Ratings Roundup: ESPN NBA Today Viewership Up Year Over Year for 12 Straight Months, Prime Video Draws 13.4M Viewers Across All Platforms for Dolphins-Bengals
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, ESPN NBA Today Viewership Up Year Over Year for 12 Straight Months, Prime Video Draws 13.4M Viewers Across All Platforms for Dolphins-Bengals, and more.
ESPN NBA Today Viewership Up Year Over Year for 12 Straight Months
Prime Video Draws 13.4M Viewers Across All Platforms for Dolphins-Bengals
Prime Video’s coverage of Thursday Night Football continues to score with viewers. According to Amazon’s first party measurement* and Nielsen Media research, TNF on Prime averaged 13.4 million viewers (AMA) across all platforms during Thursday’s AFC showdown between the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals.
In Nielsen National TV Ratings alone, TNF averaged 11.7 million viewers for Thursday’s game, again outdrawing all programming for the night on broadcast and cable television, up +6% from Week 3’s Steelers-Browns TNF matchup and up +37% from last year’s comparable Week 4 TNF game on NFL Network (8.568M, Jaguars vs. Bengals), even as the visiting team’s home market of Miami and fan base were battling widespread power outages throughout Florida and the tragic events of deadly Hurricane Ian.
Through the first three TNF games of this year’s landmark NFL package, according to Nielsen Media Research, Thursday Night Football is averaging 11.93 million viewers, up +40% vs. last year’s average of comparable TNF games that aired on NFL Network through Week 4 (8.49M).
Prime Video continues to attract younger viewers to its TNF coverage, with a median age of 46, 7 years younger than the median age of NFL broadcasts on linear television this season, and 8 years younger than the median age for TNF in 2021.
Cardinals TV Ratings Rank No. 1 in MLB for Second Straight Season
A season filled with memorable moments led to a 31% increase in viewership for Cardinals baseball this season.
Viewership of Cardinals telecasts on Bally Sports Midwest reached its highest level since 2016, according to Nielsen Media Research data, and Cardinals local television ratings ranked No. 1 in Major League Baseball for the second straight year.
By the numbers
Cardinals telecasts averaged 91,000 households and 141,000 viewers in the St. Louis DMA in 2022. That’s up 31% from 2021, and the most since 2016. Across all of Cardinal Nation throughout the region, an estimated total of more than 225,000 viewers tuned in to each game. Bally Sports Midwest carried 147 regular-season games in 2022, its 29th season as the home of the Cardinals.
Number 1 in baseball
The Cardinals’ local television ratings on Bally Sports Midwest ranked No. 1 among Major League Baseball teams for the second straight year and fourth time in five seasons. It’s the 23rd consecutive year the team placed in the top four in MLB (2000-2022).
Number 1 in prime time
Cardinals baseball was the No. 1 programming in prime time in St. Louis during baseball season for the 13th straight year. On each of the last 36 nights the Cardinals played on Bally Sports Midwest, Cardinals baseball ranked as the No. 1 program in prime time in St. Louis.
2022 ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Viewership Up Year Over Year
Viewership for ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Taco Bell was up vs. last year, according to Nielsen. This season’s 25 telecasts averaged 1,486,000 viewers, an increase of one percent from 1,473,000 viewers last year.
Sunday Night Baseball was also up year over year in several key demos, including in P12-17 (17 percent); M35-54 (11 percent); P35-54 (nine percent); and F2+ (3 percent).
MLB.TV Sets New Record for Minutes Streamed Surpassing 11 Billion Minutes for First Time Ever
With Aaron Judge setting the American League home run record, Albert Pujols reaching the 700 home run milestone, the Dodgers breaking their all-time franchise wins record, and Shohei Ohtani continuing his unprecedented two-way performance, baseball fans watched the action on MLB.TV in record fashion.
MLB.TV registered over 11.5 billion minutes watched during the 2022 season, marking the first time in its history the service surpassed 11 billion. This season’s total is a +9.8% increase over last year’s tally of more than 10.5 billion minutes watched. MLB.TV achieved the previous record in 2021 when more than 10 billion minutes was watched for the first time ever.
YES peaks at 933,000 Total Viewers During Judge’s “62” Game Last Night
- Tuesday night’s YES telecast of the Rangers-Yankees game peaked at 933,000 Total Viewers in the New York DMA during the 8:15-8:30 pm ET quarter-hour.
- Tuesday night’s game averaged 636,000 Total Viewers
- Number of YES Yankees telecasts this season averaging at least 400,000 Total Viewers: 45 (vs. 9 last season)
- Number of YES Yankees telecasts this season averaging at least 500,000 Total Viewers: 11
- Number of YES Yankees telecasts this season averaging at least 600,000 Total Viewers: 6
- Tuesday night was the 32nd game out of YES’ last 43 consecutive Primetime Yankees games that has been #1 in the New York DMA in Total Viewers
- YES’ 2022 Yankees games are averaging 371,000 Total Viewers, YES’ best Yankees performance in 11 years (2011)
ESPN College Football: ESPN Networks Deliver Best Start Since 2017, College GameDay Off to Hottest Start Since 2010
ESPN’s Monday Night Football Generates 12.6 Million Viewers for Rams-49ers
“NFL On CBS” Continues Record-setting Start To Season Across All Platforms
The NFL ON CBS continues to deliver massive viewership across all platforms with record-setting numbers.
Sunday’s national game window, led by the Packers’ overtime victory over the Patriots at Lambeau Field, averaged 24.647 million viewers, the most-watched Week 4 window on CBS since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 and up +8% vs. last year’s comparable window.
This season, CBS Sports is averaging 18.559 million viewers, the Network’s best start since 2010.
ESPN Delivers Multi-Year Viewership Highs Across Sunday NFL Countdown, NFL Live and NFL Rewind in September
NFL Fans Begin Their Sundays on ESPN
Sunday NFL Countdown is averaging 1.4 million viewers per show (10 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET, weekly), up double digits from each of the first three shows of the previous two seasons, including a healthy 15% increase from 2021. Additionally, the show is up in multiple demos including up 10% in persons 18-49 and up 7% among female viewers.
The season premiere – Sunday, Sept. 11 – averaged 1.6 million viewers, which tied as best Week 1 audience since 2016 and was up 35% year-over-year. The strong week set the trend, as each individual week the show is up compared to the same week’s show in 2021 (2022 Week 1 vs. 2021 Week 1, ’22 Week 2 vs. ’21 Week 2, and ’22 Week 3 vs. ’21 Week 3).
NFL Live’s Viewership Success Continues On
NFL Live earned its highest September viewership since 2016, averaging 428,000 viewers per edition (13 episodes), as the daily news, analysis and information show (4-5 p.m.) continued its torrid viewership momentum from the 2021 season.
NFL Live’s most-watched show came on Monday, Sept. 12, when the single-hour studio offering averaged 664,000 viewers. The viewership bested the previous 15+ September episodes dating back to 2016, and also surpassed NFL Live’s viewership of any episode last season. Last season, the regular season viewership high occurred on December 17, 2021, with 635,000 viewers.
NFL Rewind Kicks off ESPN’s Monday NFL Programming in Strong Way
NFL Rewind is averaging 411,000 viewers per episode, the show’s best September mark since it was branded NFL Rewind during the 2019 season. The weekly highlights and analysis show (3-4 p.m., Mondays) is up 6% year-over-year and up in the key persons 18-49 demo.
Monday Night Countdown is averaging 1.3 million viewers for its two September episodes, Weeks 1 and 3, which aired in its traditional timeslot (6-8 p.m.), providing a strong lead in to Monday Night Football’s record-setting viewership. In Week 2, when ESPN presented the first of its kind two games, staggered start, Monday Night Countdown started at 5 p.m.
YES’ Yankees-Blue Jays Telecast Last Night Peaks at 956,000 Total Viewers
The YES Network’s New York Yankees-Toronto Blue Jays telecast Wednesday night peaked at 956,000 Total Viewers (9:15-9:30 pm ET) and averaged 675,000 Total Viewers in the New York DMA.
Each of YES’ last four Primetime Yankees games have averaged at least 600,000 Total Viewers. On pace to have its best Yankees season in 11 years (since 2011), YES has had 41 games this season that have averaged at least 400,000 Total Viewers, and 7 games that have averaged at least half a million Total Viewers.
In addition, the game was the most-streamed ever on the YES App, eclipsing 115,000 Unique Viewers.
YES’ Yankees-Blue Jays Telecast Last Night Peaks at 901,000 Total Viewers
The YES Network’s New York Yankees-Toronto Blue Jays telecast Tuesday night peaked at 901,000 Total Viewers (8:45-9:00 pm ET) and averaged 708,000 Total Viewers in the New York DMA. The game was YES’ most-viewed telecast in eight years, since Derek Jeter’s final home game on September 25, 2014, which averaged 1.2 million Total Viewers.
Each of YES’ last three Primetime Yankees games have averaged at least 600,000 Total Viewers. YES has had 40 games this season that have averaged at least 400,000 Total Viewers, and six games that have averaged at least half a million Total Viewers.
YES’ Yankees games are averaging nearly a half-million Total Viewers (495,000) since the first weekend of the NFL season.
On pace to have its best Yankees season in 11 years (since 2011), YES is averaging 362,000 Total Viewers for its Yankees telecast this season, a 26% year-over-year increase from the same point last year.
Monday Night Football Delivers another Record-Shattering Viewership, as More than 19.3 Million Viewers Watch Cowboys-Giants
ESPN College Football: ABC/ESPN Air 3 of the Top 5 Games in Week 4
