The first official pairing of Golf Channel and NBC Sports as one entity is being hailed as a ratings success by The Group. Viewership for the WGC-Match Play Championship was up 84% over last year on Golf Channel and 71% on NBC. That’s rather astounding when you think of it. NBC says the two day viewership for the weekend averaged 2.5 million people. Golf Channel averaged 771,000 viewers for three weekdays of coverage.
Here’s the press release.
NBC SPORTS GROUP SCORES VIEWERSHIP GAINS FOR WGC-ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
Golf Channel’s 17 Hours of Live Coverage (Plus 17 Replay Hours in Primetime) Up 84% Over Last Year
“Golf Channel on NBC” Two-Day Coverage up 71% Over Last Year and Best Viewership since 2008
Golf Channel Nets Second Most-Watched February in Network’s History
Golf Channel’s “State of the Game Live” Doubled Golf Channel’s Primetime Average Viewership for Non-PGA TOUR ProgrammingNEW YORK – March 1, 2011 – NBC Sports and Golf Channel generated significant viewership increases for the combined 28 hours of live coverage (55 hours total coverage) of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships Wednesday through Sunday. With Tiger Woods eliminated on Wednesday and Phil Mickelson eliminated on Thursday, and with England’s Luke Donald defeating Germany’s Martin Kaymer in Sunday’s final, Golf Channel’s three-day average viewership was up 84 percent from last year while viewership for “Golf Channel on NBC” coverage rose 71 percent.
Golf Channel’s strong viewership for the WGC-Accenture helped propel the network to its second most-watched February ever (15.3 million unique viewers). Through the first eight weeks of the 2011 season, viewership of the PGA TOUR on Golf Channel is up 59 percent over last year.
The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship continued Golf Channel’s streak of delivering higher ratings for every PGA TOUR round this year versus comparable rounds in 2010.
WGC-ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
“GOLF CHANNEL ON NBC” VIEWERSHIP: The weekend coverage on NBC (2-6 p.m. Saturday, 2-7 p.m. Sunday), which has been rebranded as “Golf Channel on NBC,” averaged 2.5 million viewers, a gain of 71 percent from last year’s 1.5 million viewers on CBS, and the most-watched since 2008 when Tiger Woods won the event, defeating Stewart Cink.
GOLF CHANNEL VIEWERSHIP: Golf Channel’s early round coverage of the WGC-Accenture started Wednesday with its best day overall since 2009’s President’s Cup coverage and continued on Friday with its most-watched early round without Tiger Woods since THE PLAYERS in May 2008.
Highlights include:
- Three-day average viewership up 84 percent over 2010 (771,000 vs. 419,000)
- Wednesday’s Day 1 up 86 percent over 2010 (712,000 vs. 318,000).
- Thursday’s Day 2 up 95 percent over 2010 (768,000 vs. 393,000).
- Friday’s Day 3 up 83 percent over 2010 (890,000 vs. 486,000).
- Saturday’s earlier-than-scheduled, five-hour coverage of the quarterfinal match that concluded on NBC was up 71% over 2010 (562,000 vs. 328,000).
That is all.
