The Lakers may be struggling on the court, but they remain a ratings draw. Plus: viewership is on the rise for the Premier League and MLS; the latest NHL numbers on TNT; and more.
Big gains for struggling Lakers against East rivals
Friday’s Lakers-Celtics NBA regular season game averaged 1.74 million viewers on ESPN, up 64% from the comparable 2019 window (Spurs-Sixers: 1.06M). Two nights earlier, Lakers-Bucks averaged 1.47 million — up 45% from 2019 (Warriors-Mavericks: 1.02M). Mavericks-Suns followed both games, averaging 1.36 million Wednesday (-16%) and 1.37 million Friday (-17%). Ten of the past 15 national NBA telecasts have increased over 2019.
EPL, MLS viewership up
As of last week, the ongoing English Premier League season was averaging 609,000 viewers across NBC Sports’ English and Spanish-language networks — up 14% from last year and the highest at this point of the season since 2015-16.
In other soccer action, the recently-completed MLS regular season averaged 276,000 viewers across the ESPN family of networks — up 18% from last year (233K) and the networks’ most-watched season under their current media rights deal. The Univision family of networks averaged 245,000 (+22%) also a new high. Viewership on Fox Sports increased 4%, though exact figures were not immediately available.
Shifting to national team play, the November 12 United States-Mexico World Cup qualifier averaged 2.9 million viewers on Univision and 1.32 million on ESPN2 and the November 16 Jamaica-United States match drew 200,000 on Universo (English-language coverage streamed on Paramount+).
TNT sees better numbers for latest late night NHL game
Last Wednesday’s Blackhawks-Kraken NHL regular sesaon game averaged 373,000 viewers on TNT, up 29% from Blackhawks-Golden Knights on NBCSN in 2019 (289K) and the most-watched NHL game since Golden Knights-Avalanche on ESPN October 26 (385K). For the third-straight week, TNT’s actual game broadcast averaged fewer viewers than the pregame show (429K).
Plus: NHRA, college hoops, Combate Global
The NHRA season averaged 513,000 viewers across Fox Sports, up 3% from last year (497K) and up 5% from 2019 (487K). … College basketball’s Gavitt Games averaged 274,000 viewers on FS1, up 13% from 2019 (242K), topped by Indiana-St. John’s last Wednesday night (395K). … The November 12 edition of Combate Global mixed martial arts averaged 679,000 viewers on Univision, the series’ second-largest audience in four years on the Univision networks.
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.17, 11.18, 11.22, network PR]
Hey Jon hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Adding to my earlier post about the discrepancy in the reported Univision number I brought up. Believe it was John Ourand of SBJ that initially first reported 245,000 before Sportico’s Anthony Crupi reported it was 284,000 vs 245,000. Well it looks like now Sports Business Journal has updated their figure to reflect the 284,000 reporting. Just keeping you posted for accuracy sake, I know many people including myself use your site for historically ratings comparisons. Here’s the SBJ updated link reflecting the change
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2021/11/16/Media/MLS-viewership.aspx
Hi Edwin — I got the numbers directly from MLS, so I imagine any error would have been on their end. Thanks for the update.
Yeah likely intern typo or something just letting you know the new number out now. Maybe someone at the league caught it. Since its two outlets out now reporting 284,000 Sportico and SBJ. Have a a good one waiting with bated breath for the next pod.
Hi Jon Anthony Crupi reported a update to these John Ourand numbers appears the Univision avg was 284,000
see blurb below
https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2021/mls-ratings-up-ahead-of-new-tv-deal-1234646677/
The Spanish-language MLS telecasts on Univision and UniMás had a slight advantage over the ESPN/ABC productions, as the Disney nets averaged 276,000 viewers per match to the Miami-based conglomerate’s 284,000. Disney’s MLS deliveries were up 12% versus 2019’s average (246,000 viewers per match), while Univision grew its numbers by 18%. The Fox networks finished in the back of the pack with an average draw of 211,000 viewers;