Ratings Roundup: British Open Draws Largest Crowd Since Turn of the Century

Ratings Roundup: British Open Draws Largest Crowd Since Turn of the Century By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor

Friday, August 3, 2018 - 8:00 am

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Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the British Open captures fans with an intriguing finish on Sunday, the WNBA All-Star Game received a ratings improvement from 2017, ESPN's coverage of Wimbledon saw an increase from last year's event, the Overwatch League wrapped up their first season this past weekend, Baseball Tonight on ESPN is on the rise, the summer installment of the X Games in Minneapolis doubled in growth, MLB Network benefited from their coverage of the MLB Trade Deadline, NESN receives primetime praise with its broadcasts of the Boston Red Sox, Liga MX and the 2018 MLS All-Star Game are showcased on Univision, UFC on Fox 30 drops the lowest ratings in series history, and the Senior Open captured a large audience on NBC Sports

British Open Reels in Highest Numbers Since 2000

The British Open was highlighted by a 4.3 rating on Sunday's final round. It was the most-watched round of the tournament since 2000, with 8.56 million viewers on NBC. The action peaked with figures from 6 million to 9.36 million (1:30 to 1:45 p.m. ET).

Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game in Minnesota's Target Center

According to Cynopsis Sports, ESPN saw the Verizon WNBA All-Star Game average 709,000 viewers, up 17% year over year to rank as the most-viewed all-star game since 2015, which aired on ABC and ESPN. Host city Minneapolis and Hartford/New Haven topped the charts with a 1.6 local market rating, followed by Oklahoma City (1.5), Norfolk and San Antonio (1.4), and Charlotte (1.2).

Wimbledon Ratings Rise from 2017 Edition

ESPN's exclusive coverage of the Wimbledon fortnight earned a 6% increase in audience (P2 ) over the 2017 Championships. ESPN's coverage averaged 667,000 viewers vs. 630,000 a year ago. ESPN has had exclusive first ball to last ball coverage for Wimbledon since 2012.

Overwatch League Benefits From Global Live Streams

The Overwatch League Grand Finals at Barclays Center in Brooklyn drew an estimated global average minute audience across both days of 861,205 (inclusive of both ESPN TV networks and various streaming platforms). The London Spitfire's 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Fusion drew a U.S. average minute audience of 289,175, with an estimated 45% of that total, or 129,792, falling into the 18-34 demographic. Worldwide, the 18-34 average minute audience was 605,013.

The Gentlemen's Semifinals' pair of thrillers, the Kevin Anderson John Isner marathon and the two-day Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal matchup, resulted in the best Gentlemen's Semifinals since 2013 with overall viewership up 24% over last year.

Serena Williams's return to Wimbledon after missing 2017 drove the Ladies' Championship match window to be the most-viewed since 2012 with an average of 2.7 million viewers, up 32% over 2017.

Digital consumption of tennis content grew across ESPN.com and the ESPN App, up 63% over 2017's Championships. Angelique Kerber's win over Serena Williams in the Ladies' Championship drove the most video starts, while the interruption of the Djokovic-Nadal semifinal match drew the most page views.

Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown Benefits from Increased Viewership

The audience for Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown presented by Chevrolet on ESPN is up 17% this season. The pre-game show, which precedes Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell, is averaging 591,000 viewers in 2018 - up from 507,000 viewers last season.

Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown generally airs at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN App. Analysts include former World Series Champions Mark Teixeira and David Ross, who join host Karl Ravech and analyst Tim Kurkjian to comprise the team. Ravech is celebrating his 25th anniversary at ESPN, while Kurkjian is celebrating his 20th anniversary. Together they form one of sports broadcasting's longest-tenured pairings on any show.

X Games Minneapolis 2018 Grows on TV, Digital Platforms

X Games Minneapolis 2018 content across ESPN's television networks enjoyed double-digit growth on television, triple-digit growth on digital and streaming services, and video growth across social media networks enjoyed triple digit growth across all pages. It marks the second-straight event to see double-digit growth, following the X Games Aspen event in January.

Across media, X Games Minneapolis 2018 successes include:

Television:

X Games Minneapolis audience across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC was up 38% year-over-year for all telecasts

Across the telecasts on ESPN, viewing by fans 18-34 increased by 34% year-over-year

Viewing by fans aged 12-34 across all telecasts increased by 21% year-over-year

ABC accounted for 50% of the event's total time spent viewing

Digital & Social:

The X Games' YouTube channel had more than 26 million minutes streamed, up 646% year-over-year, with the average watch time reaching more than 11 minutes

The total number of video views on X Games' YouTube channel topped 2.3 million

The X Games Facebook page reached more than 9 million fans, up 120% year-over-year. Those fans logged 4 million video views, up 210% year-over-year

On Instagram, the X Games page reached more than 1.6 million people, with 8.5 million video views, up 225% year-over-year

X Games social media accounts gained over 50,000 new followers during the week of the event.

This Instagram post - from skateboarder Nyjah Huston, featuring runs from his Skateboard Street competition - generated the most interactions of all posts during the games, with more than 692,000 interac

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