Ratings Roundup: March Madness Continues to Reel in Viewers; Pacers-Heat Pulls in Big Overnight for ESPN

March Madness has only just entered the Sweet 16 and it’s already putting up historic ratings. Through the tournament’s opening weekend, CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV is delivering its highest viewership in 21 years (since 1993). The First Four, second round, and third round of the Tournament are averaging a combined 9,227,000 viewers, up 4% through the same period last year (8,885,000 viewers). Through its first six days, the tournament is averaging a 5.9/13 U.S. HH rating/share, up 2% over a 5.8/12 U.S. HH rating/share to date in 2013.  The 5.9/13 U.S. HH rating/share is tied with 1998 as the highest rating for the opening week of the tournament in 17 years (since 1997)…

…Wednesday’s Miami Heat-Indiana Pacers showdown (a 84-83 Pacers victory) delivered a 2.6 overnight rating, making it the second-highest rated NBA game of the 2013-14 season for ESPN, just behind the network’s Heat-Oklahoma City Thunder telecast on January 29, which delivered a 2.7. In addition, the telecast posted an 8.4 rating in Indianapolis, making it the highest-rated non-Christmas Day regular-season game ever on ESPN in the market…

…With the Kobe Bryant-less Los Angeles Lakers struggling mightily on the court, their ratings have plummeted on TimeWarner Cable SportsNet. According to Nielsen’s “Live plus same-day” ratings for the 2013-14 season (through mid-March), the 57 telecasts of Lakers games on Time Warner Cable SportsNet have averaged 199,000 viewers — down a whopping 49% from last year as of March 17 last year. (390,000). The Lakers’ ratings decline has swelled in recent weeks as the Lakers fall farther out of the NBA playoff picture, with three mid-March telecasts managing 72,000 viewers compared to 586,000 for comparable games last season. (Variety)…

…Viewership is surprisingly also down for the playoff-bound Clippers, which have averaged 96,000 viewers for their first 59 telecasts of the season (through Mid March) on Prime Ticket — down 21% from 121,000 at this time a year ago. Their three most recent games have averaged 106,000. According to Variety, this is believed to be the closest the Clippers have come to the Lakers in television ratings since the 1999-2000 season. And despite the declines, and remaining well behind the Lakers in popularity, the Clippers are still having one of their most-watched seasons to date. (Variety)…

…ESPN’s coverage of the 2014 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships  – four telecasts on ESPNU and two on ESPN March 20 to March 22 – combined to reach 8.6 million people, a 39% increase over last year (8.6 million vs. 6.2 million). The 20-hours of television coverage averaged 253,000 viewers. ESPN3 streaming coverage (which included the debut of Off the Mat – a special during the championship finals – in addition to individual mat cameras) generated 12.8 million minutes consumed on ESPN3 and WatchESPN, a 1% increase over the 2013 championship. Oklahoma’s Tulsa and Oklahoma City were the two highest-rated metered markets, respectively, for ESPN’s combined semifinal and final telecasts. Minneapolis was third followed by Pittsburgh, Birmingham, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Greenville…

…NESN’s coverage of Thursday night’s Bruins 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks was the networrk’s second highest rated game of the season with a 7.8 average household rating in the Boston DMA (13 share) and the seventh-highest regular season game in NESN’s 30 year history. The game was also the highest rated program on broadcast or cable in the Boston DMA yesterday. NESN’s best Bruins game rating of the season was the season opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 3, 2013 when NESN garnered 9.0 HH rating (15 share)…

…A few tidbits from SportsMediaWatch’s superb breakdown of ratings game for the 2013-14 college basketball regular season: Of 942 games on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ABC, FOX, FS1, Fox Sports 2 and NBCSN, only nine drew a rating of 2.0 or higher, while 770 drew a rating of 0.5 or lower, 524 drew a rating of 0.1 or lower, and 246 had a 0.0 rating. CLICK HERE for the full in-depth piece. (SportsMediaWatch)…

…The debut of “The Mike Francesa Show,” on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 got off to a slow start on Monday, as the live simulcast drew 30,000 total viewers from 1-4 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1 and 20,000 total viewers from 4-6:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2. For comparison’s sake, Fox Sports 1 averaged 118,000 viewers in Total Day (6 a.m. to 5:59 a.m.) for the week of March 17, 2014 and Fox Sports 2 drew an average of 14,000 viewers in Total Day for the same week — down 30% from the Total-Day viewer figure of its predecessor network, Fuel, on this exact week one year ago. (TV Media Insights)…

Univision networks carried the most-viewed soccer match across all networks, regardless of language last week, as Univision’s broadcast of the America/Veracruz match, delivered an average of 1.2 million Total Viewers and 654,000 Adults 18-49. (Cynopsis)

…TSN’s broadcast of Toronto FC’s home opener on Saturday (a TFC 1-0 win over DC United) attracted a record average audience of 352,000 viewers, making it the most-watched MLS game ever on English television in Canada (according to overnight data from BBM Canada). The previous high for an MLS audience on Canadian English-language television was for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC’s only playoff appearance in 2012 (average audience of 335,000). Audiences for the home opener were up 18% compared to the TFC season opener last week in Seattle (299,000 on TSN). Overall, 1.6 million unique viewers tuned in to TSN to watch TFC’s home opener on TSN…

…Fox drew a 4.0 overnight the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 from Fontana on Sunday, down from a 4.5 overnight for the same race last year. (SportsBusiness Daily)…

NBC drew a 1.8 overnight for the final round of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, up from a 1.7 last year, but down from a 4.8 in 2012 when Tiger Woods won the event. (SportsBusiness Daily)

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