2015-2016 Duke TV Ratings Thread

[awhom111]

After posting about this sort of thing in another thread, I though it might be cool to have a season long tally in one thread. Most of these numbers will come from sportstvratings.com which appears to have all of the Nielsen rated sports networks' ratings. Figures are average viewers over the course of the entire game. If the demo (18-49) is significant, I will include it. Nielsen does not guarantee accuracy as numbers get progressively smaller and some channels do not subscribe to ratings.

I was validated about my belief that ESPN should have had the Miami game on ESPN2 and the Vandy-Houston game on ESPNU.

Volleyball:
10/02 vs UNC ESPNU 57,000

Football:
09/26 vs Georgia Tech ESPN2 775,000
10/24 vs Virginia Tech ESPNU 722,000
10/31 vs Miami ESPNU 490,000

Women's Golf
11/02 vs Stanford GOLF 71,000 (shared broadcast)

[awhom111]

Women's Golf
11/03 vs Stanford GOLF 23,000 (shared broadcast)
11/03 vs USC GOLF 54,000 (shared broadcast)

[awhom111]

Football
11/07 vs UNC ESPN2 742,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
11/13 vs Siena ESPNU 202,000

[awhom111]

Football:
11/14 vs Pitt ESPNEWS 245,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
11/17 vs Kentucky ESPN 3,120,000

A 1.1 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

[awhom111]

11/20 vs VCU ESPN2 980,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
11/22 vs Georgetown ESPN 614,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
11/25 vs Yale ESPNU 496,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
11/29 vs Utah State ESPNU 214,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
12/02 vs Indiana 1,733,000

[JasonEvans]

Men's Basketball:
12/02 vs Indiana 1,733,000

How does this compare to the UNC-Maryland game? What about the Kentucky-UCLA game?

I'm wondering how Duke is as a draw compared to UNC and Kentucky... who I would expect to be the other major players in terms of college hoops popularity on TV.

[ChillinDuke]

Men's Basketball:
12/02 vs Indiana 1,733,000

Similar to Jason's question, what is a "good" number? In other words, what would make a TV exec say "wow"?

While I like the concept of this thread, I have essentially no background to understand these numbers.

- Chillin

[Pghdukie]

Another angle would be - How do the Duke numbers compare with other games, sporting events aired at the same time slot, i.e. the direct competition. I also find this thread very interesting.

[brevity]

Men's Basketball:
12/02 vs Indiana 1,733,000

How does this compare to the UNC-Maryland game? What about the Kentucky-UCLA game?

I'm wondering how Duke is as a draw compared to UNC and Kentucky... who I would expect to be the other major players in terms of college hoops popularity on TV.

Similar to Jason's question, what is a "good" number? In other words, what would make a TV exec say "wow"?

While I like the concept of this thread, I have essentially no background to understand these numbers.

- Chillin

Another angle would be - How do the Duke numbers compare with other games, sporting events aired at the same time slot, i.e. the direct competition. I also find this thread very interesting.

I'm not awhom111, but this site provides some context of sports TV ratings within a single day. Indiana-Duke was the main draw Wednesday, with Louisville-Michigan State getting 1,353,000 viewers.

2,011,000 watched the Maryland-UNC game Tuesday. No info on Kentucky-UCLA yet.

The 18-49 age demographic -- the modern standard for gauging advertising rates -- is trickier, but probably more important for entertainment programming than sports. (Indiana-Duke got a 0.6.) I do recall the Wisconsin-Duke championship game getting a ridiculous 9.1, which is better than any episode of The Walking Dead, and on par with the NFL on Thanksgiving.

I think TV ratings in sports are strangely under-reported in a time when TV ratings for entertainment shows are over-reported. The subject, and maybe this thread, may come in handy when seeing how tiny college basketball is compared to college football. Watch what happens later this month when mid-level bowl games outdraw the biggest hoops matchups.

[awhom111]

How does this compare to the UNC-Maryland game? What about the Kentucky-UCLA game?

I'm wondering how Duke is as a draw compared to UNC and Kentucky... who I would expect to be the other major players in terms of college hoops popularity on TV.

Trying to follow it last season a bit, it seems that Duke and then Kentucky were on top with the UNC and Kansas type teams a little behind that. I would have to think some of it is specific to how each team is doing that season and where the big name players are playing. Kentucky-UCLA was about 1.3 million to compare to the figure that brevity posted for the other Challenge games.

Similar to Jason's question, what is a "good" number? In other words, what would make a TV exec say "wow"?

While I like the concept of this thread, I have essentially no background to understand these numbers.

- Chillin

I think its best to think of it relatively speaking. As long as we outdraw other teams we will continue to get good placement that allows more of us to watch. Most games do not really register in the 18-49 demographic that brevity mentioned and we do not get to see some of the more important information, like detailed demographic breakdowns.

Another angle would be - How do the Duke numbers compare with other games, sporting events aired at the same time slot, i.e. the direct competition. I also find this thread very interesting.

As brevity mentioned, sports ratings are a bit under-studied. Nielsen numbers are generally proprietary and generally speaking the public only gets leaked numbers or numbers that networks want us to see, which generally make them look good. Reliable final broadcast network numbers are nearly impossible for the public to get unless they are primetime non-Saturday games. In the past some sports people have leaked a lot of numbers and essentially been told to stop, which is why I am glad for this sportstvratings.com site, but not sure if it will be around forever. Part of me starting the thread is just to get a bunch of numbers together to try to figure out what is going on. Network matters a lot even though ESPN and ESPN2 have near identical coverage. Day and competition matters as can be seen from our Sunday figures during NFL games.

[brevity]

Nielsen numbers are generally proprietary and generally speaking the public only gets leaked numbers or numbers that networks want us to see, which generally make them look good. Reliable final broadcast network numbers are nearly impossible for the public to get unless they are primetime non-Saturday games. In the past some sports people have leaked a lot of numbers and essentially been told to stop, which is why I am glad for this sportstvratings.com site, but not sure if it will be around forever. Part of me starting the thread is just to get a bunch of numbers together to try to figure out what is going on. Network matters a lot even though ESPN and ESPN2 have near identical coverage. Day and competition matters as can be seen from our Sunday figures during NFL games.

I appreciate the background and history. I've probably glossed over sports TV ratings in the past because the industry doesn't particularly care. Channels have already paid for multi-year sports packages, so following the daily returns isn't vital.

As you hinted above, it is important to recognize that broadcast ratings and cable ratings are like apples and oranges. Last Saturday night in college football, Ohio State-Michigan on ABC had 10,830,000 viewers, while FSU-Florida on ESPN had 4,280,000. Is one rivalry more than twice as popular? Not really. Viewers have old habits and stick to ABC Sports (even though there is no ABC Sports anymore; it's all ESPN-produced now).

With that in mind, Kentucky-UCLA did pretty well on ESPN, considering that it coincided with Packers-Lions on the NFL Network and maybe the end of Thunder-Heat on TNT. Indiana-Duke and Maryland-UNC didn't face that kind of competition, probably by design. ESPN schedules the best Big Ten/ACC matchups (including Virginia-Ohio State and Louisville-Michigan State) to avoid football nights.

[awhom111]

Women's Soccer:
12/04 vs Florida State ESPNU 96,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
12/05 vs Buffalo ESPN2 441,000

Women's Soccer:
12/06 vs Penn State ESPNU 116,000

Women's Basketball:
12/06 vs South Carolina ESPN2 92,000

[awhom111]

Men's Basketball:
12/15 vs Georgia Southern ESPN2 478,000