or


[03/14/14 - 01:00 PM]
Men's College Basketball: ESPN's Most-Viewed and Highest-Rated Regular Season Ever
ESPN spins the numbers for said coverage to date this season.

[via press release from ESPN]

Men's College Basketball: ESPN's Most-Viewed and Highest-Rated Regular Season Ever

· ESPN TV Networks' 586 Games Averages More Than 500,000 Viewers

· ESPN Televises its Third Most-Viewed Regular-Season Game and Second Most-Viewed Non-Conference Game

· Louisville makes it a Dozen Straight

ESPN's industry-leading coverage of the men's 2013-14 college basketball regular season was the network's most-viewed and highest-rated ever, averaging 1,454,000 viewers and a 1.0 HH US rating. It marks the third consecutive year ESPN has set a viewership record for its game telecasts, surpassing the past two seasons by 6 percent (vs. 1,370,000 viewers in 2012-13) and 7 percent (vs. 1,353,000 in 2011-12). The 1.0 average HH US rating is up 11 percent over the 0.9 HH US rating ESPN averaged for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

For the season, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combined to televise 586 games exclusively - the most extensive coverage on television and more than every other network combined - averaging 501,000 total viewers. Overall, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combined to reach more than 120,876,000 viewers for game telecasts.

Millions of fans turned to ESPN's digital platforms for college basketball content throughout the season with 4,500,000 unique devices, a 36 percent increase over last season, viewing nearly 1,400 live games on WatchESPN and ESPN3. Additionally, there were 152,000,000 college basketball video starts this season across ESPN.com, the ESPN mobile Web and SportsCenter app, up 40 percent.

Fans were highly engaged with ESPN on social platforms during the season as well, accounting for more than 85 percent of the total college basketball social TV conversation.

ESPN's Third Most-Viewed Regular-Season & Second Most-Viewed Non-Conference Games

The ESPN Saturday Primetime Driven by State Farm telecast of then-No. 2 Syracuse defeating then-No. 17 Duke 91-89 in overtime on February 1 is the network's third most-viewed regular-season men's college basketball game on record (1991-92 season), averaging 4,745,000 viewers (based on a 2.9 HH US rating which peaked at a 4.4). ESPN's top two most-viewed men's hoops games were also part of the Saturday Primetime series and occurred in the 2007-08 season: Tennessee at Memphis on February 23 (5,281,000 viewers) and North Carolina at Duke on March 8 (5,612,000 viewers). The matchup generated 5,600,000 minutes of live viewing on WatchESPN, making it the platform's top men's college basketball game ever in total minutes viewed.

In addition, ESPN's coverage of then-No. 2 Michigan State defeating then-No. 1 Kentucky in the State Farm Champions Classic averaged 4,002,000 viewers and a 2.6 HH US rating, making it the network's second most-viewed non-conference game ever.

Louisville Makes it a Dozen Straight

For the 12th consecutive year, Louisville was the highest-rated metered market for ESPN's regular-season telecasts, averaging a 4.5 rating. Greensboro, Kansas City and Raleigh-Durham finished tied for second with a 2.8 rating. It marks the third straight year Greensboro has ended the season in the second spot. The remaining top 10 is Memphis (2.6), Columbus (2.0), Cincinnati (1.9), Knoxville (1.9), Dayton (1.9) and Indianapolis (1.8). In addition:

· Eight of last season's top 10 metered markets finished the 2013-14 season among the top 10 again with Charlotte and Nashville falling out (tied at 11th with a 1.7 rating).

· Memphis made the biggest year-to-year jump in the standings, moving from 14th to fifth by doubling its rating from a 1.3 to a 2.6.

· Three of Ohio's four metered markets finished in the top nine: Columbus at sixth with a 2.0 rating, and Cincinnati and Dayton tied for seventh with a 1.9 rating.





  [march 2014]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
      


· SHOWATCH
(series past and present)
· DEVWATCH
(series in development)
· MOVIEWATCH
(tv movies and mini-series)





most recent ratings | view all posts
[10/28/25 - 02:07 PM]
"Sunday Night Football" on Record Pace Through Week 8, Averaging 24.7 Million Viewers on NBC and Peacock
Packers-Steelers audience peaked at 28.2 million viewers on NBC and Peacock in the second quarter (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET).

[10/28/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of October 20 - "A House of Dynamite" Hits the Target at No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Plus: "Nobody Wants This," "The Elixir," and "The Monster of Florence" rise to the top in their opening weekends.

[10/27/25 - 12:03 PM]
Second-Most Viewed NBA Opening Week on ESPN Since 2014; "Inside the NBA" Averaged 1M Viewers in Its Opening Week Debut on ESPN
Last week's NBA coverage averaged 2.2 million viewers.

[10/24/25 - 02:54 PM]
ESPN's Third-Most Watched NBA Season-Opening Wednesday Ever
The two-game slate averaged 2.33 million viewers, up 44 percent from last year.

[10/24/25 - 02:02 PM]
"20/20" Is Friday's Most-Watched Newsmagazine Across the Board
In addition, "20/20" posted its best Adults 25-54 in more than four months.

[10/24/25 - 02:01 PM]
ABC News' "Nightline" Ranks No. 1 Across the Board, Leading NBC in All Key Demos for the 4th Straight Week
"Nightline" grew year to year across the board: Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, and Adults 18-49.

[10/24/25 - 01:05 PM]
"Dancing with the Stars" Makes Television History - Rising for Fifth Straight Week
The October 21 episode scored 6.63 million Total Viewers and a 1.38 rating among Adults 18-49, hitting new season highs in both demographics.

[10/23/25 - 02:33 PM]
Largest Audience for "NBA Tip-Off" Doubleheader Since 2010 as NBA Returned to NBC and Debuted on Peacock
Tuesday night's audience across NBC and Peacock peaked at 7.1 million viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder to a one-point win over the Houston Rockets in double overtime.

[10/23/25 - 11:28 AM]
"High Potential" Rises to Season High as Show Nears Fall Finale
ABC's popular drama rose to a multiplatform season high in Total Viewers (12.50 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.31 rating) after seven days of viewing on ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms.

[10/22/25 - 03:06 PM]
FOX Sports Delivers Most-Watched ALCS Game Since 2017
9,028,000 viewers tuned in across FOX, FS1, FOX Deportes & FOX Sports streaming services for the Toronto Blue Jays' ALCS Game 7 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

[10/22/25 - 08:07 AM]
ESPN College Football on ABC Delivers Top Three Games Across All Networks for Saturday, Oct. 18 - Off to Best Start Since '09
Coverage of Ole Miss at Georgia averaged 9.8 million viewers.

[10/22/25 - 08:03 AM]
FOX NFL's America's Game of the Week Delivers 25,630,000 Average Viewers for Commanders-Cowboys
Season-to-date, the NFL on FOX is off to its best start to the season since 2014, averaging 19,646,000 viewers and up +4% over last year's season-to-date average.

[10/22/25 - 07:44 AM]
"9-1-1: Nashville" Debuts with Over 12 Million Total Audience to Date
The star-studded, high-octane first-responder drama delivered 7.80 million Total Viewers and 1.51 rating among Adults 18-49, excluding encores.

[10/22/25 - 06:21 AM]
ABC's Telecast of Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix Draws Event's Largest TV Audience on Record
Viewership peaked at 1.6 million between 4:15-4:30 p.m. as Max Verstappen drove to victory, further tightening up the battle for the F1 driver's championship with only five races left in the season.

[10/21/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of October 13: "The Woman in Cabin 10" Sails Smoothly to No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
In the final stretch to Halloween, those lured in by the story of the OG horror villain put "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" at No. 1 on the English TV list with 9.5 million views.