The new era of Major League Baseball on NBC began on strong note.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday\u2019s Diamondbacks-Dodgers MLB Opening Day game on NBC averaged a combined audience of 3.2 million viewers across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, marking the largest audience for an Opening Day game since the COVID-shortened 2020 season (Yankees-Nationals: 4.1M) and the largest outside of that anomalous circumstance since Cubs-Cardinals in 2017 (3.6M).<\/p>\n
(Note that Nielsen did not begin including out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020, only began doing so in 100 percent of markets a year ago, and is mere months into a new methodology that combines its traditional panel with \u201cBig Data\u201d from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes generally skew comparisons to past years.)<\/p>\n
The Dodgers\u2019 easy win increased 88% from last year\u2019s equivalent Tigers-Dodgers game on ESPN, which averaged a Nielsen-only 1.7 million. It would exceed all of last year\u2019s regular season MLB games, the most-watched of which was a FOX regional window following The Belmont Stakes that featured Yankees-Red Sox (3.0M). NBC\u2019s position is that because Nielsen does not track its streaming viewership, its combined Nielsen + Adobe audience figures are comparable to the Nielsen-only figures of other networks.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind coverage aired directly opposite the NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament Sweet 16. Figures for those telecasts were not immediately available.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Pirates-Mets averaged 2.3 million \u2014 up 21% from Brewers-Yankees on ESPN last year (1.9M) and the most-watched Opening Day matinee on record. Keep in mind that nationally televised afternoon games on Opening Day are not a regular occurrence, with this year\u2019s contest being just the second in the past five years.<\/p>\n
The two-game average of 2.7 million is the highest for MLB Opening Day on a single network since the aforementioned 2017 opener, and the highest on record for a network that carried multiple games.<\/p>\n
Figures for Wednesday\u2019s Yankees-Giants MLB Opening Night game on Netflix were delayed and are expected to be made available Tuesday.<\/p>\n
While NBC simulcast one \u201cMLB Sunday Leadoff\u201d game per season when Peacock held those rights in 2022 and 2023, the network had not otherwise carried any Major League Baseball games since Game 6 of the 2000 ALCS \u2014 and it had not aired any regular season games since \u201cThe Baseball Network\u201d in 1995. The new NBCUniversal MLB media rights deal marks the most extensive relationship between the league and network since the end of its \u201cGame of the Week\u201d era in 1989.<\/p>\n
In addition to MLB Opening Day, NBC also carries NBA Opening Night and the NFL Kickoff Game. The network also posted double-digit gains for its NBA Opening Night doubleheader in October<\/a> (5.6M), which increased 90% from the prior year on TNT and was the most-watched Opening Night since 2010 (excluding the shortened season in 2011). As with MLB, it marked NBC\u2019s return to NBA coverage after a lengthy absence.<\/p>\n