Stadium News
Breaking News from the Bench to the Bleachers
For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals. The hysteria already spread to the streets of New York City on Monday night as Knicks fans lost their minds celebrating an official return to glory. And with arguably the NBA’s most iconic team competing for the Larry O’Brien…
Gilbert Arenas doesn’t think NBC’s record viewership number for Spurs-Thunder means what NBC says it means. When NBC announced that Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder averaged 9.2 million viewers across NBC and Peacock — peaking at 12 million during double overtime — the network…
12 NBA teams formerly tied to Main Street Sports Group, the now-defunct owner of the FanDuel Sports Networks, are still in the market for a local broadcaster next season. Many of those teams will consider following in the footsteps of the Phoenix Suns, the first NBA team to make the jump from a traditional regional…
The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder are set to face off in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Friday in San Antonio. Leading up to the contest, reports reveal that the Game 2 matchup that ended in a 122-113 victory for OKC set an all-time viewership milestone in NBA Playoffs history. […] The post Spurs-Thunder Game 2 sets all-time viewership milestone appeared first on ClutchPoints.
Jason Kelce thinks the NFL is slowly chipping away at what made it the most popular sports league in America. On his New Heights podcast, the retired Philadelphia Eagles center and ESPN Monday Night Countdown analyst made the case that Sunday is the NFL’s most valuable asset, and that the league’s aggressive push into new…
The return of the NBA on NBC and increased broadcast exposure has led to some big ratings numbers for the Association. And the epic Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder was no exception. The game was an instant classic. Victor Wembanyama put up an otherworldly…
As new Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon has addressed controversial topics around the team, another point that has been talked about is the playing time of 2025 first-round pick Yang Hansen. While rumors will surround the Trail Blazers when it comes to Hansen and other topics, Dundon gives his thoughts on Hansen and what […] The post What new owner told Rich Paul he won’t do with Trail Blazers’ Yang Hansen appeared first on ClutchPoints.
The NFL will spread its games out across more days of the week than ever before this upcoming season. With the league’s schedule fully released, it’s now official that the league has added a handful of new standalone windows outside of what fans are traditionally accustomed to. It’s a trend that has continued throughout the…
The NBA is preparing a historic schedule change because of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States.
An analysis of the NFL TV schedule since 2016 shows that the NFL has steadily shifted inventory away from the traditional Sunday regional windows on CBS and Fox and into standalone packages. An Awful Announcing analysis of the schedule data found that, this year, the NFL is scheduled to air 197 Sunday-afternoon games. That’s down…
The good times keep rolling for the NHL. After posting major viewership gains throughout the regular season, the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs saw a nearly 70% increase versus last year’s audience. The first round of the NHL’s postseason averaged 1.2 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, and truTV, according to data…
The NFL will continue to find ways to put more games on streaming services, and the league will continue to suggest it’s doing so because that’s where viewers are headed. The league certainly is not wrong on that point. Streaming is growing as a share of television consumption with each passing year, while traditional distribution…
Nielsen is continuing to develop new ways to find viewers that have not traditionally been captured in its samples. The company’s newest experiment is designed to better capture “co-viewing,” industry parlance for when several people watch a telecast together in the same room. While Nielsen’s co-viewing measurements are still in the pilot phase and thus…
MLB sacrificed fans for revenue. The Blue Jays and Twins will find this out the hard way, as Sunday's matchup between Trey Yesavage and Joe Ryan will have limited viewership on Peacock.
NBC has made an unprecedented push in live sports on broadcast television thanks to their new TV contracts with the NBA and MLB. And it will pay off in a huge way on Saturday with a massive day of sports. NBC will air the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. And although it may not immediately jump…
Local NHL broadcasts seemingly experienced similar growth to what was seen in the national numbers this regular season. According to a report by Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal, local regular-season NHL telecasts grew by 15% versus last year thanks to a big uptick in streaming viewership and the transition of some teams to an…
The NFL Draft still commands massive attention, even with a slight step back in viewership this year. Across its three-day run, the event averaged 6.6 million viewers, down 12% from last year’s 7.5 million mark, AwfulAnnouncing reports. That dip aligns with a quieter stretch during the later rounds. Unlike 2025, which featured Shedeur Sanders’ unexpected […] The post NFL Draft ratings fall 12% as Day 2, 3 drama fades appeared first on ClutchPoints.
A comparative lack of drama across Days 2 and 3 of the NFL Draft led to a double-digit dip in viewership compared to last year. Last week’s NFL Draft averaged 6.6 million viewers during its entire three-day run across ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes, Disney+, Hulu, the ESPN app, NFL+, TikTok, YouTube, and X.…
Draymond Green drew criticism from WNBA fans after attributing the league's viewership growth to Caitlin Clark's style of play during a podcast appearance.
We are a week and a half into the NBA playoffs, and the league continues to see strong viewership numbers. Through 27 telecasts, the 2026 NBA playoffs are the most viewed since 1993. As of Sunday, the NBA is averaging 3.84 million viewers for first-round playoff games on ABC, NBC, ESPN, and Prime Video. That’s…
ESPN will begin to broadcast The CW Sports content, including the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, this upcoming summer.
The 2026 NFL Draft attracted 13 million viewers, surpassing the average NBA Finals game and proving football reigns supreme.
Perhaps more than any other television rating, the NFL Draft is the hardest to parse out given the myriad of broadcasts, both linear and digital, available to viewers. For that reason, it’s difficult to compare NFL Draft viewership to most other television programs. That won’t stop the league from touting strong viewership, however. And across…
