Boston Sports Media Watch

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: 2% [?]

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: 7% [?]

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: 7% [?]

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% [?]

Last night’s Bruins game seven loss to the Hurricanes was the highest rated Bruins game in NESN’s 25-year history, scoring a 14.2 household rating.

Here’s the full network release:

BOSTON, MA – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, earned a 14.2 household rating in the Boston DMA for game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Carolina Hurricanes. This is by far the highest Bruins game rating in NESN’s 25 year history, beating the previous top rating (11.2 for the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 7) by a full three rating points.

The 14.2 rating means that an average of 340,800 households in the Boston television market were watching NESN’s 3 ½ hours of coverage. The ratings peaked during overtime with an 18.6 household rating between 11 PM and 11:15 PM, which equals a total of 446,400 households.

NESN’s game 7 ratings in the key demographic categories also established new network records, including a 15.9 for Men 25-54, a 12.4 for Adults 25-54 and an 8.8 for Women 25-54. NESN’s household rating and almost every demo rating was #1 in the Boston DMA on Thursday night beating every other program in the market including season finales on all the major broadcast networks.

“The Bruins had a remarkable run this season and Bruins fans have proven without a doubt that Boston is one of the best hockey towns in the country,” said NESN president Sean McGrail. “We want to thank Bruins fans for making this hockey season the most watched in our 25 years of covering the black and gold.”

During the 2009 playoffs, NESN carried a total of 9 games and established new network post-season records for live game coverage (9.6), pre-game (2.7) and post-game programming (2.7). This season’s playoffs also generated five of the top 7 Bruins telecasts in network history.

Popularity: 10% [?]

According to Michael Felger on WEEI this morning, last night’s local TV ratings break down as follows:

• Boston Bruins on NESN, 7:00pm – 10.2

• Boston Celtics on TNT, 8:00pm - 12.2

• Boston Red Sox on NESN, 10:00pm – 4.5

Update – According to NESN, the Red Sox number was really 5.5 – since the game was also shown on NESNPlus channels, and those weren’t factored into the 4.5 number.

The Bruins rating was the second highest Bruins rating in NESN history, behind only the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 7 (11.2).

NESN’s ratings in the key demographic categories also established benchmarks, including an 11.4 for Men 25-54 and an 8.6 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.

Popularity: 10% [?]

More ratings updates, this time from Comcast SportsNet. In their last game telecast of the season, CSN ended on a high note, averaging a  new record 10.1 Saturday night with a peak of 16.6. The national networks (TNT, ESPN, ABC) have the remaining games, but CSN will have full pre and post game coverage.

Once again the Comcast telecast out-rated the TNT telecast, with CSN pulling the 10.1 and TNT a 7.2. Putting those together, that’s a hefty 17.3 average rating for the game.

COMCAST SPORTSNET’S CELTICS-BULLS GAME 7 PEAKS NEAR 750,000 HOMES AND SETS NETWORK RECORD WITH 10.1

BURLINGTON, MA – Comcast SportsNet’s Celtics vs. Bulls Game 7 telecast peaked at a 16.6 rating and 730,400 New England homes while averaging a 10.1 rating and 484,000 homes for the entire telecast. Game 7 smashed the 28-year-old regional sports network’s previous record of 8.2 set one game before during the Celtics-Bulls Game 6 telecast.

Game 7 on CSN was the highest rated sports or non-sports rated program of the evening, out-rating both the Kentucky Derby (7.7) on NBC and the Boston Red Sox (8.6) on NESN. CSN’s telecast bested TNT’s telecast which earned a 7.2 rating.

For the series, Comcast SportsNet averaged an estimated 7.3 rating and 321,200 homes in New England. CSN shared all six of its telecasts in market with a national network (4.4 average) and out-performed the national network by 66 percent.

Popularity: 9% [?]