FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
FROM NOON ‘TIL NIGHT ON SUNDAY: NBC SPORTS DELIVERED VIEWERSHIP MILESTONES
Arsenal-Manchester United Ranks As 2nd-Most Watched Live Premier League Match in U.S. History
Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Delivers Best Season-Opening INDYCAR Audience in NBC Sports History
Bruins-Penguins on “Star Sunday” Posts NBCSN’s Best Sunday Night NHL Regular Season Viewership in 3+ Years
Arnold Palmer Invitational Registers Its 2nd-Best Final Round Viewership Since 2012
STAMFORD, Conn. – March 12, 2019 – From noontime through Sunday night, NBC Sports’ presentation of a blockbuster Premier League match, the opening race of the INDYCAR season, an NHL “Star Sunday” matchup, and the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational set multiple viewership milestones.
Premier League
The afternoon’s action started at 12:30 p.m. ET, as Arsenal defeated a streaking Manchester United side 2-0 to move into the Premier League’s top four. The match posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 1.68 million viewers across all platforms – NBC, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app, and Telemundo – to rank as the second most-watched live Premier League match in U.S. history (1.72 million for Manchester Derby, 4/7/18) according to live plus same day official national data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
INDYCAR
NBC Sports’ coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (1:40-3:49 p.m. ET) averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 502,000 viewers across NBCSN, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, making it the most-watched INDYCAR season opener in NBC Sports history. The TAD of 502,000 viewers was up 94% compared to NBCSN’s first race last season in Phoenix (258,000 in primetime, 4/7/18) and up 42% vs. the 2018 average for NBCSN Sunday afternoon races last spring (353,000). The race peaked with 513,000 TV-only viewers in the final quarter-hour as Josef Newgarden took the checkered flag for Team Penske.
NHL
NBC Sports’ presentation of the Boston Bruins vs. Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night on NBCSN (7:33-10:15 p.m. ET) registered a TAD average of 733,000 viewers to rank as the most-watched NHL regular-season game on NBCSN since the season opener of the 2017-18 season (905,000 for Blues-Penguins, 10/4/17). Bruins-Penguins also ranks as the most-watched Sunday night regular-season game on NBCSN in more than three years (747,000 for Flyers-Rangers, 2/14/16).
PGA TOUR
Final round coverage of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, highlighted by Francesco Molinari’s 8-under-par performance, averaged a TAD of 3.1 million viewers on NBC and NBC Sports Digital, ranking as the second most-watched final round of the event since 2012.
–NBC SPORTS–
