Women's USO Final Outdrew Men's Again

[jimlosaltos]

For the fifth time in seven years women's US Open final Outdrew the men's. Also true further down the line.


U.S. Open women's final: 2.442 million viewers on ESPN.

U.S. Open men's final: 2.051 million viewers on ESPN.

[jimlosaltos]

Here are stats for prior years. You can see it is not just the finals, but all the semifinals as well. Via Ben Rothenberg, freelance tennis writer.

Overall, only US Open finals to top 3 million viewers on ESPN are those with Federer or Serena.



filedata/fetch?id=95422&d=1631729855&type=thumb

[jimlosaltos]

Men's finals

filedata/fetch?id=95431&d=1631730054&type=thumb

[jimlosaltos]

But both are chump change relative to the UK audience for the women's final (with Brit Raducanu), which topped that for Wimbledon.

Also, it appears this is only the audience for Channel 4 (govt owned) which bought into Amazon Prime's UK rights. So, presumably the combined number is even higher.

UPDATE: Amazon Prime Video in UK claimed highest tennis viewership ever for their match, but did not reveal numbers.

"LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - British teenager Emma Raducanu's staggering U.S. Open final victory had a nation glued to their screens on Saturday night with Channel 4 saying the audience for their broadcast peaked at 9.2 million viewers.

Channel 4 said the peak audience of 9.2 million was higher than the BBC peak for this year's eagerly-awaited Wimbledon championships. Coverage of the match itself averaged 7.4 million - seven times the average for the Saturday evening time slot.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...le-2021-09-12/

[stotty]

But both are chump change relative to the UK audience for the women's final (with Brit Raducanu), which topped that for Wimbledon.

Also, it appears this is only the audience for Channel 4 (govt owned) which bought into Amazon Prime's UK rights. So, presumably the combined number is even higher.

UPDATE: Amazon Prime Video in UK claimed highest tennis viewership ever for their match, but did not reveal numbers.

"LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - British teenager Emma Raducanu's staggering U.S. Open final victory had a nation glued to their screens on Saturday night with Channel 4 saying the audience for their broadcast peaked at 9.2 million viewers.

Channel 4 said the peak audience of 9.2 million was higher than the BBC peak for this year's eagerly-awaited Wimbledon championships. Coverage of the match itself averaged 7.4 million - seven times the average for the Saturday evening time slot.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...le-2021-09-12/

I watched on Amazon Prime UK and not Channel 4. I felt obliged to watch on Amazon since I am paying for it whereas Channel 4 is free. It would be interesting to see the combined figure for Emma's match, which, as you can imagine, attracted blockbuster viewing.

The Borg v McEnroe 1980 Wimbledon final remains the biggest UK audience at 17.3 million viewers. Our population at the time was 56 million. The Murray v Federer final attracted 16.9m but our population had also by then grown to 64 million.

Borg and McEnroe grew the game massively over here, which is amazing since they weren't Brits, but I believe Raducanu may outdo even those two icons. Her achievement is the most meteoric the game has seen and she is both appealing and inspiring, unlike Murray.


Great stats, Jim. Keep 'em coming!

[jimlosaltos]

Great stats, Jim. Keep 'em coming!

Thanks! If people like them, I'll keep posting.

Thanks also for the Borg-Mac and Fed-Murray numbers.

As a Californian, I'm struggling to think of broadcast TV comparables from Britain --- Ah, episodes of Inspector Morse? East Enders?

[glacierguy]

The Queen's speech on Christmas Day!

[don_budge]

The Queen's speech on Christmas Day!

"If I had balls...I'd be King!"

[jimlosaltos]

I watched on Amazon Prime UK and not Channel 4. I felt obliged to watch on Amazon since I am paying for it whereas Channel 4 is free. It would be interesting to see the combined figure for Emma's match, which, as you can imagine, attracted blockbuster viewing.

!

Amazon donated what Channel 4 paid it for a share of the video rights to British tennis development. Interesting good will gesture. I don't know what the sum is.

[jimlosaltos]

Emma and Leylah also dominated YouTube US Open videos over men -- but other WTA matches lagged. via "Oleg s" online.

filedata/fetch?id=95456&d=1631899402&type=thumb

[stotty]

I imagine they dominated YT viewings because that are so new...and interesting being as they are so young and the future of the women's game to come. We've seen Novak a million times and Medvedev is pretty familiar also so why would you reach for YT highlights to see them yet again. That said their viewings are very high.

Alcaraz is new on the block and he got high viewings also.

I use YT to view newcomers rather than players I know already.