONCACAF Gold Cup is over and Univision Deportes’ coverage garnered more than three-times the audience versus FOX’s broadcast of the tournament and outperformed Telemundo’s Spanish-language broadcast of the FIFA Confederations Cup by +23% with Total Viewers 2+ and +26% with Adults 18-49. Across the networks of Univision, the 25 Gold Cup matches averaged 1.4 million Total Viewers 2+, down 30% from 2015 (2.0M), according to SportsMediaWatch.

The telecast also averaged 766,000 Adults 18-49. Driven by the strong audience delivery of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, UDN (Univision Deportes Network) is positioned to end July as the No. 2 sports network, ahead of ESPN 2 and NBCSN; No. 4 year-to-date in primetime, ahead of FS1.

The culminating match between USA and Jamaica delivered 2.5 million Total Viewers 2+ and 1.3 million Adults 18-49 on Univision. This was most-viewed USA Gold Cup match (excluding matches versus Mexico) on any network since the June 22, 2011 Gold Cup Semifinal, USA versus Panama match, on Univision.

Via the Univision Deportes App, the CONCACAF Gold Cup garnered more than 4 million video views and 1 million streams (live streams +live clips, including one match on YouTube) across its digital platforms (Source: Google Analytics). In addition, the Gold Cup Final was the most talked about program on #SocialTV Wednesday with over 790,000 interactions from 495,000 people. Mexico National Team matches on Univision Deportes digital platforms brought in more than 450,000 streams during Gold Cup (Source: Google Analytics). More than 1 million users kept up-to-date on all the events surrounding Gold Cup on Univision Deportes Digital platforms (Source: Google Analytics). Univision Deportes Gold Cup Facebook posts generated over 13 million video views (Source: Facebook Insights).

Fox Sports More Than Doubles 2015 Audience for Gold Cup Final 
The U.S. Men’s National Team’s victory over Jamaica in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final on Wednesday drew 1,772,000 viewers to FS1, up +117% over the 2015 championship match. However, the FInal was down 17% and 16% respectively from the 2013 final, which aired on the FOX broadcast network (1.2, 2.1M), according to SMW. The contest was Wednesday’s most-watched cable telecast in the Adults 18-49 demographic.

The victory also drew huge numbers on digital, with an average minute audience of 71,742 tuning in on FOX Sports GO, the largest audience ever on the platform for a soccer event.

El Clásico Miami Is ESPN’s Most-watched Soccer Match Since UEFA EURO 2016 Final
ESPN’s coverage of El Clásico Miami Saturday night – a 3-2 victory by FC Barcelona over their archrival Real Madrid at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium – was seen by an average audience of 1.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched soccer match telecast on ESPN networks since last summer’s UEFA EURO 2016 in France. With an audience of 836,000, the Real Madrid–FC Barcelona match is the most watched non-U.S. international friendly match ever on ESPN – topping the previous high, an international match between Mexico and Argentina on September 8, 2015, seen by 724,000 viewers.
Spanish-language telecast on ESPN Deportes and ESPN2 averaged 692,000 Hispanic viewers. ESPN Deportes’ telecast earned a 2.2 Hispanic HH US ratinghelping the network win the night among Hispanics across all cable networks, regardless of language. It is also the highest-rated telecast on the Spanish-language network since the UEFA EURO 2016 Finals (4.4 Hispanic HH US rating). In the average minute, 840,000 Hispanic viewers were tuning into El Clásico Miami across ESPN networks. 7% of Hispanic viewers were watching on ESPN Deportes; 18% on ESPN and 11% on the ESPN2 simulcast.
 
Live match coverage of El Clásico Miami had a remarkable average minute streaming audience of 73,000, and 364,000 unique viewers – record-setting audiences on the platform for an international club friendly match and is the most-streamed soccer match on the ESPN digital properties since the final match of UEFA EURO 2016. Across all networks streaming provided a 4.5% lift on top of the TV audience
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale delivered the top local market rating of 2.9, besting two other local markets in Florida ranked among the top four – No. 2 is West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce with a 1.8 rating; and No. 4 Ft. Myers-Naples (1.4).

NBC’s Tour de France Keeps Pace With 2016
Live coverage of the Tour de France averaged approximately 331,000 viewers on NBC and NBCSN, up 3% from last year, but down 16% from 2015 (395K). NBC’s lone live telecast was the top draw with 845,000 viewers, while NBCSN topped out at 435,000 for last Sunday’s final stage. Including encores, the most-watched telecast was a replay of Stage 20 on NBC last Saturday, which had a 0.7 rating and 1.1 million viewers — up 75% in ratings and 74% in viewership from last year (0.4, 620K). (SMW)

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