ESPN's Three-Day NFL Draft Coverage Up in Ratings and Viewership

NFL Content on ESPN Digital Platforms Also Posts Gains

ESPN's three-day telecast of the 2013 NFL Draft (April 25-27) - including the first two nights in prime time - saw increases in both ratings and viewership over the 2012 event. This weekend, the 15-plus hours on ESPN and ESPN2 delivered a 2.1 US rating, a three percent gain from 2012 (2.0) and a six percent increase from 2011 (1.9). The average viewership of 3,035,000 viewers is a four percent gain over both 2012 (2,924,000) and 2011 (2,918,000).

The top-10 metered markets for ESPN's three days of NFL Draft coverage were New Orleans (4.7 rating), Birmingham, Ala. (4.5), Kansas City (4.4), Buffalo (4.3), Dayton, Ohio (4.1), Jacksonville (3.6), Pittsburgh (3.5), Milwaukee (3.5), Cincinnati (3.4) and Nashville (3.4).

Rounds 4-7 / Day 3 (Saturday)

ESPN's 7.5 hours of coverage (12-7:30 p.m. ET) on ESPN and ESPN2 delivered a 1.1 US rating, an eight percent increase over last year's coverage (1.0 US), while viewership averaged 1,610,000, pacing 12 percent ahead of 2012 (1,437,000).

Rounds 2-3 / Day 2 (Friday)

ESPN's 1.5 hours of coverage (6:30-8 p.m. ET) delivered a 2.2 US rating and 3,167,000 viewers, based on fast nationals, while ESPN2's remaining 2.5 hours (8-10:30 p.m.) delivered a 1.7 US rating and 2,463,000 viewers. Together, the two networks averaged a 1.9 US rating and 2,727,000 viewers, up slightly from last year's second and third rounds on ESPN (1.9 US rating and 2,679,000 viewers) and a double-digit increase from 2011 coverage (1.6 US rating and 2,386,000).

Round 1 / Day 1 (Thursday)

ESPN's first round coverage of the NFL Draft posted a 4.1 US rating and drew 6.2 million viewers. More details: http://bit.ly/ESPNRd1

ESPN Digital

Across digital platforms, through ESPN's three days of coverage of the NFL Draft (Apr. 25-27), the average minute audience to the NFL section on ESPN.com and the ESPN mobile Web was up 13 percent and seven percent, respectively, compared to last year. Additionally, average minute audience, visits and daily unique visitors to NFL content on the ScoreCenter app were up 200 percent, 102 percent and 49 percent. Total minutes to live coverage of the NFL Draft on WatchESPN were also up 562 percent from last year. On Twitter, there were over 3.1 million tweets related to the NFL Draft coverage on ESPN, up 82 percent from last year. The event on ESPN also accounted for over a third (35 percent) of all TV-related tweets on Twitter throughout the three days.