North Carolina at Duke: College Basketball’s Highest Weekday Overnight of the Season; ESPN’s Most-Streamed College Basketball Game Ever

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North Carolina at Duke: College Basketball’s Highest Weekday Overnight of the Season; ESPN’s Most-Streamed College Basketball Game Ever

  • Oregon at UCLA: ESPN’s Best Overnight for a Pac-12 Conference Game On Record; Network’s Most-Streamed Pac-12 Game Ever
  • North Carolina- Duke: ESPN’s First College Basketball Stream to Surpass 100,000 Average Viewers, 300,000 Total Viewers

North Carolina at Duke (February 9 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN) delivered a 1.9 overnight and had an average streaming audience of 103,000 viewers with a total of 319,000 people watching 12,675,000 minutes. The overnight is college basketball’s highest weekday overnight of the season across all networks and the Blue Devils victory is ESPN’s most-streamed college basketball game ever in all three metrics. Additionally, the ACC matchup is ESPN’s first college basketball game to surpass 100,000 average viewers and 300,000 total viewers in the process.

Please note: North Carolina at Duke was also available over-the-air in ACC markets in addition to ESPN; the over-the-air ratings are not reflected here

Additional UNC-Duke Highlights:

  • ESPN’s Second Best Overnight of Season: The 1.9 overnight is ESPN’s second best overnight of the 2016-17 season, trailing only Kansas at Kentucky on Saturday, January 28 (2.0 overnight).
  • Streaming Audience Increases: The average minute audience for ESPN’s stream was up 37% from last year’s first meeting between the ACC rivals (February 17, 2016), while the total viewers was up 31% and minutes watched up 42%. The television overnight is equal to last year’s first matchup.
  • Final Minutes Peak Audience: The telecast peaked at a 2.6 overnight during the final minutes of the second half (9:45 p.m. – 10 p.m.).
  • Local Markets: Raleigh-Durham earned an 8.9 local rating, the No. 1 local market. Greensboro was second (8.8), Norfolk third (6.6), Louisville fourth (6.3) and Greenville fifth (5.8).

Oregon at UCLA: ESPN’s Best Pac-12 Conference Overnight on Record; Most-Streamed Pac-12 Conference Game Ever
Oregon at UCLA (February 9 at 10 p.m. on ESPN) delivered a 1.2 overnight rating and an average streaming audience of 55,000 viewers, ESPN’s highest overnight for a Pac 12 conference game on record and the network’s most-streamed Pac-12 conference game ever.

Ducks-Bruins Thriller Sets New Portland Record; Delivers in Los Angeles
Portland earned a 3.6 overnight for the Bruins’ come-from-behind 82-79 victory, the market’s highest rating for a college basketball game on ESPN, including conference tournament games. In Los Angeles, the thriller earned a 2.6 overnight, the market’s best since 2008 for a regular season college basketball game on ESPN.  Louisville was the highest-rated local market for the game with a 4.2 rating.

Overnight records go back to 2002-2003 season

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner

Derek Volner

I currently lead ESPN’s NFL Communications, including Monday Night Football, NFL Draft and studio programming. Previously, I did the same for ESPN’s vast college football portfolio. I have been with ESPN since 2013.
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