Fox Sports Off To Strong U.S. Open Ratings Start
/An excellent start over a very long day on Fox Sports no doubt learning to love these west coast venues.
Here goes, with comparisons to 2012, the last time the U.S. Open was played in the Pacific Time Zone.
Fox (Network), 8-11 PM ET: 2.4/4
Up 71% from NBC in 2014. In 2012 at Olympic Club, NBC drew a 2.07.
Fox Sports 1
U.S. Open Noon-8 pm ET: 1.28
That's up 20% from last year’s comparable first round coverage on ESPN (1.07), down from 2012 at Olympic when ESPN drew a 1.6.
**SBD's roundup of coverage calls the ratings flat and touches on the high and lowlights of day one.
Fox Sport's press release on day one with comparison's to last year in the ET zone:
FOX SPORTS’ COVERAGE OF 115th U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP DELIVERS LARGEST OPENING-ROUND AUDIENCE SINCE 2002
FOX Primetime Viewership Produces +100% Increase Over 2014
Combined Average Audience Between FOX Sports 1 and FOX Shows +54% Gain
Digital Live Streaming in the Opening Round More Than Doubles Entire 2014 Championship Audience
University Place, Wash. – FOX Sports’ inaugural presentation of the 115th U.S. Open Championship at Chambers Bay began Thursday with a combined 11 hours of live golf coverage on FOX Sports 1 (12:00 – 8:00 PM ET) and local FOX stations (8:00 – 11:09 PM ET), and the two networks combined to pull in the event’s largest opening-round viewership in over a decade.
The combined audience of the first-day coverage averaged 2.0 million viewers, making it the most-watched opening round since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, an event that ultimately saw Tiger Woods edge runner-up Phil Mickelson by three strokes to win his second U.S. Open title.
Audience deliveries showed impressive gains on both networks as fans tuned in to watch the opening-round coverage of golf’s most challenging major.
Highlights:
-Thursday’s combined average audience of 2.0 million viewers across FOX Sports 1 and local FOX stations was the largest since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black (2.3 million).
-The average viewership marked a +54% increase over 2014’s opening-round coverage on NBC and ESPN (2.0 million vs. 1.3 million).
-Primetime coverage on local FOX stations averaged 3.0 million viewers, a +100% increase over NBC’s broadcast coverage in 2014 (1.5 million viewers), earning a 1.9/4 rating that was also +46% better than NBC last year (1.4/4).
-The opening-round of the championship drove FOX to a first-place finish among the broadcast networks in primetime in the key male demographics: 18-34 (0.6), 18-49 (0.9) and 25-54 (1.2).
-Viewership on FOX peaked with 3.5 million viewers from 10:00-10:30 PM ET.
-Top five markets for Thursday’s opening round coverage on FOX broadcast network: Seattle (6.0), Louisville (4.7), Columbus (4.6), Indianapolis (4.4) and Detroit (4.1).
-FOX Sports 1 averaged 1.5 million viewers throughout the day, a +25% increase over ESPN’s delivery in 2014. Viewership on FOX Sports 1 peaked from 5:30-6:00 PM ET at 2.1 million viewers, following the start of Woods’ opening round.
-On the digital front, the number of official U.S. Open live streams accessed during opening-round action were more than double the total combined number measured over the entire four-day championship in 2014. Fox Sports GO, USOpen.com and the U.S. Open official app currently offer multiple channels of live coverage, including featured groups, featured holes and U.S. Open 360.
