Ratings Roundup: MLB All-Star Game and HR Derby Both Down From Last Year; WNBA, U.S. Women’s Open See Big Gains

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, this year’s MLB All-Star Game and HR Derby were both down but the game remain the most watched All-Star Game of any sport, WNBA viewership has increased 46% at the half-way point, NBC Sports delivers the most-watched U.S. Women’s Open since 2014, the NASCAR Cup Series event from Atlanta was most viewed sports telecast of the week despite rain, and more.

MLB All-Star Game, HR Derby Both Down From Last Year

7,091,000 viewers tuned in across FOX and FOX Deportes to watch the NL defeat the AL in the 2023 All-Star Game, marking the second-straight year of record low viewership and a dip of 7% from last year (7.51 million), according to SBJ. Nonetheless, this year’s All-Star Game viewership still hit several high points, including:

• Continues as the most-watched All-Star Game in all of sports
• Most-watched primetime telecast of the day on any network
• M18-49 viewership up +6% (2.17 vs 2.04); first increase since 2017
• Viewership peaked at 7,565,000 viewers from 9:15 – 9:30 PM ET
• The AMA of 132,067 across FOX streaming services is up +23% vs. 2022, making it the best all-time performance for the MLB All-Star Game on digital
• Top 5 available markets; Seattle (8.4/31), Atlanta (7.5/24), Baltimore (6.5/19), Cincinnati (6.2/17), Philadelphia (5.3/15)

Meanwhile the Home Derby on Monday night hit it lowest audience since 2018, with ESPN and ESPN2 combining for 6.11 million viewers. That’s down 11% from last year and the least-watched Derby since 2018 (5.9 million across ESPN and ESPNews).

ESPN’s broadcast delivered 5.52 million viewers, while the StatCast version on ESPN2 drew 596,000. Even with the decline, the Derby will remain ESPN’s most-watched event of the summer months and likely the top telecast on all of cable TV this summer, according to SBJ.

The MLB Draft saw a 5% audience decline this year across ESPN and MLB Network. The two networks combined to post 744,000 viewers for the Sunday night telecast from around 7:00-10:30pm ET, below the 780,000 viewers last year, and 28% lower than the 1.03 million the networks drew in 2021, according to SBJ.

In some good news for MLB, its national TV viewership is up at the All-Star break, according to SBJ. ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” package is notching 1.513 million viewers (vs. 1.511 from last year). Fox Sports, FS1 and Fox together are averaging 889,000 viewers for games to date, up 17%. TBS’s Tuesday night window is averaging 338,000 viewers to date, up 41% from the same point in 2022.

WNBA Viewership Up 46% Over Last Year at All-Star Break

The WNBA’s domestic viewership for the first half of its 2023 season has increased 46% on Disney-owned platforms compared to last year. ESPN’s 13 WNBA live game broadcasts have drawn an average viewership of 548,000 in the US Eight games on the ABC commercial network have averaged 647,000 viewers, up 18 per cent on the four games the network showed in the first half of last season

USA Broadcast of the NASCAR Cup Series Event at Atlanta Ranked as the Most-Viewed Sports Telecast of the Week

Despite the impact of rain, the USA broadcast of the NASCAR Cup Series event at Atlanta ranked as the most-viewed sports telecast of the week.

The event earned a 1.45 household rating on USA (-4% vs. 2022) with an average of 2.560 million viewers tuned in (-3% vs. 2022). Rain in 2023 created a headwind for viewer momentum; the comparable 2022 event was not impacted by rain. At peak, 2.874 million viewers were tuned in

Following Sunday’s race from Atlanta, 2023 (3.589 million TAD) continues to be the best start to NBC Sports’ NASCAR Cup Series coverage through three races in six years, (2017; 3.889 million TAD). Sunday’s weather-shortened Atlanta Cup Series race drew a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 2.593 million viewers, down a slight -2% from USA’s Atlanta NASCAR Cup Series race in 2022 (2.658 million TAD), which was a full race.

NBC Sports Delivers Most-Watched U.S. Women’s Open Since 2014

NBC Sports’ coverage of the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links resulted in the most-watched edition of the championship since 2014, highlighted by significant viewership gains on NBC and USA Network, as well as streaming milestones on Peacock and NBC Sports Digital.

Across 20 hours of linear coverage on NBC and USA Network, the U.S. Women’s Open averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 895,000 viewers, up 118% vs. 2022 on NBC/USA (410,000 viewers) and up 47% vs. 2021 on NBC/GOLF (608,000 viewers).

The event registered the best viewership for the championship since Michelle Wie’s victory in 2014 (1.03 million across NBC/ESPN2, TV-only), ranking as the second most-watched U.S. Women’s Open since 2009 and the most-watched West Coast U.S. Women’s Open in 20 years.

Weekend viewership on NBC and Peacock – which included the first-ever East Coast primetime coverage in U.S. Women’s Open history – averaged 1.34 million viewers, up 76% vs. 2022 (765,000 viewers) and 35% vs. 2021 (995,000 viewers).

Sunday’s Final Round (3-9 p.m. ET) on NBC and Peacock averaged 1.58 million viewers and peaked with more than 2.2 million viewers in the 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET quarter hour, as Allisen Corpuz closed out her first-ever LPGA victory. The final round also ranked as a Top 5 sports program on Sunday.

Digitally, the 78th U.S. Women’s Open was the most-streamed women’s golf event in NBC Sports history, nearly tripling its consumption from a year ago.

Driven by the debut of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, the opening weekend of NBA 2K24 Summer League 2023 was the most-watched ever on ESPN networks with an average of 456,000 viewers. Opening weekend, along with the announcement of the NBA In-Season Tournament and the first-ever NBA Con, also delivered record social and digital engagement with 300 million video views across @NBA social and the NBA App and the most unique visitors ever in the NBA App during the offseason (Friday and Sunday).

Friday’s San Antonio Spurs vs. Charlotte Hornets game on ESPN is the second-most watched Summer League game ever. 2023 NBA 2K24 Las Vegas Summer League opening day on ESPN is most-watched on record with 1.39 million viewers on ESPN.

Bally Sports Experiences Dominant Audience Viewership and Growth with Atlanta Braves Coverage

Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast posted significant year-over-year increases for household television ratings, the Bally Sports TVE streaming app and across its social media platforms with its coverage of the Atlanta Braves during the first half of the 2023 MLB season.

Household ratings for 2023 Braves telecasts increased 18-percent over the prior year, resulting in 55 of 79 game telecasts being ranked #1 in their timeslot in the Atlanta DMA. Of the remaining 24 games, 19 ranked #2 in Atlanta and five (three of them rain delays) ranked #3 in their respective time slot.

Through the 79 telecasts, the networks have captured over 6.6 million linear impressions, averaging a 3.16 household rating (approximately 85,000 impressions) per Braves telecasts. Nine of the last 11 games televised on Bally Sports have recorded above a 4.00 household rating with a season-high 4.87 on June 27. The Braves LIVE pregame and postgame shows also experienced significant viewership increase with pregame show household ratings up 26% and postgame show ratings up 48% year-over-year.

On the Bally Sports TVE app, streamed Braves games have posted exceptionally strong results with almost 275,000 unique users for the season, up 109-percent over the prior season. Braves fans logged over 190 million minutes of streamed games so far in 2023.
The networks’ aggregated social media platforms, including @BravesOnBally Twitter, @BallySportsSO accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Tik Tok, have accounted for overall audience growth of 19% with impressions growing 11% during the first half of 2023.