Ratings Roundup: A Deep Dive Into March Madness Numbers; UConn-Baylor in NCAA Women’s Tournament Hits Ten-Year High
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, a deep dive into the numbers of the 2021 March Madness, UConn vs. Baylor smashes a ten-year watermark, YES Network finishes with the best Spring Training in 13 years, Formula 1 on ESPN gets off to a hot start in Bahrain, and more.
March Madness 2021
First Four and Early Rounds
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament kicked off to a great start during the First Four with several all-time milestones, including a gross audience of 7.6 million viewers consuming the games across TBS, truTV, NCAA March Madness Live and TV Everywhere platforms.
The First Four telecasts, which aired on TBS and truTV, generated an increase of 24% vs. the previous record audience in 2014. Live game coverage also garnered a double-digit increase among all key demographics (Men & People 18-34, 18-49 & 25-54).
Additional records include UCLA vs. Michigan State on TBS becoming the most-watched First Four game since the format was introduced in 2011, with an average of three million viewers. The telecast peaked with an average of 3.3 million viewers from 11-11:15 p.m. ET. (WarnerMedia)
As the tournament progressed, the first four days of action (Thursday-Saturday) averaged 8.5 million viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, down 3% from 2019 when compared to the comparable Tuesday-Saturday window. While down from that opening time frame two years ago, the tourney is up 3% from the Tuesday-Saturday window in 2018. (SportsBusiness Journal)
Other reports show that circumstances around the tournament have hurt this year’s ratings. With the absence of high-profile teams like UNC and Duke, plus a shift in the broadcast schedule, overall deliveries for the first two rounds were down 12% compared to the analogous period in 2019. Through the second round, CBS and the three WarnerMedia cable nets (TNT, TBS, truTV) averaged 8.01 million viewers across the sales windows, which marks a loss of some 1.05 million viewers compared to the 9.06 million viewers who tuned in during the comparable period in 2019. (Sportico)
On the digital end, live streaming numbers have been favorable. The first two rounds of the tournament saw more than 1 billion minutes total streamed for all 32 games. Day one saw 15% more time spent streaming than day two, but that is historically in line with past tournaments. Also, the first day of the tournament took place during a Friday with games starting around noon and hitting peaks around 3 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. ET. The second day of games took place on a Saturday and saw its streaming peak occur around 9:15 p.m. ET. (TVTechnology)
Sweet 16
In the Sweet 16, six of the eight games increased in ratings and viewership over 2019 due to the standalone format that was used this year.
Saturday’s Houston-Syracuse game on TBS posted the biggest jump, rising 37% in ratings (to 3.0) and 55% in viewership (to 5.52M). The comparable window in 2019 — Virginia-Oregon (2.2, 3.56M) — aired in a Thursday night window opposite a higher rated Texas Tech-Michigan game on CBS.
The TBS games were the biggest beneficiaries of the scheduling change, no surprise as the network usually places second to CBS when they air competing games. Ratings and viewership jumped 31% and 40% respectively for USC-Oregon Sunday night (2.7, 4.79M), 15% and 16% for the preceding Alabama-UCLA game (3.7, 6.51M) and 8% and 22% for Arkansas-Oral Roberts on Saturday (3.2, 5.94M).
Alabama-UCLA ranks as the most-watched Sweet 16 game on TBS since Wisconsin-North Carolina in 2015 (6.89M).
CBS aired the top game of the weekend in Michigan-Florida State Sunday evening (5.1, 9.03M), but ratings fell 16% and viewership 10% from Zion Williamson-led Duke against Virginia Tech on a Friday night in 2019 (6.05, 10.07M). Despite the drop, the Wolverines’ win ranks as the most-watched basketball game, college or pro, since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals — and the first since 2019 to crack a 5.0 rating. The network also saw a drop for Oregon State’s Saturday afternoon upset of Loyola-Chicago (3.4, 5.74M), down 15% and 11% respectively from the corresponding Thursday night game in 2019 (Gonzaga-FSU: 4.03, 6.48M).
Baylor-Villanova (4.2, 7.54M) increased 10% in ratings and 24% in viewership over the comparable Thursday window in 2019 (Texas Tech-Michigan: 3.8, 6.11M). Gonzaga-Creighton rose 9% and 15% respectively over the comparable Friday window in ’19 (Michigan State-LSU: 3.6, 5.79M). (SportsMediaWatch)
Elite 8
The schedule change did not fare well for the four Elite 8 games. Pushed to the workweek as part of this year’s revised NCAA Tournament schedule, all four men’s Elite Eight games declined double-digits from the comparable windows in 2019, when the games aired on the weekend.
Tuesday’s UCLA-Michigan regional final on TBS posted the steepest decline, its audience of 6.89 million down 57% from the corresponding game in 2019 — Michigan State’s upset of Zion Williamson-led Duke in a Sunday afternoon window on CBS (16.20M).
The Bruins’ upset win delivered the largest audience of the Elite Eight, marking the first time in recent memory that no game in the round cracked the seven million viewer mark. By comparison, all four games in 2019 averaged at least seven million. In a typical year, the most-watched game of the round delivers a Final Four-level audience in the 15 million range.
Gonzaga-USC averaged 5.40 million earlier in the night, down 49% from Auburn-Kentucky on CBS in 2019 (10.49M) and the least-watched Elite Eight game on any network since at least 2008 (complete records prior to 2009 were not available).
The previous low was set the previous night by Houston-Oregon State on CBS, which averaged 5.92 million — down 23% from Texas Tech-Gonzaga in 2019, which aired in a Saturday evening window on TBS (7.72M).
Monday’s Baylor-Arkansas nightcap drew 6.45 million, down 39% from Virginia-Purdue on TBS in ’19 (10.49M). (SportsMediaWatch)
UConn-Baylor Hits Ten-Year High
Monday’s UConn-Baylor Women’s NCAA Tournament regional final averaged 1.70 million viewers on ESPN, the largest audience in a decade for any game of the tournament prior to the Women’s Final Four. Notre Dame-Tennessee averaged 1.75 million in the 2011 Elite Eight.
The Huskies’ win ranks 12th all-time among Women’s NCAA Tournament games on ESPN, excluding the Women’s Final Four.
Viewership increased 32% from UConn’s previous Elite Eight appearance in 2019, a Sunday afternoon game against Louisville (1.29M). Versus the team’s 2018 Elite Eight appearance against South Carolina, which aired in the same Monday night window, viewership increased 30% from 1.31 million. (SportsMediaWatch)
Women’s NCAA Tournament Sees High in ABC Debut
Last Sunday’s Tennessee-Middle Tennessee first round Women’s NCAA Tournament game averaged a 0.38 rating and 633,000 viewers on ABC, marking the tournament’s largest opening round audience since 2010. It was the first Women’s NCAA Tournament game on broadcast television since 1995.
Airing immediately afterward, ABC drew a 0.37 and 582,000 for Baylor-Jackson State. Neither game ranks as the most-watched of the tournament-to-date. Tuesday’s UConn-Syracuse second round game holds that distinction with 804,000 viewers on ESPN. (SportsMediaWatch)
In the Elite 8, Tuesday’s Stanford-Louisville matchup averaged 1.08 million viewers on ESPN, while South Carolina’s rout of Texas scored 938,000 earlier in the night, both off slightly from last year’s primetime Elite Eight games, which aired on a Monday night on ESPN2 (Baylor-Iowa: 942K; Notre Dame-Stanford: 1.09M). (SportsMediaWatch)
Yankees Spring Training on YES Network
YES averaged 126,000 Total Viewers for its Yankees Spring Training games during the spring, which put the network on pace to have its best Spring Training since 2009. In 2009, the network averaged 134,000 Total Viewers for its full Spring Training slate. YES’ 126,000 Average Total Viewers for its first six Spring Training telecasts was 26% greater than YES’ seven Spring Training telecasts last year. (Twitter)
ESPN2 Earns Record Audience for Bahrain Grand Prix
The 2021 Formula 1 season started with a down-to-the-wire race for the win and a strong television audience on ESPN2.
Sunday’s Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix attracted an average audience of 879,000 fans, a viewership larger than all of the F1 races run during the pandemic-shifted 2020 season. The race was the most-viewed live Formula 1 telecast on ESPN2 on record dating back to 1995 and the most-viewed Bahrain Grand Prix on record since the event started in 2004.
The audience peaked at 1 million viewers between 12:30-12:45 p.m. ET as Lewis Hamilton withstood a strong challenge from Max Verstappen to capture the victory by just 0.7 second.
The race was up 72 percent in viewership over last year’s Bahrain race, which was moved to November due to the pandemic and averaged 511,000 viewers on ESPN2. The audience also was up 21 percent over the 727,000 average on ESPN2 for the 2019 race, run on a similar weekend in March.
The race started shortly after 11 a.m. ET on the Bahrain International Circuit. (ESPN)
2021 Big Ten Wrestling Championships Cap Off Record-Breaking Season
The Big Ten Network’s coverage of the 2021 wrestling season concluded with a record breaking 324,322 viewers for the final session of the 2021 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. Viewership reflected +29% growth from the previous record, set in 2020, and made it the most-watched wrestling championship broadcast in network history.
Session 1 averaged over 140,000 viewers across four hours and peaked with 236,000 viewers. The session 2 semifinals earned over 222,000 viewers with a peak of 296,000 during the event. In addition to the television audience, nearly 9 million minutes (8,869,665) of individual mats and consolation matches were streamed via Big Ten Network+ and the FOX Sports app.
Digital consumption from the championship, driven primarily by YouTube, resulted in over 4.5 million minutes watched across multiple platforms. Wrestling remains the most-watched sport on the Big Ten Network YouTube page as illustrated with 3.8 million minutes watched over the weekend. Facebook (715,000 minutes watched) and Twitter (196,000 minutes watched) provided fans with additional opportunities to observe matches and highlights.
The strong performance followed an exceptional regular season, where the average audience for a wrestling broadcast climbed to 150,262, up +23% from last season’s 122,073 average. The continued ascension of regular season wrestling viewership is particularly notable in a year where multiple high-profile duals were canceled or postponed. (Big Ten Network)
The Players Championship on NBC Delivers Most-Watched PGA Tour Final Round in Three Years
GOLF Channel and NBC coverage of 2021 edition of THE PLAYERS Championship last week delivered multiple viewership milestones, headlined by Sunday’s final round on NBC, which was the most-watched PGA TOUR final round since the 2018 TOUR Championship, according to official national data provided by Nielsen.
Sunday’s final round coverage on NBC (1-6:16 p.m. ET) averaged 4.6 million viewers, up 9% vs. 2019, and was the most-watched sports event of the weekend. Viewership peaked at nearly 7 million viewers in the 5:45-6 p.m. ET quarter hour, as Justin Thomas held off Bryson DeChambeau and Lee Westwood to win his first PLAYERS Championship.
Overall, Thursday-Sunday coverage on GOLF Channel/NBC averaged 2.3 million viewers, up 5% vs. 2019, to rank as the second most-watched edition of THE PLAYERS Championship since 2015.
GOLF Channel’s opening round coverage on Thursday averaged 869,000 viewers to rank as the most-watched first round in the last 29 PGA TOUR events, up 34% vs. 2020*. It was also the third most-watched first round ever in March on GOLF Channel (2009 WGC Match Play, 2019 PLAYERS).
Viewership gains carried over to Golf Central Live From THE PLAYERS, which was on-site at TPC Sawgrass all week. Thursday-Sunday post-round viewership was up 31% vs. 2019 and week-long primetime coverage was up 15%. (NBC Sports)
In the next tournament, the Honda Classic, final round coverage averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.03 million viewers on NBC, marking the tournament’s lowest Sunday rating since at least 1996. Ratings fell 24% and viewership 19% from last year (1.7, 2.51M). Third round coverage was also down, falling 17% and 12% respectively to a 1.0 and 1.54 million. (SportsMediaWatch)
NASCAR Bristol Dirt Race Hits High Despite Monday Start
Liga MX’s Súper Clásico on Telemundo Deportes Delivers 1.7 Million Total Viewers
Telemundo Deportes’ exclusive presentation of Liga MX’s Super Clásico, simulcast on Telemundo and Universo, delivered an average of 1.7 million total viewers and 969,000 adults 18-49 during the match window, according to Nielsen. The Chivas de Guadalajara vs. Águilas del América on Sunday, March 14 at 10 p.m. ET is the most-watched Liga MX of the Clausura 2021 season to date, across all networks. The broadcast was also the number one sporting event of the week in Spanish-language television, among adults 18-49 and total viewers.
Telemundo Deportes’ presentation of Chivas-América match also delivered Telemundo Deportes highest performance since last season’s semi-final match across digital platforms, surpassing the prior game’s livestreams by 138%, and delivering an increase of 128% in unique visitors across platforms. The Telemundo Deportes App continues to be the greatest contributor of digital viewing, delivering 83% of total livestreams. (Telemundo Deportes)
