College basketball viewership was up 5% for the ’18-19 regular season across what are considered to be the sport’s primary TV partners -- ESPN, CBS, Fox, FS1 and ESPN2. Fueling gains was a big increase for ESPN this season. For 129 games on the flagship net, viewership jumped 15% to 1.2 million viewers per game (1.04 million for 127 games in ’17-18). Duke and freshman phenom Zion Williamson were a major reason for the jump, as games on ESPN featuring the Blue Devils averaged 2.14 million viewers. That is up 30% from ’17-18. Even without those Duke games, ESPN was up 6%. Combining ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, men’s hoops were up 6% this season as well. Meanwhile, Fox/FS1 continued to set new records for the company, and this year marked the fifth straight season of growth. The two networks combined to average 269,000 viewers, a new record and up from previous record of 258,000 viewers in ’17-18. On its own, Fox drew 894,000 viewers for its 28 games, up 3% from 867,000 last season (26 games). FS1 for its games was up 19%. Seeing a decline for the second straight season was CBS, whose 1.54 million viewers for 35 games was down 6% from 1.65 million last season (39 games). But CBS was still the top net for college hoops this season in terms of average viewership.
Audience Rises For College Hoops Regular Season, With ESPN Up 15%
