When it was announced that Tiger Woods would not participate in this year’s Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, media observers opined that the TV ratings would suffer. And for Thursday’s first round, ESPN’s ratings were down 28% from the year before.
Thursday’s ratings generated a 1.5 which was down from 2013’s 2.0. Viewership was also down, two million for Thursday as compared to 2.8 million for 2013’s first round.
With interest building about Bubba Watson (whose play was not televised domestically), Friday’s ratings saw a rise to 1.8, but it was down 45% from last year’s 3.0. The second round viewership averaged 2.5 million viewers a big drop from last year’s 4.2 million. The second round in 2013 was the highest-rated and most-viewed on ESPN since it began airing the Masters in 2008.
ESPN averaged a 1.6 rating for its two days of coverage down from 2013’s 2.5 two-day average. And viewership for the first two days was 2.2 million off significantly from 3.5 in 2013.
In a rare quote in its press release about the Masters’ ratings, ESPN’s Vice President of Production and Programming, John Wildhack said, “While viewership was down this year, the Masters has a value to us that goes well beyond ratings.”
There is the prestige of airing the Masters and being the only network to show the action, but it all depends on having a Tiger or Phil to draw viewers. With neither Woods nor Mickelson playing this weekend, CBS will have to depend on Watson and the young crop of golfers hoping to win the Green Jacket. In this day and age, that may not be enough to elevate the ratings.
[Business Insider/Albany Times-Union]
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