Ratings Up Solidly For ESPN's Open Championship Coverage

Nice showing for ESPN, especially for Monday's final round, a summer work day in the States.

For Immediate Release:

ESPN’s live coverage of The Open – the third major of the golf season from the famous Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland – delivered strong ratings and viewership throughout the weekend, posting double-digit increases from 2014.

Overall, The Open delivered a 1.4 US household rating, up 27 percent from 2014 (1.1), and 1,940,000 viewers, up 29 percent from 2014 (1,500,000), according to Nielsen. Monday’s final round coverage peaked from 1:30-1:45 p.m. ET with a 3.7 household rating and 5,294,000 viewers  as American Zach Johnson captured his second career major, defeating Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in the first playoff at The Open since 2009. Daily highlights:

First Round (Thurs): Coverage averaged a 0.8 household rating, flat with 2014, and 1,091,000 viewers, a nine percent gain from 2014 (1,000,000 viewers);

Second Round (Fri and Sat): Due to weather delays, the second round aired across Friday and Saturday, averaging a 1.2 household rating, up 33 percent from 2014 (0.9 rating) and 1,550,000 viewers, a 29 percent spike from 2014 (1,205,000 viewers);

Third Round (Sun): a 2.1 household rating and 2,910,000 viewers, increases of 110 percent (1.0 rating) and 115 percent (1,351,000 viewers), respectively, from the weather impacted 2014 event;

Final Round (Mon): a 2.1 household rating, up 11 percent from 2014 (1.9), and 2,851,000 viewers, up five percent from 2014 (2,703,000 viewers).

Nice digital showing too...

Across all platforms throughout the entire tournament, The Open on WatchESPN saw a daily average of 599,000 unique viewers that watched over 40 million minutes per day, up 60 percent and 105 percent, respectively, compared to last year’s tournament.  Additionally, each round of The Open saw increases over their respective day of play in 2014, averaging a 23 percent increase in unique viewers and a 33 percent increase in total minutes.

Update on Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 11:50 AM by Geoff

**Golf Channel had a good week too. Nice to see surging interest in The Open.

ORLANDO, Fla. (July 22, 2015) – Golf Channel posted its most-watched week ever for The Open Championship, driven by Golf Central’s Live From St. Andrews coverage from Monday through Sunday. Additionally, Golf Channel served nearly 8 million unique viewers across the week, not including viewership on Monday, July 20, with coverage surrounding the weather-delayed final round. This is the most unique viewers for Golf Channel during the week of The Open since 2009 (8.3 million).

For 24-hour Total Day (6AM-6AM), 105,000 average viewers per minute were tuned into Golf Channel, the network’s most-watched week ever for The Open (Mon-Sun) and representing +30% YOY and +46% vs. the historical average (72,000) for this week (2006-2014), according to data released by The Nielsen Company.

GOLF CHANNEL VIEWERSHIP COMPARISON: THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

2015                105,000          

2014                81,000             +30%

2013                86,000             +22%

2012                68,000             +54%

2011                58,000             +81%

2010                59,000             +78%

2009                69,000             +52%

2008                87,000             +21%

2007                73,000             +44%

2006                70,000             +50%

Last week, four respective days set new marks for most-watched day during the week of The Open, including Monday (92,000), Tuesday (98,000), Wednesday (136,000) and Sunday (133,000). And, Wednesday’s 136,000 average viewers was the second most-watched of any day during The Open for Golf Channel, trailing only Saturday of 2008 (150,000).

Comments

[BDF]

We get the ESPN signal here in Canada, I thought it was pretty good. I find Curtis Strange a bit irritationg, but he seems very prepared and professional, I just don't care for some of his comments. Otherwise, they seemed to focus on the golf, on all the main players, and I don't think they missed anything important.

[Laurel creek]

Can't wait for NBC to take over in 2 years. Curtis strange needs to go. Totally agree with above

[Herb Windy]

I think they cheated a bit combining two days ratings for round 2. couldn't have drawn big numbers when no golf being played on Saturday most of the day.

[PA PLAYA]

How much can the ratings increase be directly attributed to Spieth and his chase for the GS?

Is it too early to proclaim the "Spieth Effect" as it relates to increased viewership and ticket sales?

[just night putting]

It was like watching the BBC feed from 1978. Does Europe have ball tracking technology? If you are going to have crappy, betamax camera work, at least show the ball trails more than once as hour. The only way it could have been worse was for Greg Norman to show up.

[DTF]

Laurel creek, completely disagree. I thought the ESPN broadcast was excellent really like what Azinger and Curtis and Judy and Andy bring to the table. I'm a fan of Johhny too but Annika is a complete disaster, the worst.

[Tourcaddy]

Annika makes Elmer Fudd sound good.