NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Viewership and Ratings Up by DoubleLeading into the “Sweet Sixteen” this weekend, ESPN’s exclusive coverage of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament has garnered double-digit increases in both viewership and ratings on ESPN2 and ESPN during the first two rounds (48 games within 13 telecast windows March 22 – 25), according to Nielsen Media Research. With games primarily shown on ESPN2 (12 windows), that network saw a 29 percent household jump over last year (546,000 vs. 423,000), based on a 20% ratings increase (0.6 vs. 0.5), while ESPN’s viewership is up 40 percent among households (482,000 vs. 344,000), based on a ratings increase of 25 percent (0.5 rating, compared to last year’s 0.4). Also, consumption of NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament content on ESPN.com has also seen growth, with an increase of 27% in page views and 19% in visits versus the same period last year. |
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Host Trey Wingo (l) with analysts Kara Lawson and Stacey Dales. |
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NCAA Division Women’s Basketball Conference CallReplay discussion of NCAA Division I Women's basketball tournament with Stacey Dales (analyst), Carol Stiff (senior direcor of programming and acquisitions) and Tina Thornton (senior coordinating producer). Replay |
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NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship: March 22 - April 8Beginning Saturday, March 22, with 16 games in five windows, all 63 games from the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360.com and ESPN FULL COURT for the sixth consecutive year. Read more... |
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13th Annual Media Challenge Available NowSign-ups have begun on ESPN.com for the 13th annual ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge Presented by State Farm and Sprint and will begin March 10 for the 11th annual ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge. Last year more than 1.5 million fans completed more than 3.3 million entries. At the peak of last year’s sign-ups, fans registered more than 2,490 brackets per minute on ESPN.com. Read more... |
