North Carolina at Duke Averages More Than 3.1 Million Viewers, College Basketball’s Most-Watched Weekday Game this Season
- UNC-Duke: Viewership Peaked at More than 4 Million Viewers; Audience Up 8% from Last Season’s First Meeting
- Oregon at UCLA: ESPN’s Most-Watched Pac-12 Conference Game Ever
North Carolina at Duke (February 9 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN) delivered a total live audience (TV + Streaming) of 3,184,000 viewers, the most-watched weekday college basketball game of the year on any network. The viewership is up 8% from the Tar Heels-Blue Devils’ first meeting last season on February 17, 2016 (2,938,000 viewers).
Please note: North Carolina at Duke was also available over-the-air in ACC markets in addition to ESPN both last year and this year; the over-the-air viewership is not reflected here for either year
Additional UNC-Duke Highlights:
- 3 Million Viewers Club: The matchup is ESPN’s second to surpass 3 million viewers this season, joining Kansas at Kentucky as part of the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday, January 28 (3,426,000 viewers).
- Multiple Streaming Records Set: ESPN’s streaming of the game had an average minute audience of 103,000 viewers with a total of 319,000 viewers watching 12,675,000 minutes, new records in all three categories for a college basketball game on ESPN.
- TV Viewership Spikes in Second Half: The television viewership (3,081,000 viewers) peaked at 4,068,000 people during the final minutes of the second half (9:45 p.m. – 10 p.m.).
Oregon at UCLA: Bruins’ Comeback Results in ESPN’s Most-Watched Pac-12 Regular Season Conference Game
Oregon at UCLA (February 9 at 10 p.m. on ESPN) delivered a total live audience of 1,709,000 viewers, ESPN’s most-watched Pac-12 conference regular season game (records go back to 1992). On television, overnight local ratings set a record in Portland and a nine-year high in Los Angeles.
ESPN’s Doubleheader Averages 2.4 Million Viewers
Overall, ESPN’s averaged 2,471,000 viewers during the Sonic Blockbuster doubleheader on Thursday, February 9 (8 p.m. to midnight).
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner