Sports Ratings Soar: Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, US Open All See Major Gains

It may have been a rough season for primetime TV, but sports programming is seeing major ratings gains just in time for the Olympics.

Television audiences for almost every major sporting event this spring — from the Stanley Cup Finals to the US Open Golf championship — grew, which should be a delight to NBC Universal as it prepares to run 1,400 hours of coverage of the Summer Olympics from Beijing (in addition to another 2,200 hours to be streamed online).

"We worry that all sporting events over the past several years have had a decline in their big events," NBA Commissioner David Stern told the New York Times recently. "To see that reversing, where it was reversed this year in the Stanley Cup, it has been reversed in our playoffs, in our conference finals in double digits, and it's going to be reversed in our finals in double digits, we would like to see all sporting events do better."

Below is a list of the sports ratings successes over the past two months:

• Kentucky Derby: Most-watched race since 2004
• Belmont Stakes: 169% increase over last year, most watched since 2004 (though Smarty Jones' Triple Crown bid in 2004 drew 5 million more viewers than Big Brown's)
• Stanley Cup Finals: Doubled last year's ratings, highest since 2002
• US Open Golf Championship: Sunday's ratings up 17% over last year's final round (which itself was up 36% from 2006); Monday's playoff saw 90% increase over last US Open Monday playoff*
• NBA Finals: Series up 50% over last year, Game 6 biggest audience since 2000

The increases in ratings for sports programming are one of the few reasons network executives have to smile after a dismal television season and a disappointing May sweeps. Every network except Fox saw ratings decline, and even one of Fox's signature series, "American Idol," showed signs of trouble (the show premiered to its lowest ratings in four years, lost viewers week to week, and continually saw ratings lows, prompting Fox executives to begin considering major changes to the show's format).

*The recent golf ratings surge is so tied to Tiger Woods, Variety's Stuart Levine reports, that networks are extremely worried about his recent injury, which will sideline him for six to eight months. Read more here.

Comments

[marymansour]

I think that watching golf on TV is akin to watching paint dry. However, I will tune in from time to time to see if Tiger is winning. He's the greatest!

[strifeknot]

Being the best patch of drying paint isn't anything to write home about.

[FunGuy13]

This is a no-brainer. It's the economy & gas prices stupid. It is much cheaper to stay at home & drink beer rather than jump into your gas guzzler to get to a game & also be stuck in traffic. I am buying food & beer stock now!

[ZsaZsa]

Sports ratings are up. Yeah, good thing the Celtics, Lakes, Red Wings, and Tiger Woods are doing well. If it were the Bucks vs. the Trail Blazers in the NBA Finals, and the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Stanley Cup Finals, do you think the ratings would be that good? The article says the Stanley Cup finals were the highest rated finals since 2002. Who won in 2002? The Red Wings, same as this year. Coincidence? Don't think so.

Too bad the Yankees and Notre Dame suck.

[dentuso]

Personally I'd love to see a Yankees-Fighting Irish finals for the NHL. It would be more interesting than an Oilers-Jackets finals.

[mredder4]

Any sport so reliant on one player for ratings (golf) deserves to have times when that player sits out and the audience declines. It points out the flaw in their marketing and focus, since you're talking about a league with hundreds of players that don't get the hype that Tiger Woods does.

[UnknownSoldier]

The other players don't win as often as Tiger Woods does. Tiger Woods has been hyped since he was 13 years old, and he really is as good as the hype that surrounds him. I've said this since Monday, Tiger Woods is the Mozart of Golf. I'm not a huge fan of Classical music, but Mozart was breathe of fresh air in a very robotic and souless art form. Tiger Woods is a breathe of fresh air in an elitist, soft, souless sport like golf.

[UnbiasView]

What a shock, a sports topic can't get off the ground on a liberal website. Maybe that is because most liberals always got picked on as kids and never could play sports.

[AnotherMike]

"UnbiasView"

Oh, the irony.

[Mattyhorn]

Ridiculous to the point of being delusional...(you must think Nascar is a real sport)

Perhaps it didn't occur to you that the ratings for the NBA Finals were improved vastly by not only one of the msot storied historic rivalries in sports, but of the inclusion of the highly lucrative Boston market. Recent stats have shown Boston, especially with our wealth of recent championship teams and relatively strong percapita income, is "money in the bank" when it comes to TV sports ratings.

It probably also didn't occur to you that the Boston area is one of the most liberal, politically, in the U.S. All that said, this 'liberal' (and dedicated Boston sports fan) will meet you on the blacktop any day to shut that neo-con fascist mouth of yours.

[AnotherMike]

Gee... Maybe it's the fact that nobody can pay for anything but couch potato activities!?!

I love sports as much as the next guy, but some of my friends didn't miss the annual Father's Day golf outing because the U.S. Open was that good... They couldn't afford the green fees on top of gas to get to the course, and still take their families to Disneyland this summer!

[Wanjiru]

...kweli waafrika wanaleta pesa nyingi sana kwa hii nchi...

.

[ordinaryguy]

hockey is almost less exciting than curling. you need ice. the rules are a mess. watching 3 period of lumpy men mishandle a little black thing that no one can see is beyond boring.

[MrVinegar]

In baseball you need a diamond. In football, a field. In rugby, a pitch. I fail to see how needing ice makes the sport boring. It's tougher to find a ice rink over a baseball diamond, but that is all.

I think I'd rather watch men that are lumpy because they are wearing pads than the lumpy men in baseball that mishandle their groins, spit, throw a pitch, wait twenty minutes, stop someone from stealing a base, spit, mishandle his groin again, call a time out, throw a pitch, wait twenty minutes, spit...

[rich3324]

From your comments I can see you know nothing about hockey. Which is fine, just stick to watching tennis.

[strifeknot]

Buzz off, idiot. Both hockey and curling are great. And get a new eyeglass prescription.

[MrVinegar]

It was great being able to watch the Red Wings pummel the Penguins on a regular TV station instead of some crappy third tier cable station that no one has heard of.

We need more hockey on TV, it's an exciting professional sport not littered with overpaid, prima donna, dope using athletes. Not to mention the action of the game keeps you awake unlike professional baseball or golf.

[GolfingDevil05]

I disagree with you on golf and baseball. It's not that they're fast-paced and action packed. What makes them exciting is how tense the situations can be before the action starts.

Amen to more hockey on TV. I'll take that over basketball anyday.

[MrVinegar]

I can certainly understand playing golf and baseball. That is certainly fun and exciting. I think it is just that MLB games move so slow, little league games are more exciting to me.

I'll agree with you on basketball. I don't know if it is the squeaking of the shoes on the court or that there is no built up anticipation of scoring because a net is made every two seconds of a game!