ESPN remained the dominant cable sports leader in the first quarter of 2016 with an average of 2.08 million viewers in prime time and 948,000 viewers in total day. Among adults 18-49, ESPN was No. 1 in prime time with 866,000 viewers; +3 percent above runner-up TBS which primarily televises reruns of “The Big Bang Theory.”
The network only experienced slight declines from year-ago levels. They made up for hefty year-to-year erosion of its college football playoff semifinal (which had taken place on the still-questionable date of New Year’s Eve) and national championship telecasts with gains from its coverage of the NBA, thanks to the defending champion Golden State Warriors’ quest for the all-time best record in the regular season. The first week of this year’s telecasts of the Women’s Div. I Basketball Tournament were up 46 percent.
Its sister network ESPN2 was a distant runner-up. FS1 — with the help of UFC and a slight boost of its Big East-centric college basketball coverage — ranked third overall.
The sports networks of NBC — NBCSN and Golf Channel — each drew yearly gains.
The NHL All-Star Game on Jan. 31 (that featured the controversial inclusion of John Scott) was the most-watched edition of this event in NBCSN/Versus/OLN history, rising 34 percent from the 2015 ASG. NBCSN is on pace for its most-watched NHL regular season ever — as of Feb. 24, up 8 percent from one year ago thru 61 games.
Golfer Jordan Spieth has helped Golf Channel to a great start in 2016. Spieth’s victory in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (Jan. 7-10) drew an average of 905,000 viewers (in conjunction with NBC for its Third Round), up a whopping 91 percent from the same event in 2015 and surpassing the event’s previous record viewership set by ESPN in 2006. The two-part episode of “Feherty” featuring Spieth drew the talk show’s best viewership since its series premiere in June 2011 (Lee Trevino). In fact, Golf Channel’s total day average places it ahead of fellow Comcast network NBCSN.
Source: Live+Seven Day data blended with Live+Three Day data from Mar. 14-24, 2016 and Live+Same Day data from Mar. 25-27, 2016, Nielsen Media Research
* NBCSN aired the Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014
The first quarter period of…:
2016 is from Dec. 28, 2015 to Mar. 27, 2016.
2015 is from Dec. 29, 2014 to Mar. 29, 2015.
2014 is from Dec. 30, 2013 to Mar. 30, 2014.
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