For sports TV,
a grand year indeed
Maybe it's the recession, maybe it's the games
By Diego Vasquez
Dec 17, 2009
From declining ratings to the digital changeover, television certainly had its share of problems this year. Sports was certainly not one of them.
Arguably the best season in college football history wrapped up over the weekend with record ratings for ESPN's Heisman presentation. CBS and ESPN had their highest-rated seasons in at least a decade, and NBC's Notre Dame coverage posted its best numbers in three years.
It closes out a hugely successful year for sports programming generally, as more and more people turn to their televisions rather than going out to attend games during this recession.
ESPN averaged a 2.2 Nielsen household rating this season for 71 games, its best since 1999, and 2.87 million total viewers, its best in 15 years. Fifty-four games on sister network ESPN2 averaged a 1.1 rating and 1.49 million viewers, an all-time high.
On Saturday, the regular-season-ending Heisman Trophy presentation drew a record 5.99 million, up by nearly half compared to last year.
On broadcast, NBC's Notre Dame coverage averaged a 2.4 rating, its best since 2006 and including its most-watched game since at least 2006, with 6.5 million tuning into the USC-Irish game.
CBS had its highest-rated college football season since 1996, when it returned to airing SEC games following a hiatus. It averaged a 4.4 rating.
That indicates that Fox and ABC, which share the rights to next month's BCS games, should see big ratings. But it also caps a year of gains for every major professional sport.
In February, NBC aired the most-watched Super Bowl ever, drawing 98.7 million total viewers. In June, NBA finals ratings increased over last year, a boost that has lasted through this fall, when TNT got off to its best-ever start for pro basketball.
NBC's NHL finals also saw big gains, including the most-watched hockey game in three decades as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in a rematch of the 2008 finals.
With the New York Yankees returning to the World Series for the first time in years, Fox saw huge gains over last year, boosting the network to first place for the season among adults 18-49.
And the NFL has put up big numbers this year, with the two most-watched programs in cable history on "Monday Night Football," Fox's best season so far and NBC carrying the most-watched primetime game in more than a decade.
It remains to be seen whether this sports boom will last as the economy starts to recover and people start going out again, but NBC is surely hoping that it continues into February. That's when the Vancouver Winter Olympics begin airing.
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