Record 16 Billion Minutes of Sports Television Consumed Sunday on FOX
Sunday, Nov. 1 was certainly one for the books at FOX Sports.
Led by AMERICA’S GAME OF THE WEEK, featuring the Dallas Cowboys hosting the Seattle Seahawks, and Game 5 of the 2015 WORLD SERIES between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets, the 16+ consecutive hours of programming on FOX generated over 16 billion minutes viewed, an average of one billion minutes an hour, from 9:00-1:12 AM ET (Nov. 2), making it the network’s biggest non-Super Bowl day ever. Consumption claims are based on fast national figures released by Nielsen.
“Sunday was a great day for FOX Sports, and I’m so proud of the cumulative effort that led to Americans watching over 16 billion minutes of sports on FOX,” said FOX Sports President & COO Eric Shanks. “We were on the air for more than 16 hours from two continents and nine different cities, and a day like Sunday proves that live big-event sports television is still the best option to attract sizable audiences over an extended period of time.”
AMERICA’S GAME OF THE WEEK, currently pacing as the No. 1 show on television for the seventh straight year, attracted 29.4 million viewers on Sunday, which is the most-watched NFL telecast this season. It is also the most-watched telecast of any kind on any network since the Academy Awards last February. Season-to-date, AMERICA’S GAME OF THE WEEK is averaging 26.8 million viewers, +14% better than Sunday Night Football on NBC (23.6 million), +11% better than CBS’s national NFL game (24.1 million) and +52% over Thursday Night Football on CBS (17.6 million). Based on its audience (29.4 million) and length (190 minutes), viewers spent 5.6 billion minutes watching AMERICA’S GAME OF THE WEEK on Sunday.
The Royals’ victory in Game 5, which secured them their first World Series Championship in 30 years, scored 17.2 million viewers making it the most-watched Game 5 of the Fall Classic since 2003. Based on its audience and duration (259 minutes), viewers spent 4.5 billion minutes watching the World Series clincher.
FOX Sports programming on Sunday featured three separate NFL game windows, NFL pre-game, halftime and postgame coverage, THE OT, World Series Game 5 and related pregame and postgame coverage. See chart in PDF below for consumption breakout.
