Game Three Tackled by NFL

From Sports Media Watch:

Mercury/Fever Game 3 drew a 0.29 U.S. rating and 389,000 viewers on ESPN2 Sunday afternoon, up 36% in viewers from Silver Stars/Shock Game 3 last year (286,000) last year, but down 40% from Shock/Mercury Game 3 in '07 (646,000).

...

Game 3 ranks as the lowest rated, least viewed game of the '09 WNBA Finals. Ratings have declined from game to game, going from 0.37 (Game 1) to 0.35 (Game 2) to 0.29 (Game 3).

It will be interesting to see the numbers for Game Four (Wednesday) and Game Five (Friday night).

Ratings Jump for Game One of WNBA Finals

From Sports Media Watch:

The Mercury's 120-116 overtime win over the Fever drew 555,000 viewers on ESPN2 Tuesday night, up 59% from Shock/Silver Stars Game 1 last year (348,000 viewers). Game 1 ranks as the most-viewed WNBA game on cable since '07 (Shock/Mercury Game 4, 669,000 viewers).

Game 1 drew a 2.9 rating in Indianapolis, the highest rating ever for a WNBA game on ESPN in the market. To put that in perspective, Pacers games averaged a 1.5 rating on FSN during the 2008-09 season. In Phoenix, the game drew a 1.8 rating.


Holy Moley? The Fever are more popular than the Pacers? (Sample size: N=1) Who would have thought that?

Then again, at the end of the article, MLS and the NHL have much more viewers for their finals than the WNBA does - even though the WNBA either matches or exceeds those leagues in the regular season. Apparently, there are more casual viewers for MLS and the NHL who will only turn their attention to those leagues during the finals, as if they were waking up out of a torpor. I think the WNBA would kill to have that last-minute finals rush.

The NBA also delivers the demographic breakdown:


• Males 18-49: +15 percent
• Males 25-54: +21 percent
• Females 18-34: +123 percent
• Females 18-49: +176 percent
• Females 25-54: +47 percent

WNBA Playoff Ratings Up

From Sports Media Watch:

The first round of the 2009 WNBA Playoffs averaged a 0.2 U.S. rating and 312,000 viewers on ESPN2, flat in ratings but up 11% in viewership from a 0.2 and 282,000 viewers last year.

Household viewership is up 15% (264,000 vs. 229,000).


The numbers are over 1/2 the rating of the first round of the Stanley Cup on Versus. Not bad. Not bad at all. My wife even talked someone into watching the first round of the playoffs - don't know how that went.

Moving on Up in the Ratings

From Sports Media Watch:

ESPN2 averaged 269,000 viewers for regular season WNBA coverage in '09, up 8% from 248,000 last year. WNBA games saw solid increases in key male demographics, including a 14% rise among men 18-49 and a 9% increase among men 18-34.

Maybe this is why they've added a half hour of "WNBA Shootaround" before the playoff games they show.

All-Star Game Viewership Drops

From Sports Media Watch:

The 2009 WNBA All-Star Game drew a mere 0.5 overnight rating on ABC Saturday afternoon, down 38% from a 0.8 for the '07 game, and the lowest overnight ever for the WNBA All-Star Game on broadcast.

Excluding events on FOX, the All-Star Game finished tied as the lowest rated sporting event of the weekend on broadcast.

I have no strong theories. Maybe it wasn't promoted by ABC - no hype, no viewers. Maybe people tuned out when they saw the lay-up fest. Maybe it means that people are less interested in the W. Maybe the time slot sucked.

Discuss.

WNBA Games on ESPN Get Ratings Boost

From Sports Media Watch

The WNBA got off to a good start on ESPN2. Two WNBA telecasts in June averaged 269,000 viewers on ESPN2, up 12% from 240,000 viewers for the comparable games in '08. The two games averaged a 0.2 cable rating, even with last year.

How much is this? It's about as much as Major League Soccer has averaged for its broadcasts over the last three years. As a matter of fact, the 0.3 rating that the National Hockey League gets on Versus isn't that much higher.

Viewership Down for Women's Sports Last Weekend

Paul Sen at Sports Media Watch reported that the WNBA - and women's sports in general - struggled for viewers on the weekend:


The WNBA's season opener between the Shock and Sparks -- a rematch of their now nearly forgotten brawl -- drew a 0.6 overnight rating on ABC, down 33% from a 0.9 for last year's comparable Sparks/Mercury tilt, but even with Monarchs/Shock in '07.

(* * *)


The WNBA and LPGA accounted for the three lowest overnights of the weekend for live sports programming on broadcast. Even a relatively unheralded event like the Track & Field Prefontaine Classic managed a 1.2/3 overnight over the weekend -- double the ratings of the WNBA and LPGA.


Egad. Let's hope this isn't an ominous portent. Then again, given the quality of that Shock/Sparks game, maybe we should be happy about the low numbers.

A couple of interesting tweets from Paul Sen at Sports Media Watch

@paulsen_smw The Sparks wore their yellow home unis on the road at Detroit; does Farmers Insurance not allow them to wear purple?

@paulsen_smw Unbelievably misleading ad courtside: "WNBA Saturdays on ABC". ABC aired its only reg. season WNBA game of the season yesterday.