Boston Sports Media Watch

Friday night’s game was a disaster for everyone in Boston except for NESN, it would seem.

NESN garnered a 13.2 household rating in the Boston DMA for Friday night’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Philadelphia Flyers. The program was the #1 rated show in the Boston DMA and the second highest Bruins game rating in NESN’s 26 year history covering the team behind only last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 7 (14.2).

NESN’s Game 7 coverage also earned the honor of being the top rated program in the Boston DMA in every measurable demographic category including Men 18-34 (14.1), Men 25-54 (12.6), Adults 18-49 (10.4), and Women 25-54 (7.1).

Popularity: 6% [?]

ESPN’s PR department is putting out drips and drabs on the ratings for last night’s Celtics triumphant win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The national overnight rating was 7.1 which was the highest rated NBA Playoff game ever on ESPN.

Locally, Boston came in at 16.9 which is the highest rated playoff game in the market since the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 against Detroit (18.4).

Other markets of note, Cleveland’s overnight was 29.4 which was tops across the nation, Orlando was 9.4, Chicago at 7.1 and New York at 6.0.

Not only was interest high in the game, but of course for the maddening LeBron James storyline which only stands to get Brett Favre-like until he decides whether to stay in Cleveland or leave for the Knicks.

Due to a busy personal schedule, I won’t have the megalinks today, but I will post news if something breaks.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The results may not have been Bruins fans wanted, but we were definitely watching on Thursday as NESN brought in a 10.3 rating for Game 6 of the Bruins-Flyers NHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. According to the network, that’s the third highest rating for a Bruins game in the channel’s history.

NESN earned a 10.3 household rating in the Boston DMA for last night’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Philadelphia Flyers. This is the third highest Bruins game rating in NESN’s 26 year history covering the team behind only last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 7 (14.2) and the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 7 (11.2).

NESN’s ratings in the key demographic categories are also impressive, including a 10.8 for Men 25-54 and an 8.0 for Adults 25-54. The Men 25-54 demo rating was #1 in the Boston DMA on Tuesday night while the Adults 25-54 demo rating was second in the market only to American Idol.

By comparison in Philadelphia, the Flyers actually broke an NHL ratings record for the local Comcast SportsNet affiliate averaging a 10.1 rating and a total of 300,000 households.

Game 7 should do well for NESN on Friday. And with the Bruins and Red Sox playing at the same time tomorrow night, NESN’s main channel will carry hockey while NESNplus will air the Red Sox-Detroit game. For game and channel in your area, you can go here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The TV ratings are  an indication of how anticipated last night’s Bruins game was among fans.

The game garnered a 6.2 household rating, which is the highest rated regular season game in NESN’s history, as fans tuned in to see whether the team would retaliate against Matt Cooke and the Pittsburgh Penguins for the hit that left Marc Savard with a concussion that likely ended his season.

Fans ended up the evening disappointed, as the Bruins suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Stanley Cup Champions.

Popularity: 8% [?]

WEEI Celtics radio broadcaster Sean Grande hits a milestone tonight in San Antonio as he broadcasts his 1000th NBA game.

Grande has been the play-by-play radio voice of the Celtics since 2001, and did three years as the TV play-by-play voice of the Minnesota Timberwolves prior to that.

In a statement released by Regan communications, Celtics team president Rich Gotham congratulated Grande on his milestone. “The entire Boston Celtics organization would like to congratulate Sean on reaching this significant milestone, his knowledge, insight, and preparation set the standard for play by play excellence across the NBA and have provided Celtics fans throughout New England with a consistently enjoyable, informative, and entertaining broadcast”. 

Saints/Patriots Game A Ratings Winner for ESPN

This week’s Monday Night Football game on ESPN earned a 15.0 rating nationally, representing an average of 14,872,000 households (21,402,000 viewers – P2+), making it the second most-watched cable telecast of all time among both households and viewers, as well as ESPN’s second-highest rating in the network’s 30-year history. The MNF game also ranks as the top prime time program of the past two weeks (since 11/16/09) among all broadcast and cable networks in households, viewers, and all key male and adult demos. 

The Patriots-Saints game finished just shy of ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast October 5 (Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings), which set the all-time cable records for households (15,136,000) and viewers (21,839,000), based on an ESPN-record 15.3 rating.  ESPN has set the cable household viewership record four times in as many years since acquiring the rights to MNF. In all, cable’s seven biggest household audiences ever — and eight of the top 10 – (excluding breaking news) are ESPN MNF games. 

Monday’s game delivered a combined 35.0 rating locally in Boston (13.1 on ESPN and 21.9 on WCVB-ABC), as well as a combined 66.7 rating in New Orleans (23.3 on ESPN and 43.4 on WDSU-NBC). The New Orleans rating is the highest combined local rating for ESPN’s Monday Night Football this year, surpassing the 63.9 in New Orleans for the Falcons-Saints game (Nov. 2).

Popularity: 8% [?]

The New England Patriots overtime loss on Sunday to former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and his Denver Broncos was the highest rated program of the week in the Boston market.

The game earned a household rating of 29.73 with a 57 share. The game averaged 1,156,900 viewers and peaked during overtime with 1,446,100 viewers.

It was the second highest-rated Patriots game of the season, trailing only the season opener on Monday Night Football against Buffalo.

Through five games in 2009, Patriots games are averaging a local rating of 28.88 with a 57.4 share.

By comparison, through five games of the 2008 season, Patriots games averaged a local rating of 25.62 with a 49.4 share.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Lured by the prospect of seeing Tom Brady’s return to the field, viewers flocked to last night’s Patriots preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.

According to Kraft Sports Productions and WBZ, the game garnered a 14.6 rating last night.

The Patriots’ preseason game versus the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night earned a 14.6 rating and a 27 share. The game was the top program in total households and total viewers in every demographic among all broadcast and cable networks on Thursday. The broadcast averaged 524,300 total viewers, ranking second in total viewers for a preseason game since the introduction of Local People Meter ratings in 2002. The game peaked at 8:45 p.m. with 643,290 total viewers. Patriots-Eagles ranked among the top five television events of the summer (June 1 to Aug. 13, 2009) for adults and men 18-49 and 25-54 in the Boston market.

The pre and post game shows also did well for WBZ:

WBZ-TV is also home to “Patriots Gameday” prior to every game and “Patriots 5^th Quarter” after each game. “Patriots Gameday” on Thursday had a household rating of a 5.32 with a 12 share. “Patriots 5th Quarter” had a household rating of 5.70 with a 12 share.

Not bad for a preseason game. Check my Media Notes on Patriots Daily for more on last night’s TV and Radio broadcasts.

Popularity: 7% [?]

This information was just passed along by Gary Roy at NESN:

The Red Sox swept the Yankees at Fenway Park this week and Red Sox fans were watching on NESN in near record numbers. NESN averaged a 16.7 HH rating in the Boston DMA for the three games, the network’s best 3 game series since August of 2007 (16.8). NESN’s season average continues to rise (9.4 HH) as the Red Sox travel to Philadelphia to take on the defending World Series Champion Phillies this weekend.

The Red Sox likely got off to a slower than usual start in the ratings this season not just because of the absence of Jerry Remy, but more likely because in April and May either the Bruins or Celtics (and sometimes both) were on nearly every night during that span. Some of the Red Sox games were bumped to a NESN Plus channel which probably lowered the ratings a bit. Plus the Red Sox went to the West coast twice, which resulted in the late night starts and even later finishes.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Apparently the Red Sox ratings on NESN are noteworthy even down in New York.

Neil Best, the intrepid sports media writer and blogger for Newsday.com has the following note:

The Sox’ average game rating is 8.92 percent of homes in the Boston area, down 6.8 percent from 9.57 at this point last season.

He then also makes the following observation:

Red Sox games regularly attract a higher percentage of the Boston market than what the Yankees and Mets average combined in New York.

I know population factors into it, but that is still pretty interesting.

Popularity: 7% [?]

From Sports Media Watch:

In Boston, the game drew a 16.1 rating from 8-10:45 PM, down from the 17.3 Bulls/Celtics Game 7 drew in the market earlier this month. The 16.1 topped the 14.2 Hurricanes/Bruins Game 7 the previous Thursday. Not a single Celtics or Bruins playoff game could match the 17.9 rating the Red Sox’ home opener drew in April.

That last line is pretty amazing when you think about it. None of the postseason games could top Red Sox opening day. Those who say this is a Red Sox town first and foremost got more ammo here.

The Patriots routinely score in the mid-20′s for ratings and sometimes higher, but their games are more like “events’ that you schedule your weekend around.

Popularity: 8% [?]