The French Open men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer gave NBC its best overnight rating in a dozen years. Sunday’s four set match received a 2.6 rating with a 7 share. That’s up 63% from last year when Nadal beat Robin Soderling rather easily. We have the press release directly from NBC Sports.
BEST OVERNIGHT RATING IN 12 YEARS FOR FRENCH OPEN MEN’S FINAL
Nadal-Federer 4-Set Match Earns 2.6 Overnight; Up 63% From Last Year’s Men’s Final
Friday’s Live Men’s Semifinals On NBC up 30% From Last YearNEW YORK – June 6, 2011 – NBC Sports’ coverage of yesterday’s French Open men’s final earned the best overnight rating for the event in 12 years, and was up 63 percent from last year’s men’s final, according to overnight data provided today by The Nielsen Company.
Rafael Nadal’s four-set win over Roger Federer earned a 2.6 overnight rating and a 7 share (9 a.m. – 2:15 p.m. ET), up 63 percent from last year’s final (Nadal-Soderling, 1.6/5) and the best overnight for the French Open men’s final since 1999 when Andre Agassi became the last American man to win this event, beating Andrei Nedvedev in a classic five-set match (4.0/12). Nadal’s win ties him with Bjorn Borg for the most men’s French Open wins in the Open era (6).
NADAL-FEDERER FRENCH OPEN FINAL OVERNIGHTS: This marks the fourth time in the last six years that Nadal and Federer met in the French Open finals (all Nadal wins). Below are the overnight ratings for each match:
2011: 2.6/7
2008: 1.8/5
2007: 2.2/6
2006: 2.1/6On Friday, NBC aired Federer-Djokovic semifinal match live and the conclusion of the Nadal-Murray semifinal match. That drew an overnight rating of 1.3/3, an increase of 30 percent over last year’s semifinals (1.0/3).
- NBCSports.com’s live streaming of Friday’s semifinal match produced strong numbers with nearly 120,000 video starts, an average viewing time of 48 minutes per stream and more than 5.7 million total minutes consumed. NBCSports.com’s homepage traffic for the day was five times higher than average.
On Saturday, Li Na became the first Chinese tennis player to win a Grand Slam singles event by defeating the defending champion Francesca Schiavone in straight sets. That match (9 a.m. – 12 noon ET) earned a 1.7 rating and a 5 share, which tied last year for best overnight since 2008.
TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR MEN’S FINAL:
1. West Palm Beach, 5.1/12
2. Washington, D.C., 4.0/11
T3. Atlanta, 3.8/9
T3. Richmond, 3.8/9
5. Columbus, 3.7/9
6. New York, 3.6/10
T7. Denver, 3.5/11
T7. Austin, 3.5/9
9. Detroit, 3.3/8
10. Greensboro, 3.2/7
That will do it.
